19 Feb - It was windy, but we flew for part of the day.  Never found Paduka Pack.  East Pack remained at the site northeast of Lake Eva, where they’d killed a moose on the 13th of February.  Chippewa Harbor Pack was on a kill site northeast of Lake Mason, where they’d killed a moose on the 17th.  

   Middle Pack traveled during the day from Houghton Point to the north side of Siskiwit swamp.  At about 5:45 pm, we observed MP traveling through thick stands of cedar.  It was windy, so we could only fly large, fast circles.  With each pass, we caught only a glimpse.  On some passes, nothing at all.  

   Then, a moose, killing and stomping like a bucking bronco.  A wolf sent sailing as its grip from the moose’s hind end released.  Four wolves surrounds the moose, lunging teeth first. Then, four more wolves raced across an opening in the thick swamp vegetation toward the action.  These wolves - though excited - likely contributed little to the kill.  Within 5 minutes of first observing the wolves attack the moose, the moose was on the ground, and Middle Pack was feeding.

 

20 Feb - In the morning, Don dropped Rolf and Associated Press reporter, John Flesher, off at Feldtmann Lake, where they hiked through thick alders to a site where Middle Pack had killed a moose earlier this month.  That moose ended up being a calf.  

    While Rolf and John Flesher did that work, I flew with Don for a couple hours in the late morning to find the packs.  Middle Pack was still feeding on the moose they’d killed the night before.  

    We found a lone wolf, chewing on bones at an old Middle Pack kill site southeast of Desor Lake.  We found another lone wolf at Moskey Basin heading, generally, from East Pack’s location to Chippewa Harbor Pack’s location.  Its the wolves’ mating season.  As the time approaches some wolves begin to disperse, at least temporarily, in search of a mate.  In most cases, these wolves return to their packs - failing to have found a mate or discovering that they’re not quite ready to survive on their own.

    East Pack was traveling through the thick stands of baslam fir near Rock Harbor.  It was too windy, so we couldn’t circle slow enough to allow us to see the wolves - we only detected their telemetry signal.  Chippewa Harbor Pack was northeast of Lake Mason.  Again, the wind was too much to allow us to see what they were doing - we only detected their telemetry signal.  

    In the early afternoon, the wind lightened up a bit.  Don flew Phyllis Green, Isle Royale’s Superintendent, for a tour of the island.  But, that flight was no mere show-and-tell.  Don and Phyllis were able to see that CHP had in fact killed a moose at the site where Don and I had seen them earlier.

 

21 Feb - No flying today - wind and low clouds.  Spent much of the day at the bone boiling pot extracting bones, from the moose parts that we’ve collected.