Saturday, February 6, 2010

A Rare Experience


To-day I had one of those rare experiences that goes with living close to nature at Loon Lake !

Over the past few months, I've written about the wolf pack frequenting the West Shore of our lake. To-day, I thought I'd go out and try to find them. Leaving mid-afternoon, I travelled along an abandoned logging road in one of the more remote areas of the bush around Loon Lake. I eventually found a single fresh track that was soon joined by three more sets of tracks - all very fresh. Following along their path, I came across a clearing about 12 feet by 20 feet that had three more sets of tracks entering it. So there were seven wolves that had recently been there! As I approached the clearing, I saw that there was virtually no spot with undisturbed snow - the wolves had been socializing and frolicking. And on the side of the clearing were three indentations in the snow that were clearly wolf beds - something I've never seen before! All of the wolf sign was so very recent that none of the recently fallen snow was in their tracks. [And their tracks were large - about 3 inches across]. So I had got very close to the pack - probably minutes behind them! Leaving the area, and it took me about an hour, I carefully eyed the bush around me and the trail behind me - to see if there were curious watchers - but I saw none.

What an experience !

The picture shows a wolf bed where one of the wolves laid down for a rest.

I consider myself so very fortunate to be able to get this close to some of nature's most misunderstood and feared animals.

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