Trekking for animals

School vacation week brought many young visitors to the Fields Pond Audubon Center and we were happy to see all of them! Some of the visitors were students taking part in our Winter Vacation Camp.

The first day of exploration was supposed to be “Trekking for Tracks.” The snow has been skimpy all winter and the day we had set aside for tracking, unfortunately had no snow.

Undaunted, we set out to find other signs of animals. First, campers found a large mound of dirt, in front of a burrow about six inches across. Deep under ground, below the frost line this was undoubtedly a hibernating woodchuck (groundhog) – the one we see in the garden every summer. Hibernating until spring, this groundhog won’t come up to look for shadows (or anything else) any time soon.

Twenty sharp eyes

Next we went in search of the porcupine. Deep into the woods we took this group of budding naturalists. They were excited to be exploring off the trail and only a little concerned that someone knew where we were going.

At the base of a very large ash tree they were slightly grossed out to find an enormous mound of porcupine scat. One child pointed out that there were also porcupine quills scattered on the pile.

Everyone was excited to find a quill to take home. Peering at the opening about 10 feet up in the tree they discovered that the porcupine was still sitting there! Ten noisy children had scared it into the tree cavity, but its backside was still visible. White quills on the tail stood out in the dark recess of the tree.

Busy as beavers

As we hiked across the pond, we saw downed trees everywhere. The beavers had been busy as beavers all winter! Slipping and sliding across the pond, the children found beaver leftovers all over the ice. Pointed sticks with all of the bark chewed off were scattered everywhere. The ice was thinner near the beaver lodge, so we edged past and traveled on to the cattail marsh.

Lumpy ice made walking a comical challenge, but the children were thrilled to walk right up to cattails and feel the soft seed heads of the plants.

One student discovered that whacking a cattail on something hard results in the seed head bursting. The impressive eruption of brown and white fuzz was too tempting. Everyone had to try exploding a cattail head. Among the cattails we also discovered another hidden animal home. A mound of cattails stalks stuck together with mud was the winter home of a muskrat family. Only in winter, over the ice are we able to get so close to an active muskrat home.

Send sightings, comments, or questions to fieldspond@maineaudubon.org