And then we left
7-8 Mar
7 Mar – Sometime this morning, the thought occurred to the alphas of Middle Pack. It was time to check on that moose they’d wounded nine days ago near Little Todd Harbor. With ravens waiting on
Warm, hazy winds
4-6 Mar
4 Mar – With each passing day, the sun hangs in the sky a little longer. Each afternoon, the snow becomes soft and wet. Snow fleas fill every footstep. By morning the snow is crusted again.
A new friend and food
1-3 March
1 Mar – Sometime in the past day or two while we were grounded, CHP abandoned their kill site just north of Daisy Farm. I hiked in. All that remained of a 900 pound moose was a jaw bone, one
Snarling and cowering
25-28 Feb
25 Feb – Middle Pack finally gave up guarding the calf carcass that Romeo had killed. They traveled NE to within a mile of Florence Bay, where they discovered a depression in the snow on top of a
Romeo’s big adventure
20-24 Feb
20 Feb – Teeth, hooves, blood, bruises, adrenalin, exhaustion. Romeo killed a moose. Very likely, this is the first moose he’d ever killed. He’d seen his parents, the alpha pair of Chippewa
On the move
17-19 Feb
17 Feb – Wind.
18 Feb – We woke early, hoping for a good long day, and left Windigo at 8am. After some difficulty locating any wolves, we realized the right telemetry antenna was not working at
Counting moose
12-16 Feb
12 Feb – The air was still and clouds obscured the sun – perfect conditions for counting moose.
To cover each moose survey plot thoroughly, we typically fly nine overlapping circles which allows
Samples to data
9-11 Feb
9 Feb – The wind blew too hard to fly the Flagship. However the exchange flight, with Leah on board, arrived from Ely. She’ll spend most of the next couple weeks processing the samples that we’ve
Waiting for death
6-8 Feb
6 Feb – Two days ago Middle Pack left their wounded moose, cruised the forests for 18-miles, and within 24 hours they’d returned to that poor, old moose. The wolves returned only to pass by, as
Meeting on Siskiwit Lake
4-5 Feb
4 Feb – Throughout the night and into the morning, most of Middle Pack traveled south across the Grace Creek drainage, over Red Oak Ridge, and on through the swamps south of Feldtmann Lake. Unable
Working for a meal
1-3 Feb
1 Feb – Middle Pack spent most of the day milling about an area near Grace Creek overlook. They gnawed on the hide of a calf – it was all that remained of this calf that they had killed sometime
Back in business
28-31 Jan
28 Jan – day’s end the Flagship had passed her test flight.
29 Jan – Rolf and I stood on the ice, looking skyward. Patches of blue opened and closed as snow-laden clouds pushed themselves across
What does a moose think?
24-27 Jan
24 Jan – Half or maybe ¾ of an inch of dreary rain fell during the late morning and early afternoon. It drizzled the rest of the time. The Harbor was covered in about 2 inches of water.
25 Jan –
If you try it, you might like it
21-23 Jan
21 Jan – We waited all day, anxiously. We waited for good news that the flagship had been repaired. That news never came.
22 Jan – Number of days without the flagship: 4. Number of days I’ve
Not as it first appeared
18-20 Jan
18 Jan – It was good that we woke before dark and took flight at first light. What began as thick, heavy clouds became snow. Within two hours we were back at the bunkhouse drinking hot
First flight
15-17 Jan
15 Jan – Passing time in Ely is fine, but we’re all anxious for Isle Royale. The weather has been poor and time crept for three days. Today’s forecast was no better.
To our surprise, weather
End of a dynasty?
8 Jan 2010
This is the last time the alpha female of East Pack was seen alive - it was late February 2009. We found her carcass in the spring of 2009. She died in her den while giving birth to eight pups.
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, the wolf-moose project’s visual artist, recently arrived to Winter Study. He’s been capturing Winter Study in still images. Check it out, right here.
