Winter 2025 Cedar Creek Story of the Day

On February 22, the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project hosted our largest ever Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey. We have been running winter tracking surveys at Cedar Creek since 2017. Past winter surveys have drawn between 20 and 30 participants. This year, 60 students, naturalists, and trackers took part, spreading out across the snowy landscape to search for the tracks and sign of canids, mustelids, and other wildlife. Our crew organized into five groups, each exploring a different area of the reserve. Here are our stories from the field. Linked throughout are observations our teams posted to iNaturalist. You can view all the iNaturalist observations from the day here.

We could hardly have asked for a better day. Temperatures started out in the teens, but warmed quickly under sunny skies, climbing above freezing by the early afternoon. It was a welcome break from the sub-zero temperatures of just a few days earlier. Most of the landscape was still covered with the snow from a week prior. Within a few days, nearly all the snow will have vanished.

In addition to our target species, every group out on the landscape saw abundant sign of deer, squirrels, and small rodents. Wild turkeys are often one of the most prolific track makers across the reserve. On this day, only our group in the North Unit found turkey sign—and they found them in great abundance. Their observations included clear tracks, scat, and these lovely “snow angles” marking where a group of turkeys had come down from their roosts. This group also recorded coyote tracks, the trail of a red fox walking across a fallen log, and a variety of squirrel sign, including this flying squirrel latrine.

A little farther south, another group worked their way through the bog and out onto Cedar Bog Lake. There they explored the beaver lodge on the eastern shore, and the activity surrounding it. One mystery from this group was an area of blood splattered snow at the base of a tree. Given the time of year, and the absence of any signs of a kill, the group suspected this may have been estrus blood from a canid coming into heat. On their way back from the field, this group also found this shed antler from a large buck.

One of our target species for the survey was the fisher. The first fisher sign of the day was spotted by the group tracking the area around Crane House at the north end of Old East Bethel Blvd. The animal had moved through a small stand of woods in a classic 2x2 bound. One of the teams followed the trail for a ways as the fisher wound around trees and navigated under and through dense brush. That group also came across these feather marks of a hunting owl—though it was unclear if the hunt had been successful. Nearby, an eagle was returning to its nest from its own successful hunt, with prey dangling from its talons.

One of the most common mesopredators at Cedar Creek, and across our region, is the common raccoon. In addition to being quite common, raccoons are known among trackers as a trickster animal because their tracks can closely resemble those of many other species. So it was that the group surveying south of Lindeman puzzled over this trail in the deep snow. The direct register track pattern resembles that of a canid or even a fisher in deep snow, and is unlike the 2x2 walking pattern most seen in raccoon trails. Later, the same team found the bounding trail of a fisher. A short distance away, the group came across these beautiful tracks of a sitting gray fox. The imprints of the hauks show just how short gray fox legs are. The gray fox observation is particularly noteworthy. Since 2016, the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project has led 20 surveys at Cedar Creek. This is only the fourth time that we have found gray fox tracks. The group also found the trail of a small mustelid, most likely a long-tailed weasel.

At the southern end of Old East Bethel Blvd, the plowed road offered patches of remarkably good tracking substrate. The group tracking along the western edge of the bison enclosure also spotted the tracks of both a fisher and gray fox. They recorded a number of coyote tracks, and also this coyote scat accompanied by scrapes—a reminder of just how closely related coyotes are to our familiar domestic dogs.

In total, our teams of trackers made over 120 observations of the tracks and sign of 15 species of mammals. Among these were observations of each of our target species for the survey: fisher, small weasels, gray fox, red fox, and coyote. A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this largest-ever Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey. Your curiosity, careful observations, and open discussions brought in a wealth of information about the wildlife of Cedar Creek—information that we can share with the researchers studying canid and mustelid populations at the reserve.

Our next Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey is scheduled for Saturday, June 14. Mark your calendars.