Stone Age Bow

Here’s a video of a bow making project from the fall.  Working wood with stone age tools isn’t very hard, it just takes some patience and creativity.  Give it a try!

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Fall Pictures

It may be difficult to see but there are round compressions in the debris running up the middle of this photo.  They look identical to the ritual trails that black bears make leading up to a bite tree but these are from a red squirrel.  The compressions are from the squirrel landing in the exact same spot along a regular travel route.

 

I believe this is similar to the Mima mounds in western Washington.  Years of pocket gophers adding cheek fulls of dirt over time.

Some fresh grizzly tracks walking down the road after a rain.

Close up of a left hind.

Close up of a left front.

 

Nice bull killed by Frostbite – a mountain lion followed by Panthera’s Puma Program.

Male mountain lion walking through a busy mud puddle.

 

A cool look at carpenter ant galleries in this sawed off log.

The left one fell 80 feet and hit me square on the head… surprisingly painful.  Chewed off by a red squirrel building up its winter cache.

Difficult to see but this tree is surrounded by cougar scrapes – they make these with their hind feet for scent marking and mate finding.

 

Good sized bear den from last winter.

Aspen bark chewed off by hungry elk.

Black tarry substance deposited by woodrats.

Cougar scrape on a cliffband.

Muskrat lodge in the center on the far side of the pond and a feeding island to the left on the near side of the pond.

Arrows for elk hunting.

Female marten tracks.

 

First dustings of snow.

This grizzly scat appears to be composed entirely of dirt.  I’ve heard that soil is part of their extremely diverse diet along with 266 species of plants,  invertebrates, mammals, fish and fungi.

Tiny black bear tracks.

Long-tailed weasel tracks.  The left front is center.  Left hind on the left and right hind on the right.

Male cougar.  I believe this is M85.

Off on a solo backpacking/hunting trip.  Some remote, wild country.

Galls from the Poplar Twiggall Fly, Hexomyza schineri.  After the female mates, she lays her eggs in these aspen twigs where they spend the winter and later pupate.

Poplar Twiggall Fly. Visit bugtracks.wordpress.com for a great blog on invertebrate sign.

 

 

 

Least chipmunk.  Might look similar to the weasel but it is in a classic rodent bound pattern and the front feet (the lower ones) only show four toes (weasels would show five).

Female bobcat.

A mix of baby cottontail tracks. 

Armadillo.

Striped skunk scratching at the ground for something.  Hind right track is visible.

Trying out some knapping photography.  Hopefully I can get way better at knapping!  Thanks for reading.

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