Amazing Stories of Tracks

Although many of you are tired of the excessive winter we have been experiencing, it has brought to life the amazing activity that exists within our winter ecosystems. I wish I had started this blog earlier with all the exploits experienced by my son Aiden and pooch Pepper. We take many hikes along the Oakridge Trail system where we can walk our dog Pepper off the leash as no one is around. With consistent new fresh snow dropping down at least twice a week it creates a canvass for animal activity that happens very early in the morning. Although a few other people do visit the trail system because of the constant snow fall the depth of snow accumulation make it difficult to walk without having snowshoes. At times we find the trail compacted by the visiting snowmobiles that use the paths we walk although we rarely run into anyone.

Most times when we arrive at the trials on the weekend the tracks are fresh and we are able to identify quite a few animal species that make the trail and hardwood forests their home. If we are lucky we witness some battles portrait in the tracks where a squirrel or rabbit has crossed paths with a fox or mink. Others show the daily routine of animals visiting food sources or tunnelling through the snow to pop up at the base of tree trunks or fallen logs. In one instance we identified plenty of White-tailed Deer tracks on different sizes that are sometimes paralleled by snowshoe hare tracks. Although I can't imagine a "Bambi" scenario of friendly interactions between deer and rabbit walking down the trail together I would think at some time their paths have crossed.

But the most interesting set of prints and activity happened recently in my front garden earlier this week. When leaving for work I noticed some faint prints by the front door and immediately identified them as a fox. Now in my area in Courtice we have quite a few foxes in the area that consistently move along the street in front of the houses or walking down the middle of the street at night. In the spring a nearby old shed is used by the female to raise many kits at least every other year and the number of kits have been from 7 -9 young. Well I followed the fox tracks about 10ft as it turned away from the house to walk along the front garden bed which is under about 2 ft of snow. That's when I saw the big hole where is had dug down to the soil obviously looking for prey. You may have seen videos or National Geographic programs showing how foxes, like the Arctic Fox, listen for movement under the snow then jump straight up in the air plunging their face in the snow to grab the mouse, vole, lemming...etc. In this case the snow was hard and so I figured they dug down quickly. The tracks then lead to my neighbour's front yard where it looked like a piece of meat was left on top of the snow. I didn't get a chance to identify it as I left for work but the next time I returned it was gone.

I know its been a long winter and likely more still to come but embrace the positive aspects of winter whether its going on a hike, snowshoeing, skiing or imagining the amazing interactions that happen with our wildlife in the winter. Stay warm! Spring is almost here!

Footprints leading from my front door

Some obvious digging activity in my front garden

Footprints leading away from the dug hole