What the Snow Reveals

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Jasper joins in, following Lilah. His long moose legs drag though the drifts, even when he’s running.  A smart (and admittedly lazy) boy, Jasper will run in Lilah’s path, so he doesn’t have to work quite as hard.

A walk in the woods behind my house uncovers evidence that the foxes have returned to den here. With legs shorter than Lilah’s, a fox bounds through the snow as well, leaping over logs, searching for food.

When the snow is not quite as deep, foxes leave more doglike prints. Here, a fox is using one of our makeshift bridges to cross a creek.

Up close, it’s easier to see the fox paw impressions.

Squirrels make it easy to read their trails; their large hind paws and tiny handlike forepaws are an open book, particularly when the trail leads to or from a large tree trunk. The squirrels stay busy in the winter, proving to me that they actually do look for dinner in places other than my convenient squirrel–oops, I mean bird–feeders.

Deer, with long legs like Jasper, drag their feet through the snow; about a half-dozen of them have created a trail among the trees.

Up close, a deer print is somewhat obvious, as it is the only hoofed creature that lives in the neighborhood.

The deer in our woods are more numerous than squirrels; only a day after a fresh snowfall, there are so many overlapping trails that it’s a bit of a challenge to try to figure out who went where, when, and with whom.

Of course, my walk through the woods also leaves a trail; perhaps snow shoes would have made the jaunt a tad less of a slog.

By my patio, where my dozen or so birdfeeders hang, I can tell the ground feeding birds have been very busy, hopping about and scratching through the snow for the seed I’ve scattered.

 

In the front yard, I was a little puzzled by a tiny trail of prints that travel lightly over my perennials. Like the elf Legolas (see Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein) who could walk on top of the snow, the maker of these tracks travels on gentle feet.  It is probably one of my neighbor’s cats, who are known to prowl through my landscaping.

 

And Jasper and Lilah add their own chapters to the snow stories. Below is a tale of two friends playing; with a squint and a little imagination, I see a heart drawn with paws.