Thursday, December 11, 2008

Animal tracks in the snow at the O.D. Von Engeln Preserve

Last Sunday evening it was snowing softly when I went to bed. I got up early on Monday to find a fine coating of snow like powdered sugar sprinkled on the earth! I love wandering in the woods while it is snowing so I grabbed my camera and tripod and drove east to hike and explore.


I ended up at the O.D. Von Engeln Preserve near Fall Creek. It is an amazing place with creeks, bogs, and wetlands. The trails are well marked and there are platforms that run across the creeks and bogs. It was still snowing when I arrived. The only sound was from wintering birds like chickadee's, cardinals, blue jays and crows.


I found many animal tracks on the frozen creeks and marshes and photographed them. The results can be seen below. I look forward to returning to this special piece of nature!


Red Fox tracks.


Crow?

Crow?



Crow?
Crow and rabbit narrowly avoid collision.
Rabbit tracks. Rabbits make snow angels!




Which way did the rabbit go?

Red Fox.



Rabbits go in and out of a burrow.

Rabbits crossed by Red fox.






Very tiny. A mouse maybe?


Somebody small climbed over a log.

Small critter climbed a log.










Very small creature. Each mark is smaller than a dime.

Side view of a turkey landing and walking off to the left of the image!





The 3 images above show a the remains of a turkey feasting on a winter skunk cabbage bud!


Turkey and red fox tracks side by side

This creature was very small. Each footprint is smaller than a dime.

Turkey's made a north, east, south, west symbol at the bottom of the image.






3 comments:

Paulina said...

excellent!

frankmullerphoto said...

thanks Paulina. It was really fun to follow them and try and imagine their activity. Just think how hard it must be for critters that do not hibernate and have to eek out a living in the woodlands during the long upstate winter!

Frank

stormin said...

Great photos enjoyed them all.