Abruptness
28 Feb - 2 Mar
28th Feb – Last night Middle Pack left the south shore to work over Washington Island and Thompson Island. Nothing to show for the effort. They slept the morning with empty bellies.
Winds
Wind & Snow
24-27 Feb
24th Feb – Late in the afternoon snow and wind gave way to clear and calm. Don & Rolf flew for a couple of hours, and were able to learn just a little bit… Middle Pack was between kills, bedded on
Surprise
21-23 Feb
21 Feb – Middle Pack and East Pack remained at their kill sites. After several days of seeing only tracks, we finally found Paduka Pack bedded on a rocky outcrop just uphill from where tracks
Off Balance
19-20 Feb
19th Feb – Spent the day writing a manuscript – looked out the window regularly trying to imagine the tree tops were rocking less than the last time I looked.
While the ravens roost
17-18 Feb
Feb 17th – Snow and wind in the morning is never preferred, but there are some pleasures… No need to stumble down to the harbor at 4am to start the generator that preheats the airplane, can even
Movin’ Around
15-16 Feb 2008
15th Feb – Chippewa Harbor pack returned from their extra-territorial excursion into Paduka country, traveling NE through swamps to Livermore Lake, across the ridges that follow to Moskey Basin,
Back to Work
12-14 Feb
12th Feb – The healing process has begun. It got cooler. Snow replaced the rain. The harbors are beginning to set up again. From the fabric covering the wing, Don and George gently warmed and
The Big Thaw
10-11 Feb 2009
10th Feb – Rained most of the day. The temperature topped out at 39F. The harbor is covered in slush and, in some places, open water.
Don learned how to Google. He thought the internet was a
Lab Work
8-9 Feb 2009
8th Feb – Balsam fir needles, yellow snow, moose pellets, muscle tissues, bone chips, wolf scat… every useful kind of tissue that we know of from every trophic level. Carefully transferred from
Questions
6-7 Feb 2009
6th Feb – We haven’t been flying much, and poor weather is expected over the next four or five days. To make the most of the day we would have, we woke while Orion was still looking down on us,
Peril for Paduka
4-5 Feb 2009
4 Feb – Yesterday, the parents of Chippewa Harbor Pack (CHP) put their kids at Moskey Basin Campground with instructions to behave and stay put. Should they get hungry, left-overs are just up the
Parka-Wearing Pallbearers
2-3 Feb 2009
2 Feb – Snow, wind, no flying.
3 Feb – Snow, wind, no flying.
4 Feb – We landed at Daisy Farm cabin to drop off equipment, and to pick up Beth and Dieter’s account of their three-day ordeal
Senescence
30 Jan - 1 Feb 2009
30 Jan – My beard hung with ice. My shirt was frozen stiff from sweat, and my fleece from snow that had fallen from the cedars I’d crawled through. It was not supposed to be so difficult. I had
Like a Raven
28-29 Jan 2009
We saw seven wolves in Chippewa Harbor Pack at their Moskey Basin kill site. Some were feeding, others bedded. We were glad for the count: we hadn’t seen that many in CHP for sometime, and we
Frozen Stiff
26-27 Jan 2009
26 Jan – We flew for much of the day through tolerable winds. In the morning, we finally found what had been so attractive about the pond near Middle Point for the collared male who’d spend so
Wind
23-25 Jan 2009
23 Jan – The wind that grounded us yesterday was a convenience. It gave time to necropsy the dead wolf from McCargo. Today it would have felt better to fly. But it was a luxury to rest for a full
Dead Wolf on McCargo Cove
21-22 Jan 2009
21 Jan – Last night wind rushed across Lake Superior and over the island at 35mph or more. Today is a clean slate. Few wolves tracks would survive those winds.
It is also gray. In the flat
Gray Skies
19-20 Jan 2009
19 Jan – We flew just a couple hours this morning, and snow kept us close to home. Thick cover prevented our seeing them, but telemetry told us the collared duo remained near Beaver Island. The
Finding Wolves
17-18 Jan 2009
17 Jan – By yesterday’s end, light north winds turned southwest and quickly built to 35 mph. Tumultuous and balmy. This morning the temp was 35F warmer than yesterday morning. With the warmth
First Flights
15-16 Jan 2009
15 Jan – Because of the troubles we’d been having with it, we let the generator run through the night. So we were disappointed to know that it failed sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Huts
Isle Royale is a remote wilderness island in Lake Superior where nature still runs wild. Every winter we live here for seven weeks to observe the lives of wolves and moose. These journal entries share what we discover.
notes from the field
Winter Study
George Desort is the project’s visual artist. He has been posting daily video blogs sharing winter life on Isle Royale. Check it out, right here.
Winter Study ended on Monday, March 2nd. However, look for more video blogs from Isle Royale’s winter study. George will post another video blog or two in the next few days.