A Murder in the Grass!

 

I’m out with the Bay Area Tracking Club, taking adventure where it comes.  This month, we are granted special permission to enter private land. 

It’s still chilly at 8:00 am.  And the high overcast conceals the sun.  As we walk along the dirt road, none of us casts a shadow.

Our congenial group has no idea what we’ll find.  This area, on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is abundant with wildlife.  But cattle graze this area more than in the past.  And we worry that they will have obliterated all the interesting animal sign.

 

First Sighting

The day starts out great for me.  I see my first-ever Black-headed Grosbeak!  The birds breed in California but spend winters spread across central Mexico.  I watch it sing, and notice that its coloring makes it look female.  Do female Grosbeaks sing?   Is this an immature male, or is it changing into its breeding plumage?  My lack of experience with these birds shows.

 

 

Trailing

A number of trackers separate from the main group.  A senior tracker walked in the grass earlier this morning.  As a challenge, the group attempts to discover where she left the road and follow her trail.  It’s a good exercise.  I often practice with deer, following the grass that “shines” back at me, their stalks bend in the direction of travel.

 

 

I notice, without explicit agreement, that we’re all wearing earth-toned clothing.  The famous bushcrafter, Horace Kephart, said in his 1906 book:

 

The color of a woodsman’s clothing should be as near invisibility as possible – unless he ranges through a country infested with fools with guns.

 

I think the trackers instinctively want to blend with nature, not clash with it.

 

Walking the road

As we walk down the road, we look for reptiles and amphibians around pools left by recent rains.  We find a tiny Coast garter snake that has suffered a traumatic early-life experience.  A small wound, most likely from the beak of a bird, has healed near its tail.  It’s close enough to the snake’s vent that the predator must have received a face-full of musk.  Even as we examine it, the snake excretes great quantities of the distasteful fluid to defend against us.

 

 

Garter snakes are not dangerous to humans.  But they do have toxins in their saliva that can be deadly to their prey.  Their bite might do little more than produce an unpleasant reaction in some people.  According to the California Herps website, the origin of its scientific name is:  

Thamnophis (Greek) – thamnos – shrub or bush, and ophis – snake, serpent 
elegans (Latin) – fine or elegant — “delicately carinated” 
terrestris (Latin) – of the earth – probably refers to the habitat and the terrestrial nature 

I think this is a terrific name, given their black, red, and yellow decoration.

Red-winged blackbirds buzz around us as we walk along the marshy ground.  They engage in fierce battles for breeding territory.  And I’m amused by their maneuvering and buzzing calls as they posture against rivals.

 

 

The Scene of the Crime

We approach a barn, still in use.  And I marvel at Cliff swallow nests built in the eaves.  This area has everything swallows need to start a family:  open areas to forage, a structure to build nests on, and a source of mud among the many pools and a  nearby lake.

 

 

 

A group of horses graze nearby.  They slowly approach, down a hillside, to drink and to have a look at these strange interlopers.

 

 

The family who looks after the land stops by to walk with us as we track.  One of them has a week-old lamb.  It’s been abandoned by its mother and the children are rearing it. 

 

 

Whodunnit?

There’s a sudden commotion and I spin around.  One of the trackers has pulled a body from the tall grass nearby.

 

 

It’s a California Meadow Vole (Microtus californicus).  These rodents are ubiquitous throughout California.  They are generally 6-7 inches long with a 2-inch tail.  What seals the ID is its two-toned tail.  It’s short tail, less than half its body length, has dramatically different colors on top and bottom.

Voles are prolific breeders, and on the menu of hawks, owls, coyotes, skunks, and snakes.  As one of the trackers put it, “Animals eat them like popcorn!”

 

Animals eat them like popcorn!

 

But there are some strange things about the body.  It’s intact!  It hasn’t been consumed in any way.  There is a small wound on its back.  But it’s not a puncture wound, like I would expect from a fang or canine.  It’s more of an abrasion.

But strangest of all is its fur – It’s matted down with saliva!  Several of the trackers exclaim, “It’s been mouthed!”  From the head, the entire upper third of its body has been bathed in liquid.  Its hair and ears are slicked back and matted together.  The remainder of the body appears untouched.  What could have caused this?

 

 

 

Here’s a closer look at our vole:

 

 

 

 

There are coyote, fox, and bobcat tracks in the area.  But we don’t think any of them are responsible.  This is most likely the work of a snake!  The snake attempted to swallow the vole from the head.   But the vole was too big!  Fortunately for the snake, it was able to disengage from its prey before choking to death.

Both garter snakes and gopher snakes live in the area.  But one of the senior trackers suspects a garter snake.  He explains that gopher snakes “are experts at this” and are less likely to attack a rodent they can’t swallow. 

I’m unsure.  It’s hard for me to imagine a garter snake, even the larger ones, going for a rodent of this size.  But I defer to my colleague’s judgment and experience.  He tells me he’s seen this sort of thing before.  And now I know what to look for, too!

 

The Deer-Eating Tree

The clouds burn-off as we amble further down the road under a brilliant blue sky.  A tracker snaps my picture as I stand over some fox tracks.  I’m wearing a strange expression.  And I wonder what I’m thinking at this moment…

 

 

And then we find the “deer-eating tree.”

 

 

 

I wonder how long ago someone placed the antler here?

 

A Morning’s Tracking

As we wrap-up the morning’s tracking.  I reflect on how much we can learn just by paying more attention to our surroundings.  To quote Kephart, again:

 

In the school of the woods there is no graduation day.

 

I hope all my “classes” are as enjoyable as this one.

 

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