Thursday, October 09, 2008

Leaving its mark

Mystery animal leaves his calling card on the trail, alerting all who pass by this way to its solitary presence. Very dark, and full of berries and seeds, I have a guess who left it.

Not too far along the trail, another reminder that this particular someone has passed here before me, probably within the hour, as the scat was still quite moist once I examined it further with a little stick.

And then another discovery was made. All around the scat were tiny, its-bitsy, little black springtails (otherwise known as snow fleas, as that is when they are generally seen, against the white backdrop of snow). They had begun their job of decomposing this fantastic feast. I tried to get a picture of them, but dang that lighting and the angle. I kept casting a shadow over my subject.

Do you have a guess about who passed by here, marking territory as it went?

2 comments:

Corey said...

Reindeer?

nina at Nature Remains. said...

Bear?
Or other smaller omnivore--porcupine?