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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

“I’ve got wolves!”

Members of the Lost Lake pack finally make their cameo

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 12/19/14

LOST LAKE SWAMP—The chorus let me know early Saturday morning that the Lost Lake wolf pack was working our edge of the big swamp. It was just getting light on an unusually mild and misty December …

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“I’ve got wolves!”

Members of the Lost Lake pack finally make their cameo

Posted

LOST LAKE SWAMP—The chorus let me know early Saturday morning that the Lost Lake wolf pack was working our edge of the big swamp. It was just getting light on an unusually mild and misty December morning and I had stepped outside to fill the bird feeders.

For me, it always takes a second or two to register the sound of a pack of wolves erupting in song, even though I’ve heard it countless times. It always seems to arise unexpectedly from the otherwise still forest, and over the years I’ve found that our neighborhood pack will sing at any time of day, under just about any weather.

Sometimes their howls are distant, but this morning they were very close. The terrain around our house is similar to much of the border country— undulating between lowlands and rocky outcrops. Our wolves like to hang out on the outcrops, which are pleasantly open and provide them with a good vantage point from which to watch for prey.

From the sound of things this past Saturday, the pack was singing from the knob just west of us, a spot they’ve favored for years.

I called our dog Penny outside as the singing continued. She listened with intense interest, snorted once or twice, but never barked or howled back. If she spots a wolf she invariably gives chase, but she usually remains very still when the howling begins. I watch her reaction, looking for a sign that the wolves are saying something she understands. If so, she doesn’t let on.

The next day, my sister, who is visiting from Colorado, and I took our two dogs out on the hiking and snowshoeing trail I’ve maintained for a number of years behind the house. It goes right across the rock knob where I suspected the wolves were howling the day before. I was anxious to check my trail camera, which I had positioned on the trail a couple weeks earlier, not far from there. I had never captured an image of a wolf before, but you never know.

At the rock knob, the snow was totally matted down and there were wolf tracks everywhere. They had obviously hung out there for a while, and the dogs gave the area a thorough going-over, sniffing everything.

We continued on down the trail and I noticed with growing optimism the well-beaten paths through the snow going off in several directions. The wolves have been busy hunting, and they were making good use of my own trail. We reach the next knob and there is plenty more wolf sign, and my trail cam was just ahead.

I get to the camera and there are wolf tracks around. I open up the trail cam and it signals low battery. It also indicates it’s taken 15 pictures since I left it there. I hit the playback and there they are.

“I got wolves!” I tell my sister, who is a dyed-in-the-wool wolf lover. “Oh my God, let me see,” she says. We take a quick check on the little playback screen, but now all I wanted was to load them onto my computer to see them in full resolution.

We continue on the trail, which eventually loops back to the house, and saw plenty more wolf sign as well as fisher and marten tracks that were perfectly formed in the wet snow. It was an odd morning for December in the North Country, mild and foggy, and we’re soaking wet by the time we get back home.

The computer confirms five shots of wolves on three different occasions, as well as several shots of deer. As is typical of trail cams, the shots are pretty clear, but they lack the sharpness of my big camera lens. Then again, I don’t have the patience to sit on a trail, camera at the ready, for two weeks, either.

I’ve seen members of this pack on several occasions, and have heard their howls many times. Now, I finally had a face or two to go with the music.