Central Texas Certification 5/31/2014

The Earth Native Wilderness School hosted a Track and Sign Certification in Austin, Texas on May 31–June 1, 2014.

We saw the tracks of 26 species, including 16 mammals, 5 birds, 3 herps, and 2 invertebrates. The tracking conditions were quite tough for this certification. Recent rains caused the rivers to rise so we weren’t able to look for tracks along river banks. Fortunately we were still able to find a variety of tracks and while the diversity of species could have been higher, we had some great tracks. One of my favorites was the scrapes in the mud from cliff swallows and a mud daubers collecting mud. We also saw some beautiful vulture tracks and hispid cotton rat tracks.

Congratulations to all who attended. I especially want to recognize 4 of students from Earth Native’s 9-Month Wildlife Tracking Intensive that earned level 3 certificates: Ann Elizabeth Kolbeck, Matthew Smith, Mikael Behrens, and Beau Harger. Thanks to Dave Scott for hosting the eval and helping out.