Getting Permission

Native Eyes met at Commonweal this time, and we were greeted by constellations of fox scat. The little canids accented every firepit, larder, crossroads, and just about everything else with their spoor. After giving our greetings and thanksgiving to the land and eachother, we requested permission from the foxes to track and photograph them. Then we divided into hunting parties to get the lay of the land and find likely places to set our new camera traps.


My hunting party went up the dry, goat-nibbled ridge. Along the trail we found a chain of these latrines, all with both the big and small scats. We don't know when the scats were left, and we suspect the small came after the big. We think the big is bobcat and the small is fox. What does this say about the predators in the area? What are they saying to each other?

Others were more successful than we in finding likely bottleneck spots to photograph foxes. We laid our traps and left to make our fire.

That evening, we met the RDNA crew. There are a lot of them. Everyone, RDNA, Native Eyes, and Cultural Mentors got a chance to intro themselves around the campfire. I left feeling impressed with the breadth of backgrounds and resources that people bring to the program, and with the strong desire to get to know the other participants better.


The next morning Native Eyes went out early to the bird sit. Dark faded to dawn, the birds gave full throat to the morning, and waves of alarm spread over the land as hawks and other predators moved. Then the rest of RDNA arrived and sat, too.

Mapping with such a big group turned out to be a pleasure, after having only eight sets of eyes on the land. Jon was able to draw out lots of patterns and stories when we debriefed the maps later.


We had checked our camera traps before the debrief, and so were able to present evidence to the group of predators in our midst. One of the possible causes of alarm sequences:



That evening a gray fox came through the fence again at the camera site, walked to our Native Eyes fire ring right in front of one of the NE participants, and laid a scat. We had asked, received permission, and now we might have been told "you're welcome."