Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

We all know there are a lot of animals out there. You see them all the time. When I’m roaming the woods, I don’t always see critters. But with a little bit of training, you can tell who was there before your arrival. Here in Washington, it rains a lot. That means mud, which fortunately reveals what critters came and left tracks. Animals even help themselves to our trails, making it easier to follow their travels. On one expedition to the Ohop Valley, I found an animal superhighway. The highlight was a coyote track inside an elk track on top of a mole hill.

Deer track in sand near Mashel River

Scats are another obvious animal sign. When nature calls, animals answer right on the trail as they walk. Scat can tell us who walked before us and what they ate. Owl pellets are the indigestible remains that come up the other way and are just as revealing.

Coyote scat showing the remains of a bird

Otter scat

Great horned owl pellet

Other signs are more subtle. Trees might contain fur that got snagged as animal walked by and brushed against it. Or the bark could be scraped off by a deer, elk, or bear. Lower branches might display gnaw marks from a busy beaver. Easily overlooked is a squirrel midden, the pile of husks left over from a sciurid feast.

An elk rubbed its antlers on this tree

A bear scraped the bark off this tree

A beaver almost chopped down this tree

Squirrel midden, husks from a demolished fir cone

Carcasses are the next best thing to seeing a live animal, even though I rarely encounter them. The good work done by the decomposers happens quickly, except in cases of roadkill where it is too dangerous to be rapidly effective. Also, animals typically run off to seclusion to die and are not likely to be found close to a trail. In my years of wandering the wilds, I’ve come across a rabbit, an opossum, bits of a deer (likely killed by a coyote), a mole, a pile of feathers belonging to an owl or hawk (possibly done in by a bobcat) and a seal. So when someone suggests the lack of a body as evidence against the existence of Bigfoot, ask when the last time they found a dead anything in the woods. 

Deer fur left over from a kill by a coyote

Harbor seal carcass at Kalaloch Beach, Olympic National Park

Feathers from a hawk or owl, I suspect killed by a bobcat

What signs have you seen lately?