I’ve always loved watching for footprints and tracks in the snow.  It’s rare to know the story behind them.  What critter made them?  Where were they headed?  Sometimes the print is clear, sometimes not so much.

I was sure I saw a wolf one day.  I checked out prints after it left.  There were tracks coming up the hill and then going off into the trees.   The snow was fresh and fluffy so hard to tell but maybe not big enough for a wolf?

Sometimes there are enough hints to speculate.   I hiked at a lake over the summer where I’d been told to watch for moose.   I don’t get up early, especially while camping, like mooses do, but found some fun prints in the sand along the lake.  I can’t read “sign”, but a smaller print over a big print should mean a baby is following close behind mama, right?  They were just coming out of the trees for a drink, right? Looks like a little bird tagged along.  I took some fun pics of those and included some of mine and Coco’s.

Deer leave pretty obvious prints but I still wonder what the story is.  Why are they going from here to there and not somewhere else?  What do they think is over there?  All I know of is a fenced property and a road.  I guess there’s no reason for them not to check it out, could find food anywhere.

Sometimes tracks look like there was a traffic jam.   In this pic the deer prints do not overlap the turkey prints so did they pass each other without leaving this narrow path? 

Turkey prints are fun.  They look like they’re pointing one direction but the turkey is actually going the other direction, except in this pic it looks like nobody knew where they were going!  What was happening?

I saw wet prints at the river the other day.  No dog or anything in site.  I don’t think a ghost dog would leave tracks?

We walked along abandoned train tracks this week.  Guessing they’ve been there 80 some years and I’d love to hear their stories.  Who came and went?  How much copper or gold rolled over them?  Did they get a break in the winter?  Guessing at this point those old tracks are too tired to tell stories, they’ve had enough.

One morning out my back door I found this – teeny bird prints in snow that was melting by the dog house. Not sure how this happened but they left me a little heart – how precious is that?

It’s going to snow later this week.  We’ll be out looking and making our own prints again!