Noticing the year: 02/09/08

[urbpan]

Yesterday was perfect weather for tracking: a small amount of snow overnight, just below freezing during the day so that the tracks didn't melt and distort, and overcast so that photos of the snow didn't white out. Maggie is noticing something. What is it?



Cottontail tracks! Immediately behind her right front foot. Of course, tracking for Maggie is more of an olfactory exercise than a visual one. I used to think that wild rabbits were a rarity in Boston, but it turns out that there's a healthy population of them throughout parts of the Emerald Necklace. The zoo has a ton of them, drawn by the ample bamboo and sumac, and lack of mammalian predators.


The characteristic tail drag marks here identify these as rat tracks. Muskrat tracks also have tail drags.


This four-paw pattern shows a tree squirrel. Actually this photo shows the tracks of two different gray squirrels headed in opposite directions.


These are a little more tricky, but the scale helps: that's a nip bottle there. These little tracks probably belong to a white-footed mouse.


The snow was so perfect for tracking, that you could even see that Charlie needed his nails trimmed.