Mouse Tracks
Fox Tracks
Bounding Deer Tracks
The snow is helping reveal the secret lives of the forest animals that live around us. There are lots of deer tracks of course; you can even see where a deer has jumped the garden fence to browse on our unharvested and now frozen brussel sprouts. Deer don't really like the brussel sprouts; they left them alone all Summer and Fall, but it's Winter and the deer can't be choosy about food. It's no surprise that there are lots of deer tracks since there are lots of deer here. We expect to see their tracks along their preferred paths, but sometimes they surprise us. Like the one that came down down the hill within a few feet of the house. The bottom photo shows the tracks of a good sized deer that was bounding along in the deep snow up on the old logging trail I walk on. The second photo shows some fox tracks. There is at least one fox, probably two, that live along the river and I see fox tracks regularly. The first photo is of mouse tracks. I saw them over by the pond. Mice and voles have a rough time during the Winter. Besides the relative lack of food, they are the prey for everything from owls to mink to foxes. I guess that's why mice reproduce so quickly; they're getting eaten by other animals at an astounding rate.
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