I’ve been finding these Raven pellets full of plant debris lately… maybe they are eating over-wintering insect larvae in dead plant stems?
This is a mystery I’d love some help with. I believe this is either pocket gopher or vole sign… likely these holes were made under the snow while the critter was going to old caches of grass seeds. The digs are fairly substantial which makes me lean towards gopher… but there are no gopher eskers near by and I found some sized up and piled plant stems like voles make… Any help is appreciated!
Here is a close up of one of the digs. The vegetation around the hole is clipped so we know this isn’t bird sign.
Some nice coyote tracks.
The Uinta ground squirrels have emerged. These rodents hibernate for 9 months straight and only a third of the population ever wakes up. The rest are eaten by badgers, bears and other predators.
Close up of the front foot. This is classic foot shape for all ground squirrels.
Bighorn sheep foot from a cougar kill. Looks like some rodent chewed off the foot pads. I’d guess that it was a red squirrel.
I don’t find much snowshoe hare sign in Wyoming but here it is on a juniper. I don’t know what the hares are eating here. We don’t have very many to begin with.
Red fox foot. Its amazing that they leave any toe marks in their tracks at all.
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch scat. If you ever see a bird make tracks or scat please take a picture with a ruler and send it to me.
Here is a junco scat. One distinction in sparrow scat (juncos are sparrows) is that they are uniformly covered in a white coating of uric acid.
The elusive black rosy finch. Mixed in a flock of Gray-crowned Rosy Finches.
From back to front – Cassin’s finch, Black Rosy Finch and Gray-crowned Rosy Finch.
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch tracks.
Chickadee tracks.
Junco tracks.
Song Sparrow tracks. They are not supposed to run but I watched this one make these.
Zygodactyl female Hairy Woodpecker tracks.
Female Hairy Woodpecker track. Males are slightly larger.
Another set of the Hairy Woodpecker tracks. I watched all these birds make these tracks and scats. Please do the same and send me the pictures or post them on your own tracking blog :). There is a lack of data when it comes to “known” bird tracks and I’d love to see some folks working to fill the gap. Thanks for reading!
Natural Skills 
Hey Connor,
Where I live the Ravens are constantly eating plant materials from hay and feed people are giving their horses and goats etc. I have a box of Raven pellets that are mostly plant material like this. Thanks for sharing. You planning on writing a bird track and sign book?
Thanks Matt! That must be it. Surprising that they can get much nutrition from that stuff. I have no plans to write a bird tracks and sign book but I hope some crazy thorough person does.
Great post, Connor!
lol, cameo appearance there :D. I’ll definitely keep my eyes out! If I find bird tracks or scat but never saw the bird make em, would you still like me to send it to you? Also, I’m assuming you aren’t looking for larger bird tracks like turkey or chicken. Just smaller birds right? Nice post man!!
If you want help identifying a bird track or scat I’m always happy to take a look but I’m much more excited about bird tracks or scat that you saw the bird make. There is a large list of birds that we can positively identify by their tracks and scat but many more that we don’t really have a record or good measurements for (length of the track is usually the most useful measurement)…. especially the smaller birds. And many small bird tracks are just not possible to identify to the species level.
Gotcha!! I’ll be sure to send you ones I saw the bird make. Don’t expect a whole lot of pics from me though 🙂 . Never done this kinda stuff before, but I’ll be sure to try when the opportunity arises.
Hi, awsome blog 🙂 You inspired me a lot!
I just want to let you know that I sent you a facebook message but because we weren’t friends on fb yet, I’m pretty sure it just dropped my letter into the “others” section” without showing it. 😛