Loam Warren Tracks

Loam Warren Tracks is a quiet, offline field guide to the tracks and signs of common temperate mammals and birds. Twenty-six species are covered, from the fox and the badger to the roe deer, the red squirrel, the heron and the crow. Every print in this guide is drawn from measurements rather than photographed, and it is always shown at a stated scale with a ruler beside it. Size is half of an identification, and a print with no scale is not evidence. READ THE TRAIL, NOT ONLY THE PRINT Two animals often leave a nearly identical print and are separated only by how they move. A trotting fox drops each hind foot into the front print and leaves a line so straight it looks ruled. A squirrel bounds, its long hind feet landing outside and ahead of the small front pair. A badger waddles wide on a low body. The gait renderer lays prints out along a trail exactly as they would fall, with stride and straddle bracketed on the plate, and the comparison view puts two species side by side at one shared scale. FIVE SECTIONS Field guide: browse all twenty-six species with front print, hind print, trail, other signs and notes. Filter by print length band, toe count and whether claws show. Key: a stepwise identification key in the order a tracker really works. Measure, count toes, look for claws, then read the gait. The shortlist narrows visibly at every step, so the method is what you learn. Trails: pick any two species and see their trails drawn to the same scale, with stride and straddle called out, plus a reference set of the five gait patterns. Identify: practice rounds of ten. A single print with a ruler, or a whole trail, four options, and feedback that names the one feature which settles it rather than simply saying right or wrong. Progress: per-species mastery, an accuracy line across your recent rounds, and settings. OTHER SIGNS Droppings shape and size, feeding remains such as a gnawed cone, a split hazelnut or a plucked feather pile, burrow and den entrance sizes, and scratch and rub marks, each drawn and described. BUILT TO BE CARRIED Fully offline. No internet connection is used or needed at any point. No adverts, no tracking, no accounts, nothing to buy. No sound at all. Feedback is visual, with optional haptics you can switch off. Progress is stored on your device and survives a restart. Portrait, dark and undemanding on a phone in the field. A NOTE ON HONESTY Substrate changes a print a great deal. The same foot registers differently in deep mud, dry dust, leaf litter and thawing snow, and a melted print in snow can be half again its true size. Measure several prints along a trail rather than trusting one, and read the gait before settling on a name. This is a learning aid, not a safety tool. Do not use it to judge whether an animal is dangerous, and do not approach, dig at or disturb a burrow, den or nest you have found. Note what you saw, leave the ground as you found it, and walk on.