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Update on Olympic Project nest sites


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Posted
22 hours ago, BigTreeWalker said:

The elevation in the area is less than a 1000'.

 

Thanks.  That's what I remembered.   Jibes with the images of the spawning stream's slope.    The 2 others i know of are probably at 400-500 feet above sea level.  The tracks I found going into an area I suspect because of similarity to the O.P. site are below 1000 feet.    This is low elevation stuff.   Headwaters are interesting, stuff goes on there, but I think it is a different situation.   Trying to meld the two into one leads to a picture that does not accurately predict either.

 

MIB

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Posted
12 hours ago, bipedalist said:

Hell, trespassing to so. apps. settlers around park land is nothing, that is not going to keep things from happening, just like any kind of poaching that can occur, it will, if there is a will, regardless of penalties. 

 

The saddest realization I ever had moving to  the PNW for part-time is that they cut the hell out of everything right up to the park boundaries. 

 

I'm in agreement with you on the trespassing issue. But I have also spent enough time in the woods to know that you can tell when other humans have been in the area. Besides if it was a human, building that many nests in an area borders on craziness. Which I know there is no lack of nowadays. 

I'm also in agreement on logging practices. SW WA in the Willapa hills was so over logged in the 60's and 70's that the economy in the area actually almost shut down for about 20 years. It appears the cycle is starting again. 

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Posted

I saw him at a conference five or so years ago.  Introduced myself, talked a bit, my impression is he is doing "private research" based on that brief visit.

 

Not very communicative about it either.   But it is not like I was in the need to know crowd at the time.

Posted
25 minutes ago, bipedalist said:

I saw him at a conference five or so years ago.  Introduced myself, talked a bit, my impression is he is doing "private research" based on that brief visit.

 

Not very communicative about it either.   But it is not like I was in the need to know crowd at the time.

 

If there is somebody out there doing the Goodall/Fossey thing, he's the guy. I wish him well at it, too.

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Posted
7 hours ago, BigTreeWalker said:

 

I'm in agreement with you on the trespassing issue. But I have also spent enough time in the woods to know that you can tell when other humans have been in the area. Besides if it was a human, building that many nests in an area borders on craziness. Which I know there is no lack of nowadays. 

I'm also in agreement on logging practices. SW WA in the Willapa hills was so over logged in the 60's and 70's that the economy in the area actually almost shut down for about 20 years. It appears the cycle is starting again. 

 

I've seen that area and it is desolated with stumps in places.  Lots of timber company owned land out that way. 

 

I was not implying the nests aren't the real deal in any sort of way.  I still need to take a good tracking course.  

 

I think it beats the heck out of the skookum cast

 

 

 

 

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  • 9 months later...
Posted (edited)

The video was published March 9, 2017 and I watched it in the Summer of 2018. Outside of a scant amount of new info at conferences and from NathanFooter there has been virtually nothing since Dr. Disotell's stamen on Laura Krantz's "Wild Thing podcast nearly a year ago.

 

But posting the video could get new members interested enough to keep the subject alive. Thank you for keeping the subject in the forefront where it belongs.

 

Do people in academia and F&W really not know about this? Because that's the impression I had been getting with my past outreaches. 

Edited by hiflier
Posted

YouTube simply added it to my "recommended" videos, and it was the first time I'd actually seen the nest discussed. I thought it good to share.

Posted
9 minutes ago, Huntster said:

YouTube simply added it to my "recommended" videos, and it was the first time I'd actually seen the nest discussed. I thought it good to share.

 

It was an excellent video to share, Huntster :)   

Moderator
Posted

That particular video is new to me.    The ones I'd seen were from the OP folks going to the site and leaving it.   The thickness of the brush almost has to be experienced to be believed.   The nests are primarily of evergreen huckleberry, something I grew up hunting in.    Makes me wonder what might have been in some of those places I went around, places that looked to ugly for even me to want to climb into.     Seeing Shane in the nest puts the size in perspective.   

 

MIB

 

 

 

 

Posted

And you know, whomever or whatever built those nests? It took a lot of time and effort to not only maneuver in such a dense environment, but to also weave the material so tightly and thick. And large as well. Not to mention the number of fresh nests found at the time which IIRC was six. All constructed from shrubbery that had been broken off. Is it any wonder why I have been so hot on this discovery enough to not see it buried down the list here?

Posted
10 minutes ago, MIB said:

........The thickness of the brush almost has to be experienced to be believed.   The nests are primarily of evergreen huckleberry, something I grew up hunting in.    Makes me wonder what might have been in some of those places I went around........

 

ADFG had satellite tracking collars on over a dozen coastal brown bears in the Anchorage area during a study of "urban bears" around 2000-2005. The biologists got several unexpected surprises. The fact that all of these bears came into the urban areas of Anchorage during the salmon runs in the several creeks that ran through town and stayed the whole time was one of them. The bears were masters at hiding from people. They would lay down in the brush just a few yards from the paved hiking trails running through the greenbelts of town along the streams while hundreds and hundreds of people and children walked and rode bicycles right by them, never knowing that 500-800 lb. bears were laying nearby. At night the bears would fish the creeks and sometimes wander around neighborhoods eating garbage and pet food. Another surprise was how few phone calls they would get from homeowners after garbage can raids, likely because the homeowners expected trouble from the department regarding garbage.

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Posted

Thats an interesting video, I had not see that before.   The nests are more impressive than the pictures lead me to believe.  

 

I'm surprised no ones been talking about this around here......./s      :D:popcorn:

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Posted

Great video.

 

Is there an aerial map or drawing showing us the scatter of nests and how close they all are?

 

Could be interesting while trying to understand how big of a troop they are living in.

 

The nests are actually pretty incredible. I can't see humans making that/hoaxing that.

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