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| Deer Footprint |
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| deer hoof |
Notice in the picture above that there is a space between the marks of the two toes. The part that looks connected is the back of the hoof and the weight of the animal as she places her foot in the snow, makes it look like it connects.
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| Deer Tracks, Going From Right to Left |
One morning we went out to MANY deer tracks in the driveway! It looked like they had a party! Upon closer examination, my supposition was that they were walking down the drive (3 or 4 of them?), hoping to find a place to cut through the yard (not a chance! Our banks are too high!). Upon not finding any cut-through, turned around and went back out. I wondered if they were being chased, but the exiting footprints looked as relaxed as the goes-into prints.
Deer really struggle in deep snow; their feet are small and their legs skinny and they sink. They can get stuck in the deep snow, so just after a big snowfall, you aren't likely to see their tracks. We had four dining on our yew bush (which needs pruning anyway) and below is the entrance track of one of them.
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| Deer Walked in Deep Snow |
In deep snow, sometimes you'll see a series of large holes where the deer jumped from one place to the next. Sometimes, it is possible to identify deer tracks by the small holes that go way down (see below).
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| Deep Deer Track |
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| Deer Scat |
If you see four toes and a pad, but no claw marks, it could be a feline animal because they retract their claws when they walk.
Below are Blake's trotting tracks. The top one is clear. When he walks or trots, his tracks are in a straight line and his back feet land almost exactly on top of where the front one was. When he runs, his back feet are close and move together, as if they were connected by a short rod, but his front feet are a bit wider, so his running track looks different than the one below.
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| Blake's Trotting Tracks |
Squirrels are interesting! They show large feet in the back and smaller feet in the front. If the track is clear, you can see the toes with claws and the imprint of the back part of the foot. The squirrel below was standing still here, or had jumped and landed in this spot.
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| Squirrel |
Squirrels can also be assumed if the track starts or ends at a tree with a little space between the tree and the first track - the squirrel jumped to or from the tree. In the picture below, the black spot near the top is the trunk of a tree and this squirrel was headed toward our bird feeders.
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| Squirrel from the Tree, top left |
Birds tracks are cute! The ones below were under my truck. The birds seem to congregate under the vehicles; I'm not sure why (anyone know??). We have many overgrown bushes for better roosting places and we don't put food under the vehicles, although I suppose it makes a decent resting place out of the wind and snow. Each bird type has a different foot pattern. Most are three toes in the front and a fourth behind. (Woodpeckers have a two and two arrangement to better cling to the tree, but you aren't likely to find them on the ground.)
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| Bird Tracks |
Yes, that is blood in the center of the picture; the dark spots are grey fur. Notice the tracks leading to the disruption in the snow from the upper left corner? The squirrel jumped off the tree (it was heading toward the bird feeders for breakfast) and was intercepted by a red-tailed hawk looking for her breakfast. If you look carefully around the center hole, you can see feather marks: to the left of the bloody hole are flat & pointed marks made by her spread tail, perhaps as the hawk landed to capture the squirrel. To the right are wing tip marks - looking a lot like fingers. I am guessing that those were made as I disrupted breakfast by coming to fill the feeders; at that moment, the hawk lifted up out of the snow, carrying her meal to some place safer for dining, thus the wingtip prints in the snow.
Below, the tracks on the pond tell more benign stories, most of which we can't see clearly from the bank. One of my suppositions, though, is that the dark spot, right center, with a well worn path next to it and footsteps coming closer to it at this end, show the watering hole. Whose tracks? Hard to tell without being close, but it is obviously a busy thoroughfare. The pond has been frozen for several weeks, so parts are very solid. The hole could very well be made by the muskrats coming up and then used by the land animals. Suzanne saw a large coyote on the pond several days ago (and we saw a coyote chasing deer last year), the fishers use the pond road, and we frequently see fox (although our local fox has been very sick with mange. It was looking better this fall, but did not have the usual thick and shiny fur. We have not seen it all winter; it may not have survived this cold weather.) Deer likely drink from closer to shore (there are several open holes there), as their feet are so small and bodies so heavy, they know they would likely break through the ice. Some tracks could also be squirrels or birds or other smaller critters.
Much goes on near our houses that we never see, and can only be surmised by the stories in the snow.
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| Stearns Mill Pond |
