1. The mystery animal is RAVEN. (See photo)
 Here is how
you figure this out: The feet have 4 toes, with Toe #1 (the hallux)
pointing backwards, indicating it’s a bird. The bird has fairly large
feet and was doing a diagonal walk, ruling out small perching birds and
indicating this bird is accustomed to walking on the ground. Toe #3 is
canted towards Toe #2, which is characteristic of the corvid family
(ravens, crows, magpies & jays). The size of the tracks and stride are
most consistent with raven.
2. You can rule out the raven’s smaller cousin, Crow, by checking
your bird field guide and noticing that crows do not inhabit the Sonoran
Desert.
This made for a good start to my road trip. It was still early enough in
the day to provide excellent lighting & shadows for the tracks, and I
was thankful that the raven circled around so that I could get a photo
of it in flight. Stay tuned for more tracking quizzes from my trip,
which proceeded on to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, one of the
jewels of the continent.
BRIAN |
