Animals
in and around Atlin
Hein and Wil website
Since Atlin
is situated on the edge of a huge wilderness area, it will be no surprise
to hear we have many wild beasts and birds frequenting our small community.
The neighbouring pond attracts many migratory birds in spring and fall, on
their way to their breeding grounds further north in the tundra.
Last updated 2-dec-10
Clicking on any of the pictures will open a new window with an enlargement.
Moose are resident in
the area. In the winter they even come into our yard to snip off the dried
flowers that still stick out above the snow. Mostly we see them at dusk
and dawn: difficult light conditions: hence no pictures.
Even though foxes are also coming out to our yard later in the evening,
this one I captured strolling through our yard somewhat earlier in the day.
In the last years coyotes seem to have pushed foxes out of the area.
Of the smaller mammals, an interesting little fellow is the vole. In the
2006-2007 winter we had many of these. They had long runways under the huge
snowcover of that winter. In the spring you can tell whether it has been
a good vole year when the lawn is all hatched grass and the stems of the
wild rose bushes are all de-"barked" just above groundlevel.
Bear tracks.
The other day while walking with Frodo, our dog, in the woods starting from our house we came across some mounts of half digested berries: bear(s) in the neighbourhood! That's why we always make sure we carry our canisters of bear spray even if we go on a bike ride along the Atlin Road. We see too many of them and actually Hein on a trainingsrun ran into one some time ago. No harm done that time: the (black) bear was just as startled as he was.
These grizzlies
(Ursus horribiles) were frequenting the Atlin Road in the fall of 2009.
Unfortunately some yahoo saw it fit to shoot at least one of the majestic
animals.
I found this dead Short Tailed
Weasel (Mustela erminea) in the back alley next to our woodpile. I don't know
what caused his demise. Since most of these Mustelidae are nocturnal it is
difficult to get a good picture.
Apparently this animal is the strongest in the world relative to its bodyweight