Winter's Return and Our Tough Wild Cats

We've had the return of winter after a major melt over last weekend. Yesterday, it snowed feathery light flakes all over our world. Shyla and I were out snow biking when the snow fell the hardest.

This morning dawned very cold but clear and still. As we started our morning fat bike ride, I felt as if we were riding out into a winter painting, with a bluebird sky and snow covering every pine bough and boulder.

It was so cold that my fingers hurt almost instantly when I tried to use my camera. Shyla just kept running around with frost forming on her whiskers and her paws kicking up the powdery snow.

 When it warmed a tiny bit, she sampled the snow cones.

The well-below freezing temperatures and new snow have made the trails much harder to navigate on a snow bike or on foot. So, I'm very glad that I seized that day last weekend to visit some faraway trail cameras that had been snowed in for almost 6 weeks.

Over the 6 weeks of human absence, the animal activity was subdued, mainly due to deep snow. But, the rabbits and the cats endured the snow and continued using the area. At one camera, a mountain lion walked past, sinking into the snow with each paw. I believe this is the same mountain lion whose photos I showed you from another (less snowy) site a few days ago.

Despite the snow, she took long determined steps. I think that she is the mother mountain lion who we followed last summer and autumn. Her kitten was almost as big as her when we last saw him so I won't be surprised if he has now struck out on his own.

Then, two nights later, a bobcat followed, literally in her footsteps. The big indents in the snow are where the mountain lion put down her paws two nights earlier.

But, this comparatively tiny cat took about twice as many steps to pass the trail camera as the mountain lion.

If you look at the photos closely, you can see that this bobcat made sure to use each of the lion's pawprints, since they were packed down by the lion's weight. However, the bobcat had to take extra steps in between the lion's tracks because his legs are so much shorter.

I find it so fascinating to get these glimpses into what goes on in our big forest when humans are not around. I think it'll be a little while before I can visit those cameras again so it'll be interesting to see the wildlife traffic over the coming weeks/months.

I am awed by these animals and their ability to survive such harsh conditions. The area where these photos were taken is usually substantially colder (5-10°F colder) than anyplace else in our neck of the woods. Yet, the cats, with their thick coats, still patrol the area in the depth of winter.

Wordless Wednesday - Stages of a Sunset

Orange, fiery phase...

Slow slide toward pink...

And, finally, a smidgen of deep purple during the hike home...

P.S. I said I'd be showing wildlife photos today but I am waiting until I can be "wordy" tomorrow!

Winter in the Mountains

We had a wildly windy long weekend, which meant that we also had lots of clouds in the sky making pretty sunrises and sunsets.

Even in the protection of the forest, Shyla's ears would get blown up into the air by the wind. That little "tongue flick" is a sign of stress. Shyla is a little afraid of the big wind gusts.

She tried to hide but when the wind is blowing so hard, there's no hiding.

This morning, finally, the world was back to more normal winter weather. It was very cold and fresh snow dusted everything, including Shyla's nose.

The sunrise light was back, with only a few clouds in the sky. Shyla and I played in the sun puddles within the forest. I love the shadows at sunrise, and I love how she looked at me in the next photo - that's classic Shyla - a slight head tilt and soft, but focused, eyes.

We didn't stay still for too long due to the cold but we had a wonderful snow bike ride on hard packed snow trails. Shyla was super well behaved, and we explored the tranquil trails within our neck of the woods.

The Chinook wind over the weekend also made our world much warmer than usual. The snow pack shrunk a lot between wind blowing away the snow and melting. Consequently, I was able to check a couple of trail cameras that had been "snowed in" for the past 6 weeks. There had been some cool activity at those cameras but I'll save those photos for tomorrow.

And, our elk herd has returned from lower elevations since some dry grass is now uncovered in the meadows around here. I'm so glad to see them back!

They'll probably stick around until the next big snow storm and then they'll head lower again for a while. It's all part of the ebb and flow our mountain winter.

Gratitude

Shyla and I went to our advanced dog training class yesterday. I find myself constantly astounded by her.

She loves meeting the people at our training class. She's learned that it's a safe place where people are always nice to her. In fact, she's even started jumping up when greeting some of them. With my previous dogs, there was absolutely nothing positive about them jumping on people. But, because of Shyla's background as a fearful dog, my trainer and I exchange a smile when she does it and gently guide her toward a more appropriate greeting style. She's learning fast.

Each class lasts an hour and is held in a public park or on a city street. Shyla always has about three short episodes of "fear" during the class. Most people wouldn't recognize the signs but I've learned to see them - her face gets tight, she sniffs the ground while ignoring the world around her, and her movements get jerkier. When she hits one of these rough patches, we walk away from the class and either play a fun game or chill out quietly. And, the phase passes in a few minutes (if I don't take a break at the first sign of fear, it just escalates). Sometimes I know what caused it, and sometimes I don't.

