Subject: [Tweeters] A weasel gets a towhee, Barred owl misses a squirrel
Date: Nov 29 15:46:38 2006
From: Rob Sandelin - floriferous at msn.com


The snow of the past couple of days has provided excellent tracking, and
there are several finely written entries into the forest register of who is
around today. One of the many stories in the snow today was a set of weasel
tracks, which upon following, led me to the mostly consumed body of a
spotted towhee. There were odd scrapings in the snow all around the carcass
and I realized that they were probably tongue marks from licking up blood
covered snow, since there was almost no blood at the carcass. The weasel
wandered quite a bit during its hunt, and it was a fun tracking exercise,
and gave an interesting account of how a weasel moves through a landscape.

Later from the warm house window I watched a Douglas squirrel scamper across
the snow, then go into high gear, full speed into the shrubs as a barred owl
stooped down on it. I went back outside and the owl was perched low in a
cedar, no squirrel in talon, so I assumed it missed that opportunity. Three
squirrels were giving alarm calls, and even now, 25 minutes later, they are
still warning all the woods of the uber predator in the tree.

Snow is falling again, so tomorrow the book will refreshed with new stories.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
South Snohomish County
The Environmental Science School
HYPERLINK
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