TRACKS IN THE SNOW

I'm supposed to be working, but what good is it to be semi-retired if you can't go look at nature?!?  I had been thinking about going down to the pond to see if there were any tracks in the new snow, but started working and was studiously avoiding checking my email every time it dinged, consequently missed Suzanne's email:
"There is a very beautiful fox out on the frozen pond.  Been watching for 10 min. he’s just hanging out, meandering around, stopping to sniff in the snow now and then or just standing still.   Healthy looking."

DANG!  I have been looking up at the feeder every once in a while, to look at the bluebirds or nuthatches or other visitors.  (Had a gorgeous red-breasted nuthatch the other day! Have seen it before, but not for as long, with such a great viewing!)

I finally got up from my computer and took my camera on a walk to the pond.  Suzanne was right - there were MANY fox paths!  A couple up in the yard, too.  (One has me suspect that perhaps the fox got a squirrel for breakfast, but it might have been tracks at two separate times.)

In the lower left corner, you can see the imprint of the pads on the above pix.  (I am not a tracker, but I am assuming these are fox tracks, as they are canine looking and Suzanne saw a fox wandering around on the pond.)

The tracks lead over to the area where I have seen scat and where I think the fox had a den in past years, but most of the tracks were more "wandering" than this set (see below)

Yesterday, I saw the resident Cooper's Hawk on the branch outside the kitchen window.  It is so much smaller than that big accipiter Linda, Carol & I saw last week!  I heard back from Marj Rines (who really knows her birds) who said she thinks it is a Coopers, not a Goshawk.  She's probably right, but I'm gonna keep watching!  The fun is in the looking more than the IDing.
:-)