During the majority of class these days, Shyla sits by my side when the teacher is talking, seeking eye contact with me. She's not vigilantly swiveling her head around to scan for danger. Nope, not any more. Instead, I feel like she trusts me to watch out for her while she focuses on me.

Seeing her eyes focused on my eyes makes my heart swell with love. This little girl has come so far, and I've somehow earned her trust and love along the way.

After class, Shyla and I went for a little hike to unwind, and we had our second incredible sunset in a row. We can go months without seeing sunsets like these - and we've had two in a row!!! I am so thankful!

It seemed like a fitting ending to a day when I felt such gratitude for Shyla being part of our lives.

Fiery Sunset Sunday

A Wintery Outing, with thoughts about our Coyotes

We woke up to the sound of the wind whipping through the pine forest near our house. High winds are the norm here in the winter. I don't mind them when there's not a lot of fresh snow to be blown horizontally. We headed out before the sun rose, arriving on a plateau just in time to capture the warm hues of the sunrise light.

The position of the sunrise has already shifted noticeably since the solstice. Shyla and I have to search for good rays of sunlight just after sunrise, and the good spots shift by the day. One wonderful spot this morning was in front of a big granite wall.

It felt really cold, with a temperature around 25°F and wind gusts up to some insane level like 60 mph. So, we got moving pretty fast. Shyla wanted to fetch her Wubba.

She was so happy to get moving because her paws were getting cold sitting still.

We played and played in the forest as it gradually become lighter.

At age three, Shyla still has the energy of a puppy. And, it makes me smile!

I used to worry more about starting our fat bike ride before sunrise because we used to have coyotes frequently pass close to our house. Interestingly, since a new house was built that cuts off a formerly heavily used wildlife route, the trail cameras near our house are not getting many coyote photos. In past years, they'd capture at least one coyote photo per night and now it's possibly one per three weeks. It's sad to me - I predicted that the new house would have this effect based on its position smack in the middle of a former wildlife corridor but I hoped that I was wrong.

The upside is that I don't worry as much as we ride out of our clearing, with Shyla in an off-leash heel next to my bike, early in the morning. Of all the animals in our forest, the coyotes worry me the most in terms of their potential to hurt our dogs.

Life is full of trade-offs. But sometimes it feels as if the needs of the wildlife suffer in almost every case. Connectivity between tracts of open land is what is most important but it seems difficult for building planners who live far from a site to know the movement patterns of the local wildlife.

But, from their howling and from a few photos at sites well away from our house, I do know that we still have coyotes in our neck of the woods.

And here's a more recent one. In fact, I suspect this guy was watching Shyla and me as we moved along a trail below where he was sitting.

I'm glad to see the coyotes looking good. I think they are so handsome, particularly in their thick winter coats!

Sharing the forest with our cats

A thin gap in the clouds on the eastern horizon let us see the sunrise light very briefly this morning.

We seemed to be the only ones on the mountain stirring, except for the breeze. It was dead calm before the sun rose but picked up as soon as the light grazed our shoulders.

Then, after two photos, the sun rose high enough for the clouds to obscure it. The sunrise light was like so much of life - fleeting and changing too fast.

After that, we rode in a gray world. The one advantage to no sunshine is that the snowy trails remain firmly packed - good for riding a fat bike on them! We rode up to Hug Hill where Shyla's paws gripped her favorite rock. You can barely distinguish the snowy mountains from the gray sky in the background of the next photo.

Yesterday, the impressions left by a mountain lion's paws told me that he'd been walking in my tracks in the snow. Wildlife save every calorie of energy that they can, even making sure to avoid walking in soft snow as much as they can. One way that I inadvertently lead animals to my trail cameras is with my tracks.

I followed my old tracks and the new lion tracks on top of them into a clearing where I have a trail camera. The camera saw a long flowing tail...

And then the lion turned a bit, showing that s/he wore a GPS collar so scientists can know where this cat goes.

I've had a camera attached to the same tree for about 5 years now. Dozens of mountain lions have marked the spot that this lion sniffed.

 And then, s/he decided to add a personal mark.

After a brief and not too vigorous marking, the lion sharply changed course and departed.

Usually, male mountain lions do the majority of the marking. However, this lion doesn't look as big or as muscular as the adult males who I've seen mark this spot. My guess is that it's either a sub-adult male or a female, based on size.

Interestingly, one of the last sets of photos that I captured of the mother mountain lion with her kitten included the mother leaving some urine as a marker. I thought that it was odd, and then I wondered if her kitten was getting close to becoming independent and, therefore, she was starting to mark so that male suitors could find her.

Her marking style was similar in both cases. She didn't kick backward with her hind paws like the big male mountain lions do. Rather, she appeared to simply leave a little bit of urine.

I sure do hope that this good mother mountain lion manages to attract a mate and raises another kitten in our neck of the woods!