First flight
15-17 Jan
Winter Study
notes from the field
 
 
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 stations on the North Shore of Lake Superior reported no ceiling and unlimited visibility.  The good flying weather wasn’t expected to last.  We packs the planes as quickly as we could, and took off hoping we wouldn’t return – chased back by Lake Superior’s clouds.  
    As we approached the shoreline, Lake Superior and Isle Royale were hidden by thick clouds.  And as we got closer, bits of the island began to shine through breaks in the clouds.  Each of the two planes descended through the breaks.  Within 20 minutes of landing clouds had swallowed the island again.  
     Snow screamed over the ice.  Clouds flew across the sky. We knocked holes in the ice, moved gear, started equipment, unpacked boxes, had dinner and a glass of wine, and went to bed.  It is good to be back again.
 
16 Jan – We prepared the plane for work – outfitted the struts with telemetry antenna, checked and installed survival gear.  We organized our field gear, photography equipment, and necropsy tools (an axe and plastic bags).   Because clouds and wind would not have allowed us to fly, we worked leisurely and let time pass lightly.
 
17 Jan – First flight!  What a marvelous feeling to glide all morning above the trees and lakes.  So much to absorb – expansive dark clouds rising over lake superior; the mottled colors of a landscape covered in alternating bands of conifers, deciduous forests, and lakes; and all the varied moods of Lake Superior.  
     We found three of the packs.  Middle Pack wolves were traveling easily from Siskiwit Lake.  Chippewa Harbor wolves traveled a great deal from Moskey Basin to Harvey Lake, and Paduka Pack slept much of the day on Beaver Lake.  
   We collected some remains of an old cow moose that had been killed near McCargo Cove.  At that site we collected 63 wolf scats for the purpose of extracting DNA to  identify the wolves that had visited the site.  The moose was likely killed by Paduka Pack or Chippewa Harbor pack, and likely both packs visited the site.
    We saw tracks on in Tobin Harbor.  They might have been made by a pair of wolves – perhaps the core of a reconstituted East Pack?  Too soon to say.
 
 
.
Chippewa Harbor Pack traveled SW. We picked up a kill at site (A). The unidentified tracks we saw in what had been East Pack territory were at site (B).
Most Recent Travel Routes of Isle Royale Wolves
 
.
.
(A)
(B)
Two wolves from Paduka Pack lounging on Beaver Lake.