Sunday, January 13, 2013

Well had to think twice about about a hike this morning, could barely see the truck in the driveway. It didn't take long to convince myself to go. You are not going to get any photo ops sitting at home. Dawn was just setting in when I passed the gate. The plan today would be to walk slowly towards one of my favorite swamps. Snow was soft and walking was quiet.
Blankets of fog would move in and out limiting visibility. I was surprised to see nobody had walked this cart road since the last time it snowed. Great ! Hope to find some interesting tracks and maybe see a moose. This hike would give up my first set of fox tracks. In the miles hiked to date, I have not seen a grey or red fox. Continuing on the cart road showed numerous deer , several moose and an occasional coyote track. I did find what I was looking when reaching a change of hardwoods to thicker cover. A bobcat ( tracks ) had entered the side of the cart road and leaped across .
There are four tracks below. When the cat leaped and landed, the upper tracks exaggerated from the paws coming down on wet snow landed inside the first tracks.
The best bobcat tracks I have found to date were located while hiking in Southern VT a few years back.
 
Locating and identifying tracks adds another dimension to hiking and taking wildlife pictures. I am not an expert by any means, but enjoy the challenge with identifying tracks.
Jim