Keeping Track

[mondhasen]

One of the nice things about snow is how it shows up animal movement: tracks, silhouettes, and even scat. There were deer tracks all around the yard this morning, front, sides, and back. Some sets were in pairs, with large sets along with tiny ones; some trails showed evidence of three and four deer walking through. I saw one of these deer last night after hearing deliberate, crunching paw-steps out in the dark. Suddenly this shadow leaps by and I got to watch her/him trotting off down the road, silhouetted in the moonlight and by the snow, and briefly lit by the street lamp glow.

We also had fox prints along the dogs' fenced yard. These right-angled to and then paralleled along the wire for about 100', stopping and circling a bit by my derelict truck and near where there are bunny tracks, and scat. The rabbit likes to 'go' almost next to the fence in defiance of the pups.

The rabbit, I assume it is the same, can be seen within the fenced yard as well. He was also silhouetted recently among some brambles in, yes, a briar patch, nibbling on vines at dusk. The tracks, and scat, are all around, and the little 'part beagle' dog races along trying to locate this fellow. She spooked him one night and he brushed past my leg as he zig-zagged away from her and into another little thicket. I coaxed her away and he fled out the back corner of the enclosure (the dog yard is approximately 100 feet deep by 100 feet wide).

There are also myriad mouse, squirrel, and bird tracks to be seen. It's nice to know all these critters are about and I love to live among them.

Comments

[spottyfawn.livejournal.com]

Sounds so wonderful...so many different animals visiting you!

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

The snow really gives away a lot of stealthy critters' movements :D I'm always surprised at how much 'wildlife' still roams the area.

[moxie_man]

I see similar when I get out to the family woodlot, but it's been a while as it's about 20 miles from where I currently live and 10 miles from the folks' place. 23 acres of former fields reclaimed by nature.

I don't see so much here in the "city" (Augusta has a population of 17 or 18,000, that swells to 60,000 during weekdays). I'm sure this is partially due to the neighborhood cats. I'll occasionally hear a red or gray squirrel call out in distress from the tiny patch of woods across the street. About once a month or so, a small flock of turkeys passes through the neighborhood. Other than your standard flocks of small birds looking for food, that's about it.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My family moved 'out here' in 1967 (we formerly lived closer to town in a platt generated by the baby boom). The whole area had been farms and my shrub-and-tree filled lot was being hayed then. Growing up I may have seen one deer about three miles up the road, and one fox in a neighbor's field. As the land around us became developed the woodland critters started showing up more: hunting was restricted and the area behind us was too wet and/or rocky to build on. Now one can see the deer all over town, as well as plenty of rabbits, skunks, raccoons, and opossums, and even turkey's, down by the library.

The deer follow the old waterways that haven't been piped and buried, like ancient forest roads. I saw a magnificent stag one evening down near our now-old platt, coming out of a stream bed to cross into the swamp fed by the water. I've also seen fishers down there (and here in my yard, actually).