Submit Your Nature Mystery Photo!

The height of this bark stripping, the diameter of the individual “strips,” and the fact that they are ragged only at the top indicates that a moose has been dining on the bark of this tree.

ANIMAL TRACKS & TRACES–NATURE MYSTERIES WELCOME!

Animal signs, from tracks, marking,  scat, dens, signs of eating, etc., have always intrigued me.  I think the element of mystery pulls me in, and gathering as many clues as possible engages me like no other aspect of natural history.  Often I cannot interpret the whole story that the signs tell, but usually a part of it reveals itself to me.  I think I am not alone in my love of “reading” these tales, as over the years others have shared their curiosity about such mysteries with me.

I would like to take the opportunity that this blog offers to extend an invitation to readers to send me photographs and written descriptions of “stories” they’ve encountered outdoors–particularly those you haven’t been able to decipher.  The challenge of interpretation is the fun part for me.

From past experience I know that the more details that are available to the nature detective, the better the chances are that a mystery will be solved.  Measurements are crucial, whether it’s a scraping in the ground,  incisors on a piece of bone or tracks in mud or snow (both individual tracks as well as distance between sets) or the height of markings on a tree.  Please include all the details you’ve observed and collected, such as the presence or absence of nail marks in a track; whether a rubbed branch is shredded at both the top and bottom of the rub, or just the top; and the habitat in which the sign was discovered.  Keen observational skills are the key to the successful solving of any mystery.  It goes without saying that the sharper the photograph, the better the chance of accurate interpretation.

If you would like to submit a photograph, with a written description of your observations, I would be happy to try and help interpret it, to the best of my ability.  I will get back to you, regardless of the extent of my success.  Now and then I will, with the permission of the photographer, share a photograph with blog readers, sometimes with an interpretation and sometimes asking for viewer input to help solve the mystery.  Together we can hopefully all enjoy this form of interpretive natural history mystery solving.

To submit a photo:

Send a brief description of why you took the submitted photo, as well as the location and approximate date, your name, where you live, your email address and a digital version of the image (quality should be good enough for me to look at properly but low enough resolution to send via email) to my attention at: mholland@vermontel.net .

My award-winning book NATURALLY CURIOUS is available online and at your favorite bookstore. Here’s the link to my publisher’s website, where you can order a copy of your own today BUY NOW.

 

Watch the book trailer for the new edition of NATURALLY CURIOUS!