Snow tracks!

The snow came as expected overnight and this morning much of New Jersey was blanketed with enough snow to justify the school closings made last night. We got almost 10" here at The Homestead and it was a beautiful sight to look out and see Mother Nature's latest blanket covering the landscape in a fluffy white comforter. At sunrise, the snowscape of The Homestead wasn't marred by a single human footprint, but there was evidence of foot traffic around the property from deer.

Yesterday, Luke and Sarah were absolutely fascinated with each set of footprints they found in the snow near the pond's edge. The rapid fire of questions like, "What kind of animal made these tracks, Auntie?" and "Auntie, do you think these are deer tracks or raccoon tracks?" gave me pause to wonder if we were there for ice skating or a nature walk. But as the photos testify, I eventually managed to get their skates onto their feet. This morning, I thought I would take a few pictures of the deer prints and email them, but along the way, the idea of a blog entry got the better of me, so today, we'll tour the Homestead and see what evidence of wildlife we can find.....

First off, just outside the backdoor, there are large bounding prints belonging to a playful animal looking for his morning playmates; the birds and the squirrels. Well, the birds and squirrels didn't get come out to play and I'm not really sure they like playing with the creature that makes these kinds of tracks in the snow as much as they like teasing this animal.

Hmmm, who could it be that makes these kinds of tracks so close to the house?It's Jake, of course!

On my way out to get a closer shot of the prints the deer left, I turned around and got a shot of Auntie tracks that had some Jake tracks weaving around them.

These intersecting lines are paths the deer made in the snow.

I guess deer don't always like to follow one another and sometimes like to make their own paths in the snow.
Getting closer to the deer trails you can see the places where their legs sunk into the snow. I guess they like to make lots of trails like Jake.

The snow is too deep to get pictures of their actual footprints.
But you can tell were they traveled!

Jake is enjoying himself as he gets out closer to where the deer were. He has got to be the loneliest dog in the world. Even if the deer had been here, they would have run away from Jake.

Can you tell which tracks belong to Auntie, which belong to Jake and which belong to the deer?

Let's see what we can find over in the driveway where Grandpop did some snowblowing.....If you think this belongs to Jake, you are right!

Hey, Grandpop's truck leaves tire prints!Anybody who has ever been to Freeport, ME will probably know these boots belong to the L.L.Bean Gumshoe Boot. This pair belongs to Grandpop!

This print belongs to Auntie's pink Muckboots she got last spring. They keep her toes warmer then the Gumshoe boots ever could and she doesn't even have to wear an extra pair of socks!
This afternoon, I wondered if I could find some rabbit tracks, but when I ventured outside, I found out all the little bunnies were burrowed down for the day. I did find some other interesting prints though.....

I found these tracks very close to the bird feeder.

And these were there, too!

(Maybe if Auntie had taken a class in ornithology - which is the word for bird identification - in college instead of dendrology - which is the word for tree identification - she would know which bird made which tracks. But she didn't so she doesn't know.)
I found these deer tracks out near the front stream, do you think they look like the tracks I saw this morning? These must be more deer tracks!
Oh, my goodness! Those are some rather strange tracks. And they are very big! Let's see if we can get a closer look.......
Well, that is a very strange track in the snow. Hmmm, what do you think could make a print that looks like that?

Oh! It's Auntie! But those aren't Muckboots making the prints this time, those are snowshoes! They let her walk on top of the snow so it is easier to walk in the snow.

But Jake isn't interested in walking in Auntie's snow shoe prints, he still likes going his own way!
Jake and Grandpop had a great time playing in the snow this afternoon. Grandpop would throw the tennis ball to Jake.....

And then Jake would find it in the snow

And then play 'keep away' once he found it. Jake likes that game even if there isn't snow on the ground!
Too bad the last grocery list didn't have "Moose Tracks" on it, ice cream would be a wonderful treat tonight!