Many nature lovers turn to birding as a hobby and it's relatively easy to understand why. Birds are fairly charismatic, sometimes brash. The males are often brightly colored. At dawn and dusk, they sing which reveals their positions. They fly from branch to branch giving away their position. In short, they are easy to watch.
Mammals on the other hand tend to stay hidden. Many are nocturnal. Many burrow underground are stay hidden moving through the brush or under the snow. Larger mammals like deer, coyote, and fox are certainly findable and some common backyard mammals like Eastern Cottontail Rabbits and Eastern Gray Squirrels are easy to spot. But there is plenty mammalian activity which goes undetected. You need an assist to see some of the activity.
Snow can be a great assistant especially if there's no wind to cause drifting. Mammals moving around at night while you are asleep will leave their tracks behind. So if you are curious to know who else is living in your neighborhood, take a look around outside after a fresh snow. Last night we had a wintery mix which left a crusty ice snow behind. I found some really interesting tracks when I ventured out this morning.
Skunk Tracks with telltale 5 toes.
These alien hand prints belong to the Virginia Opossum
No comments:
Post a Comment