Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Tracks in the Snow

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, Ol' Spot an' me been doin' a fair bit o' walkin' down to the soybean field lately. The mud and water's all froze up so Ol' Spot don't get too dirty.

This mornin', I was especially proud of Ol' Spot. He was a ways ahead o' me -- about 70-100 metres, or so -- when I seen him light out after something. I hollered fer Spot to stop an' danged if he didn't do just like he was supposed to. When he stopped, I seen three good-sized white tail deer headin' fer the old railway track bed. They was closer to Ol' Spot than I was.

If Ol' Spot had chased after them deer, he'd probbly still be runnin' an' I'd be out huntin' fer a lost border collie. Ol' Spot's growin' up, I reckon. He oughta be. He's about 4 an' a half, now. Here's a pitcher of ol' Spot right near where we seen the deer this mornin'.

Ma was readin' in the Brantford Suppositor how to tell coyote tracks from dog tracks. We got quite a few coyotes around here so that's a handy thing to know. The coyotes walk puttin' the back foot right exactly where the front foot went. That means they make tracks that look like this:

I was in the fresh snow when I seen these this mornin'. There weren't any human tracks nearby. These were from early this mornin' and from a dog-like critter about the same size as Ol' Spot. I'm callin' 'em coyote tracks.

Here's what dog tracks look like. There's 4 footprints fer every two from the coyote. Ol' Spot's about the same size as a coyote.

Another kinda track I see out in the soybean field is mouse tracks. Here's some mousie footprints:
An' then there's the all terrain vehicles an' snowmobiles. Here's some quad tracks:
Looks like the poor little mouse wasn't fast enough. Some critter'll come along an' make a meal outta the little feller, I figger. That's a JimBobby track at the lower left.

JB

4 comments:

Kyle said...

As a former resident of Brantford (born and raised) I think I can speak with some authority when I say, anything that comes out of the Brantford Suppository should be checked against other sources for accuracy. There is a good chance that the article you mention is really several years old, likely decades old, and there is newer and more accurate information available. I realize I have digressed from the point of your posting but oh well...

Saskboy said...

Careful, you don't want people to think you're that small dead animals site, do ya?

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Thankee fer chimin' in, fellers. Yeah, Kyle, we take our Suppositor with a grain of salt. Ouch!

Sasky, dang!! I hadn't thought about the SDA connection. Ouch!

JB

Anonymous said...

Hello Dear, are you really visiting this website regularly, if
so afterward you will without doubt obtain fastidious know-how.


Look into my weblog - acoustic guitar chords for beginners