Animal Tracks in the Snow and Winter Walk Off

It's cold outside! Brrrrr! While the south and most of the country is in a deep freeze I thought this would be the perfect time to share some snow track pictures. 

Ever wonder what animals roam around your house? It's hard to find out unless you see or hear them. With the recent snow I went for a nice snow walk along our property trails and wow, what fun! The animals have been busy roaming around. Just look at all the deer tracks along our trail in the woods. The funny thing is while I know the deer are here I never see them.

I find rabbit scat quite often so I definitely know they are here. Their paw prints are rather cute. The wider footprints would be their hind legs with their front paws the smaller prints. In the above picture this rabbit would be coming toward the camera.

More rabbit prints.

I am not sure what made these prints but I surmise it was a squirrel. I see squirrels all the time. Sometimes there will be five running all around a tree in the forest.

Deer prints along the trail.

This trail travels down a long and fairly steep hill. It is apparently a favorite haunt of the deer as we can tell from all these prints. I don't blame them because hey, it's cleared! I was surprised I did not find some turkey prints here. We like our trails so we can get around the property but there is also another reason for trails--they are good for wildlife and can be a part of a conservation plan. 

When walking in our woods for the first time we (Mr. Fix-it and I) followed deer trails. At the time we were not familiar with the all the man made trails and they were mostly overgrown anyhow. Any trail where you don't have to walk into greenbriar is great and the deer and other wildlife think so too. Following deer trails help prevent snags in briar of all sorts as we found out. At some point we'll be able to clear most of our trails where we can have access to all of the property. 

Note the skid mark on the right side of the picture? Even deer can lose their footing on slippery hills.

This is an up close picture of the deer prints. The size of the deer was quite variable. I could tell there were little ones and big ones.

I have no idea what made these prints and if any of you all know please chime in. Maybe a bird of some kind? We have hawks, vultures, crows, and all sorts of birds. If a bird made these tracks it was possibly a big bird.

These are cat prints. I have three cats and from time to time they venture out into the snow-tho they don't stay long! When I walked out to the mailbox one of the cats followed me for a bit. His tracks were quite different from this as he was jumping along behind me instead of walking. I followed some of the cat tracks and they went straight to a wood pile where a rabbit and voles live. No surprise there.

It is said when you visit a place like the forest you should "Take nothing but pictures (or memories),  leave nothing but your footprints, kill nothing but time." I don't know who came up with this but it very fitting for nature walks. I take this very seriously. If you do this then in return you will be rewarded tenfold by the beauty and special moments found....

in the garden....

I am going to enter this post in Les's Winter Walk Off post as this one works and is timely. It has been awhile since I participated in his walk offs but this will be the year now that we are finally getting settled. Les has beautiful photographs of the Tidewater area of Virginia. Visit his Winter Walk Off post here. 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden