3 Feb

Don and I flew in the late morning and early afternoon.  After refueling at about 2:30pm, I briefed Rolf on what we’d done and seen: counted 6 moose plots; observed Middle Pack on Siskiwit Lake; Chippewa Harbor Pack at the site where, yesterday, they had killed a moose; and East Pack continued to guard the northwest portion of their territory.  By 3pm, Rolf and Don began the day’s second flight.  

    Shortly afterwards, I began to haul water - one of our daily chores.  We get our water, for cooking, dishes, etc., from a small hole we maintain in the ice on the harbor.  To keep it from freezing-up, we cover it with a garbage can lid and cover that with snow.  After filling the six five-gallon jugs, I hauled them to the bunkhouse on the trailer we drag behind the snowmobile.    

     Before finishing that task, I heard the distant sound of an airplane.  But it came from an unexpected direction - the southwest; and, the engine didn’t sound quite right.  I thought Don and Rolf were coming back with engine trouble, just twenty minutes after take-off.  I left the water jugs sitting outside the bunkhouse and headed immediately for the harbor.  A moment later, I saw the plane, but it wasn’t Don’s Supercub.  It was Don Murray Jr. flying the Champ - different plane, different engine noise.  We knew Murray would be coming, but we didn’t quite expect him this afternoon.

     One of the difficulties with estimating moose abundance is knowing how many moose are on a plot but are missed by the observer.  There is a clever statistical method by which one can estimated the number of moose missed by comparing the observations of two observers in two planes that fly over the same plots.  So, this fall we invited Don Murray to spend about a week on Isle Royale this winter to help us with the task of “double-counting” our moose plots, as a way of making sure our estimates of moose abundance are as accurate as possible.    

     After Murray landed we refueled his plane and took his gear up to the bunkhouse.  It was 4pm -  I asked Murray if he wanted to unpack his things and get a tour of the base camp.  He said, “There’s still two hours of daylight, I think we should go flying.”  Outstanding.  We got in, took off, and got to work.

    The experience of stepping into that plane with that pilot is not quite describable.  Don Murray, Jr. is the grandson of Don Murray, Sr., the first pilot to fly for the wolf-moose project, from the 1959 to 1979.  There’s more.  Don Jr. is flying the same plane that Don, Sr. flew more than 35 years ago.  Back in January of 1971, Rolf climbed into this plane with Don, Jr.’s Grandfather and observed Isle Royale wolves for the first time in his career.  After the passage of about two human generations and about nine wolf generations, here I am with Don Jr., observing the descendants of the same wolves and moose.  What a privilege.

    We didn’t even take time to put telemetry equipment on the plane - that can be done with flashlights in the dark.  Don Murray and I started counting moose on a plot at the far northwest corner of the island.  While looking for moose, we noticed fresh wolf tracks.  How could that be?  This is deep inside Middle Pack Territory, and just a couple hour ago we observed Middle Pack, 25 miles to the northeast and traveling in the other direction.  All the other wolves were accounted for - except Paduka Pack.  This is hard to believe.   The light was flat, and tracking would be very tough.  So we strained our eyes and found bits and pieces of wolf tracks extending from the Padukas’ territory down to the where we’d just found these fresh tracks.  It had snowed 6 inches yesterday, so there was no mistaking that the tracks were fresh.  We never saw the Paduka wolves, but their tracks told us plenty.  

 

4 Feb

    Each plane flew all day today - Don Murray and I in the Champ, Don Glaser and Rolf in the Supercub.  We counted 24 plots.  Each plot was counted twice - once by each plane.  In the evening, Rolf and I compared notes about which moose we each saw, and which moose one or the other of us missed.  Our preliminary sense was pretty positive.  A more thorough assessment will come later.

    After defending the NW corner of their territory for the past ten days or so, East Pack finally began to move.  At about 4:30pm, the last time we saw EP today, they were on Beaver Lake, traveling SW toward Paduka Pack territory.  We have no idea where Paduka Pack is.  Last night they were somewhere on the far southwest end of the island - this afternoon they could be just about anywhere on the island.

     Until today, we had been wondering how EP was getting by - foregoing hunting to apparently spend all their time defending the northwest corner of their territory.  Today we have a better understanding.  While counting moose plots in East Pack Territory, we found two relatively fresh kill sites.  On two occasions over the past ten days,  EP took time from territorial defense, killed a moose, ate quickly, left much of the carcass uneaten, and returned to defend their territory.

    We finished our last flights today at 6pm.  After refueling and putting the planes to bed, Rolf prepared dinner, while Don and I took the snowmobile to the harbor to get water.  On the way, the snowmobile failed.  Its recent behavior anticipated this day.  Without a snowmobile, moving 30 gallons of water the 1/3 mile between the water hole and bunkhouse is no small feat.  Although the snowmobile wouldn’t go forward, it would go in reverse.  I guess you have to work with what you’ve got.  We drove the snowmobile, without the trailer or water, 1/3 of a mile from the harbor to the bunkhouse in reverse.  It was now 8:00pm and we haven’t had dinner yet.  We’ll work on the snowmobile later.

    Twenty-four moose plots - that’s a lot of circling.  I went to bed, five hours after landing, with my head still turning gentle arcs in the wilderness of my mind.

 

5 Feb

   At 6:30am, it seemed today would be a repeat of yesterday - calm and overcast, perfect conditions for moose counting.  Like most mornings, we took our oatmeal by headlamp.  Because the snowmobile was broken, we headed to the harbor by foot, dragging our gear in a sled.  As we warmed the planes, snow began to fall and the northeast wind picked up.  Just as the planes were ready to go, it became necessary to adjust our expectations for the day.  Wind prevents counting moose, and snow would prevent traveling to the east end of the island to check up on the wolves.  

    It now seemed like a good time to get serious about trying to fix the snowmobile.  A phone call to a mechanic on the mainland confirmed a terminal, as far as we were concerned, prognosis.  Although we have a spare snowmobile that hasn’t worked for the past two years, this machine started to look like our best option.  After spending the entire day, the two pilots, Don and Don, isolated and fixed the problem with the second snowmobile.  On this occasion, the trouble was limited to a gas line and fuel pump that were frozen solid - water in the gas line.  At 3:30pm today, we finished the chore we began last night - getting water.  

   The wind built all day long, so fixing the snowmobile didn’t cost us any time in the air.  Rolf baked bread and did some chores.  I organized and labeled the moose pellet and urine samples that Alex had been collected for the past couple of weeks.