April 7, 2002
MONO CLIFFS - 25th Sideroad
entrance (North side)
Meeting report and photos by Alexis Burnett
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We had a small group of three people on this walk in the northern section of
Mono Cliffs Park. We started out heading south down the Bruce trail across a
large open meadow and decided to explore down along the escarpment/cliffs
where we could get out of the wind (and we always find cool things in this
area). |
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The temperature had dropped a little over-night and the morning
sunshine had given way to some overcast skies and cold NW winds. As we traveled
down the hillside we flushed out a grouse who had been feeding on the
ground.
We also came upon some wild turkey tracks (shown
here)! |
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There were lots of tracks in the snow and we followed a few of them.
Grouse, raccoon, porcupine, deer and squirrel were among the animals who
were moving around in this area. We stopped to examine some
"chews" on a large-toothed aspen tree and were not quite sure if
they were made by rabbit/snowshoe hare or porcupine? The teeth marks seemed
to not be too large, but we did not know the size variations of these three
animals either. Some of the gnawings were near the ground while some others
were higher up in the trees, we discounted rodents as a result of the teeth
marks being too large. |
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We also found some apple
twigs that had been browsed by a small rodent, perhaps a mouse? |
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As we moved on we noticed that there were a lot of
grouse tracks moving along the tops of the cliffs in a curious, round-about
way.
Here is a photo of the ruffed grouse track. |
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We sat for a while on top of some of these cliffs and watched the
Turkey Vultures soar over-head riding the thermal updrafts caused by the
cliffs. Later we came to an area where there were 6-8 Vultures up in the
same tree. They seem to have certain trees that they like to hang out in. |
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As
we descended down into the valley bottom we stopped to admire the beauty of
the rock walls and the plants that barely etch out a living in this tough
environment.
We noticed a large stick nest, on a rock ledge that we guessed
to be from a bird of prey and took note of its location hoping to come back
in a few weeks and see if it is in use.
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Along the base of the cliff we noticed a fairly well worn animal trail
and a number of scats interspersed equidistant to each other all the way
along the trail. Judging by size and location we guessed these to be coyote
scats. He/she seemed to really want people to know that this was her territory!
What do you think? |
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We came across some sumac trees that seemed to have their bark torn off
the stems. The tender furry bark near the tips of the branches was chewed
away by some animal. The bark seemed to be frayed at the ends and there were
no signs of teeth marks. We did not know what to make of it. We wanted to
say porcupine, but it didn't look like typical porcupine browse. With the
frayed ends we thought that it could perhaps be a bird or maybe a squirrel,
but then would the bark have a 'cut' or 'frayed' looking appearance? If you
have any ideas we would love to hear from you. (sorry, no picture)
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Finally as we neared the road, along the edge of the tree-line, we came
upon some beautiful fresh canine tracks traveling the edge of the field,
stopping every so often to look out into the open area. Beautiful Tracks. We
felt privileged that this animal left its tracks for us to discover. We have
our guesses to the species of this animal, do you have yours?
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