We're just back from our fourth winter wildlife survey in the Thunder
Mountain fire area, and it was one of the best. The weather was,
blessedly, pretty good. It's always disconcerting to take off in the
winter for 10 days not knowing if you will be dealing primarily with rain
or subzero weather, or both. Fortunately, we didn't experience either,
just a nice even 1-2" snow/day with a few clear days and notheing below
zero at night.
The snow pack was only 24-28" this year, down from last years 36".
In the logged areas, the snow pack was only 18". The lower snow pack made
it somewhat more difficult to get around over the down wood. It also made
it impossible for snowmobiles to access some of the (illegal) areas where
we have found them the last 2 years. Perhaps coincidence, but we also
found much more lynx activity in the riparian area used by snowmobilers.
The first year that we surveyed (1995) we found ample evidence of hunting
in this area on our first trip, and daily use by a cat and kitten on the
second trip. The cat and kitten had adjusted there activity northward
somewhat to maintain about 1/8 mile between them and the snowmobile
activity. For the next 2 years, snowmobile activity increased and we found
only one travel pattern through the area, no hunting or exploring and no
repeat use. So it was refreshing this year to see a lynx actively hunting
and marking the area again. I found a fresh spruce grouse kill by the lynx
right in the meadow. There was no chase on this one. The lynx was walking
down hill (after an unsuccessful day of hare pursuit, I later found out
after back tracking) and one bounce..feathers. 2 feet away from the kill
site he buried the wings and other parts that weren't quite discernable to
this veterinary pathologist. I've never seen them bury hare after a kill,
so I was a bit surprised. And he never returned to reclaim the remains, so
I assume that was his show of final respect.
We spent 2 days tracking the lynx both in the forward and backward
directions. The light snow made this easier, because he was coming through
the same area daily. Thus, we could discern which days track to follow.
The behavior was very similar to what I reported last year. That is,
travel (straight line walking pattern) through lodgepole stands, hunting
(circling each tree with some chases) in the open spruce meadows. I found
2 good chases but neither were successful (frustration taken out on the
unsuspecting grouse). It was quite interesting that the lynx spent more
time this year tracking hare, that is actually walking in the hare track,
then I've seen before. But the area covered was remarkably similar to what
I found last year. He even crossed the upper meadows within 15 ft of where
I tracked him last year.
Other critters were also abundant. Hare were quite concentrated
and usually at junctions of burned and unburned forest. Our vegetation
plots have shown that some burned areas have a higher diversity of plant
cover and more coverage than unburned at this point. Furthermore, shrubby
plants are doing well (particularly schulers willow). With the mild
weather, some of the willow and huckelberry was already starting to bud,
which must of made the bunnies quite happy. Squirrel activity was
increased as well.
Weasel tracks were everywhere. These little guys are pretty
industrious, hunting in quite a variety of habitats. Theirs are the most
common tracks seen in the open high intensity burn areas. Must be alot of
rodents residing in all the down wood. There were quite a few "little guy"
tracks on the snow as well.
Marten activity was about the same, and more concentrated in
riparian draws and areas with larger wood both standing and down. The
biggest thrill was finding a set of fisher tracks in one of the densest
most difficult to track in areas in the forest. I was suprised how
different the behavior was between marten (that I have tracked in this
area) and the fisher. Fisher walk more than marten (marten travel with a
bounding movement, as do weasel). This fisher easily went from a walking
gait to a 34" bound and back to a walk. It also did much more backtracking
than I'm used to with marten. It would run up a tree and double back on
its tracks, get under some dead fall and travel under the snow for 50 ft
and emerge some where else. Basically, it covered a whole drainage with
tracks. No evidence that it killed anything, but it had been there before,
so it must have liked the cuisine.
Birds: I had hoped that the warmer weather would bring out more
birds. No complaints, mind you, as the boreal chickadee was the most
abundant of our feathered companions, which made me quite happy. These
little birds look so much different in the winter against a deep green,
snow packed spruce then they do in the bright summer light. And they are
very social in the winter. Three-toed WP were still the most abundant-
more than 12 seen. We had one that drummed religiously at 7:05 every
morning just outside our camp. There were 3 hairys and 1 black back WP as
well. Clarks nutcrackers, grey jays and a few mt chickadees were all
there, and we had daily flights of white-wing crossbills. This was unusual
for this trip. I've only seen 1 pair of WWcrossbills before up there
(>6000ft) and that was in March. No owls this year. For the last 2 years
we've had great horned owls in the drainage where we camp. But the coopers
hawk was still there. We've seen this bird (or a relative) in the same
area on every trip over the last year. She made quite a display this year.
I was photographing some hare and caught a glimpse of something large
about 20 ft above me with long tail and wings back going at mach 10. She
hit one of those big tufts of snow that sit on high tree branches and
precipitated quite a local blizzard. We actually saw more spruce and blue
grouse this year, versus just seeing tracks.
That's about it. The trip out was much less eventful then last
year. Because of snow conditions, it took us an extra day to ski the last
15 miles (on a road) back towards Winthrop. This year we did it in 3 hr!
and made it to the brew pub by 5. Many thanks to DOW for their assistance
on this trip.
Mary

Mary Poss, DVM, PhD
Department of Microbiology
Box 357242
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
mposs at u.washington.edu