Monday, February 4, 2013

Otter Vomit And Other Stories In The Snow

It doesn't get much better than spending an afternoon interpreting stories in the snow. Signs of otters running and sliding down the creek -



A present was found next to an otter slide sown the bank to the frozen creek :  a ball of otter vomit consisting of fish scales -


I took a shotgun along with me for this walk in case I jumped a rabbit or two. Which I didn't. It was pure pleasure carrying the new-to-me Bennelli 20 gauge. Light, light, light. I'm going to love this little gun. There was more coyote and fox sign that rabbit sign, though. Lots of competition out there for the rabbits, and has me thinking maybe I should spend my Januaries shooting the fox and 'yotes so I can have a chance at the rabbits in the Februaries. Didn't see any turkey sign, either, which helps me narrow down where I may try for a turkey this spring.


I thought this was an interesting scene. It looks like the little critter got away, but at the least it had the life scared near out of it! It looks like it jumped and landed about 2 feet away. See it's tail print in the first track it left after jumping?


I also took a couple of close up photos of two things that caught my eye, inspired by John and his excellent hiking blog -



I also cut a track that had me very excited for awhile. A very large, unglate-like trail through the middle of a ravine. I tracked it for awhile hoping to find nuggets of scat, but what I found turned out to be a cow patty. You don't want a picture of that do you? I've already given you otter vomit.
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14 comments:

  1. otter vomit is similar to kingfisher waste i suppose. the kingfisher is all fish bones. :)

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    1. I have never found any of that, but will be on the lookout! Why not!

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  2. Anyone that has spent any time in the wilds has seen a cow patty, so I don't think it would have ruffled any feathers.

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    1. I'm pretty sure it would have went over well, but I've got enough pics on this post.

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  3. Catchy Title- thanks for the mention- the bark makes an interesting abstract

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  4. It truly is amazing what kind of sign you can come across during a winter walk in the snow, it's stuff like that that you do not normally seen when the weather is warm and snowless. It is sign like that that shows us just how alive the woods are.

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    1. It's a whole other world most folks just don't care to learn about.

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  5. I really enjoyed seeing the otter tracks and sign- thank you.

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    1. You're welcome Peter. Checked out your site and it looks awesome! Something about you Mainer bloggers - I love nearly all of them.

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  6. Otter vomit? That's just plain gross! But you gotta' feel bad for the little webfooted critter.

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    1. I have a photo of otter scat...I'll put it up one day! Maybe throwing up their undigestables is their way of staying healthy and regular. Never know what's on an otter's mind -

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  7. A bit late to this party, Casey:). I've never seen otter vomit but have some photos of what I think is otter scat. I've never posted then because I wasnt sure. Any other animals that you can think if that would have heavy fish scales in the scat?

    Bill

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    1. Hi, Bill. this is something I've been looking over, and I do believe I have made a mistake, as I'll explain in the next post.

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