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RACKS IN SNOW I'm sure you've enjoyed making the first tracks across your yard after a fresh snowfall, and we've all made angels sometime in our younger days, but have you really noticed other sorts of tracks in your yard, the park or a nature preserve? If you have a feeder, you might want to check bird tracks around its base. You may not be able to distinguish between sparrows and finches, but you'll be able to pick out pigeon or mourning dove prints. This is also a good place to practice identifying grey squirrel tracks. North American animals can be divided into four groups based on their tracks:
You may not find deer or moose at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden, but you'll find representatives of the other three groups. Aside from the many dog tracks, you may be able to distinguish those of our fox, who makes nightly rounds. The line of regularly-spaced small paw prints that appears across the pond ice every winter belong to him (or her). Mice and voles are plentiful at the FWG. After a new snowfall, you'll see hundreds of tracks crisscrossing grassy fields, where they've been looking for seeds. Both these species make a four-print, jumping or hopping pattern, but the front paws of mice are usually side by side, whereas the vole's are offset diagonally. Don't forget, the back paws land in front of the tracks made by the front paws. These animals are also very active under the snow. In early spring, you'll see their tunnels eaten out of the dead grass. Tracks of a vole trying to escape from a predatory bird Tracks of a mouse and a Grey Squirrel Squirrel prints also appear in fours. Their pattern resembles the mouse's, but prints are bigger, of course, and the toes point more forward. Rabbit prints are a bit bigger still and the ones made by the back feet are two or three times the length of the front; they have only four toes and the front paws are usually one in front of the other because they always gallop.
Porcupines are less common. They plod through the snow making a pigeon-toed alternating pattern, and in soft snow their body may brush the ground. The one that lives along the Pine Grove Trail in the Greenbelt leaves big messes of nibbled hemlock branches near its hollow tree, which is also conspicuous for other reasons. Sources for this material:
More about identifying trackse-Nature: Identify Mammal Tracks |
You'll see many squirrel tracks around the FWG all winter long as both red and grey species are common. The tracks at the right were made by a red squirrel. The front feet (at the bottom of the photo) have four toes, the back feet have five.