Lake of Bays Tracking

It was a Friday evening after the August full moon – the Sturgeon Super Moon. This moon is named after giant fish that were traditionally caught in the Great Lakes at this time of year. A wolf howled twice in the night. Its low, longing call was deep and compelling. I woke and then dreamt of wolves circling my tent.

Wolf Howl Season

August is wolf howl season. Why? According to Algonquin naturalist Michael Runtz, the air is cool, calm and the sound carries well. Wolf packs have “rendezvous sites” where pups play and rest while the adults go on hunting forays. The adults and pups use howls to communicate over long distances. Howls also vocalize territory boundaries and communicate location and affection for other pack members. On Saturday morning, we adventured up the nearby forested hillside, tracking our way through hemlocks, hobble bush and pines.

Bark Sloughing

We observed “bark sloughing” sign from a black-backed woodpecker on the hemlock trees. Woodpeckers search for wood-boring beetle larvae by removing the bark from trees. To do this, the woodpecker repeatedly slips its pointed beak under loose bark and pries it off the tree. The exposed insects are then slurped up by the woodpecker’s long, barb-tipped tongue.

Sprinkles on a Marsh Cupcake

Our route took us to a wetland with two deer beds in the soft sphagnum moss. We followed a bear trail and found an ant mound in a decaying stump. Vole scat decorated the top of the mound, like sprinkles on a duffy cupcake.

I met a new wetland wonder – Marsh St. John’s Wort!

My curiosity was sparked and lo and behold – it had a spittle bug on its stem! I thought that the spittle bugs had turned into frog hoppers back in June but what a sweet surprise to find an August one. Yay!

Back in the forest, we embarked on a tricky challenge next – debris tracking in leaf litter with a myriad of deer tracks. We became lost in a maze of indentations. Fortunately, Alexis and magic tracking sticks helped us out. A woodland jumping mouse brought smiles while my group was pleasantly distracted by wild turkey feeding sign on Jack in the Pulpit bulbs. 

Red-backed vole cache

While wandering back along a ridge, we discovered a cache of orange mycena mushrooms inside a log. The mushrooms had tiny incisor marks on them. I had just recently returned from a canoe trip in Algonquin Park where I had observed a red-backed vole near a cache of mushrooms. The sign was so similar that I wondered if it was the red-backed vole again. After doing some reading, I learned that these forest dwelling voles are omnivores rather than herbivores (like the meadow vole) and will eat a diet of seeds, berries, leaves, shoots, roots, lichens, fungi and insects. During my research, I learned that the orange mycena mushroom has antibiotic properties.

Kathleen drew my attention to a gorgeous flower with a star-shaped seed arrangement. Maybe a wild lettuce? After carefully tracking our way down the ridge, we were greeted by a raccoon in a tree, seemingly welcoming us back to cozy cottage time and a swim at the beach😊. Thank you, Michelle, for hosting us!