20 Jan 2008

    Hoping to fly today, Rolf and I woke at 5:30AM to start the snowmobile (that’s a two-person job when its -5F).  Then Rolf went to turn the plane’s heater on, so it’d be ready for flight when the sun came up.  Later that morning, we learned that the small, portable generator which runs the heater broke - it’ll require professional care.  We have to resort to our back-up means of heating the plane engine, which requires much more work.

    Later in the afternoon, Don and I flew for about an hour and 15 minutes.  It was windy, which means a bumpy, bouncing ride.  In that short time we found Middle Pack for the first time this year.  We saw five wolves in the pack, but can’t be sure there aren’t more.  They were bedded about 2 miles NE of long point, at a site where they probably had made a kill – judging from the ravens and the large areas of trampled down snow.  

    From a location Just NE of Caribou Creek we heard the mortality signal – fast, rather than slow, beeps – from the collar of a wolf we had collared this past spring.  At the time we trapped her, she was severely underweight, and we’re not surprised to find her dead.  We’ll retrieve her carcass as soon as possible.

    With the last 90 minutes of daylight, Don flew Alex to Daisy Farm, where he’ll be stationed for a few days to search for moose pellets and urine samples.

 

21 Jan 2008

We woke early enough to require headlamps at the breakfast table.  It was windy and the occasional snow flake could be spotted in the air.  Nevertheless, we decided the weather was improving and that we should give it a try.  After warming the plane’s engine for about an hour, we took off from Windigo at 9am.  It was windy and the occasional snow squall passed portions of the island.  Eventually, the sky cleared.  

    We found Middle Pack where we’d seen them yesterday.  But this time we also found the kill site that had been keeping the pack.  We also saw five wolves in Chippewa Harbor Pack on Lake LeSage where they had killed a moose.  An adult moose was bedded very close to the kill site.  Likely the wolves had killed her calf.

    East Pack was the only pack without a meal today.  We observed them in the never-ending search for food that all wolves endure.  During the day, we watched five wolves from East Pack travel from Lake Eva to McCargo Cove and onto Angleworm.

    The most intriguing observation of the day was a set of tracks in the middle of the island on the north side, near Hatchet Lake.  The tracks were relatively fresh, and comprised of, we’d guess, 3 to 5 wolves.  After several hours of scouting and searching we found these tracks stretch out over six or so miles.

    These tracks are in an area of Isle Royale where, last winter, we had seen a pair of wolves kill some moose - a pair that might have been trying to become a pack.  Today, we never found the wolves who made these anonymous tracks, but there is reason to think they do not belong to any of the Island’s three established packs.  Another day, and another flight, and we’ll hope to find the wolves that belong to those tracks.