Saturday, January 26, 2019
WRN Teens has turned out to be a combination of work-projects, learning opportunities, and enjoying nature. We were really fortunate that for our January activity, Anita Smith (WRN Teens planning committee member and WRN conservation director) gave us a workshop on tracking. Anita describes herself as a tracking apprentice and we were impressed by her dedication to her apprenticeship and the depth of her knowledge.
We met at Anita's house for an overview of tracking, what can be observed and the many ways we can get information. We had a look at her amazing skull collection.
Big thanks to Anita for sharing her passion with us! We learned lots and will all want to work on our tracking skills in the future.
Then, we headed outside through Anita's backyard and into Bechtel Park where she spends lots of time -- along with lots of creatures! We saw branches chewed by deer, lots of small mammal tunnels, opossum tracks, fresh coyote tracks, and we did our best at identifying many others. We also found several raptor pellets. We checked out various holes and looked for evidence of recent activity. We learned that Anita sometimes catches nighttime photos of animals with a trail camera.