Tag Archives: snow

Hubbard Fellowship Blog – Mystery Tracks in the Snow

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This is a guest blog by Eliza Perry, one of our Hubbard Fellows.  All photos are by Eliza.

Last week I needed to check the fences around one of our properties. I only needed to walk a quarter of it to see that we had a lot of work to do.

During my travels, I found two mysterious tracks that I hope you all can help me identify. I stumped even Chris! (YES)

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See those weird claw-like marks? There were only these three sets of them, and they
were next to a bunch of small, amorphous tracks.  The tracks were bigger than cat tracks and smaller than dog tracks.

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Here’s a closer shot.

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The next mystery was this long trail. Chris suggested it was a collapsed vole tunnel,
but it is linear and vole tunnels seem to fork into many different smaller
tunnels. To me, it looked like something was dragging its belly, like a snake.

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Here’s it is a little closer, at a point that does look like a collapsed tunnel. But the rest of it was just an indentation on the snow.

Do you have any ideas?

Photo of the Week – February 13, 2014

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When I went for a walk in the fresh snow last week, the temperature was 10 degrees below zero (F) and I didn’t expect to see much evidence of wildlife activity.  I was wrong.

mouse hole

A hole in the snow gives away the location of a mouse den.  Springer Basin Waterfowl Production Area – west of Aurora, Nebraska.

I found tracks of mice scattered here and there throughout much of the wetland area I was exploring.  I looked, but didn’t see obvious evidence that the mice had been feeding – though I assume that was the point of their frigid outings.

Despite the abundance of tracks, it took me a while to find a set of tracks that I could turn into a decent photo.  The tops of the tiny snow drifts were bathed in beautiful early morning light, but were crusty enough that the mice had barely made any imprint as they crossed them.  The tracks through lower areas were nicely defined, but were in shadows deep enough that photography was difficult.

Mouse tracks

Mouse tracks in fresh snow provide evidence of activity even in temperatures well below zero.

I finally found a set of tracks I thought would work, so I flopped down on the snow and put my wide-angle lens close to the ground to take some mouse-height photos.  As I laid there, I wondered how barefooted mice managed to stay warm as they trekked across the snow in such extreme cold.  Then, without any answers, but grateful for my nice warm boots and insulated coveralls, I headed back to the truck – making nice deep tracks in the snow as I went.

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