Tracking Weekend in the Anza Borrego Desert

Last Friday, we headed to the desert for two nights of camping. We did two surveys with the San Diego Tracking Team, one on Saturday, and the other on Sunday.

 Friday afternoon, we hiked across the flats over to Bighorn Canyon where we put out our two trail cams. When we went back for them on Sunday, we found nothing on them. We think there was much more evidence of wildlife down on the flats where we camped.

 This spider hole was lined with webbing and vegetation.

 We still have to figure out this sock-like bird nest with its opening on top.

 Our campsite in Pinyon Wash.

Both nights, this Desert Pocket Mouse scurried around our table and was fascinated by my boots. I was really afraid I might step on it!

 At 7:30 A.M., we met up with fellow members of the San Diego Tracking Team to do a survey of Grapevine Canyon. Data is compiled quarterly for use by different agencies. The survey lasted six hours and covered four sections of the canyon.

The group is an interesting bunch, and we laughed a lot. It was great to be around folks who shared their science knowledge and particular interests.

Kangaroo Rat tracks showing the back two feet from a bipedal hop.

At one point, as we squeezed through some bushes, Gail said to me, "Do you smell that?  I smell urine."  A few second later, someone ahead of us spotted a Mountain Lion track.  It was not very obvious, but this was backed up by a couple more nearby.

I spotted this one later.

After a bit of a rest, we took an evening hike around the area.  Because of the hills, the sun set around 4:00, making for a very long night. The Super Moon, however, lit up the desert sands, and it never got very cold.

 The next morning, we started our survey of the Narrows.  Up on the ridge above was a group of Bighorn Sheep.

Gail got some acclaim for spotting this bighorn skull.  She also found three desert woodrat nests after our group leader said they haven't seen them in this survey area.  Gail has the eye!

When we hiked back to get our cams on Sunday afternoon, we came upon what might be burrows used by badger or kit fox. 

 There were these tracks that might be badger.

You could see the claw striations on the sides of the tunnel.

We saw a number of  Phainopeplas making there distinct "whup" call.