Secret Paths Revealed

Wild turkey and squirrel prints in Gobble, Gobble. Published by Dawn Publications, 2011.


robin tracks
I love going out into the woods in winter to look for animal tracks. In wet snow, the solid tracks of deer leave their two-toed trails all through the woods. After a light snow, it's easy to spot even the delicate prints of birds and mice.

If conditions are right, you can find "reverse prints"-- tracks formed when the animal's footprints compacted the snow. When the snow begins to melt away, these areas, because they've been compressed, melt more slowly. The tracks become raised areas like these deer prints:

Voles tunnel under the snow. When the top layer melts, their secret trails, looking like a maze of highways, are revealed:

Same tree... a week apart

Strange weather, here in Maine. I don't know what the critters are thinking, but this little Hawthorne tree near the pond must have been pretty shocked.

Turkey Crossing

A parade of turkeys crossed the snow-heaped pond today, leaving zig-zag trails.

Races

The frozen pond provides a great short-cut for critters. These parallel tracks make me believe that they have secret races... deer? turkeys?

Frosty pond

The first snow of the season fell Saturday evening, and

ice sealed the pond. Frogs and turtles are all tucked into the mud until Spring!