For this assignment, I explored beyond my phenology site and Centennial Woods. I walked to the Intervale Center, an organization located along the Winooski River that has small farms, conserved land with trails, and a native tree nursery!
It had snowed for the past couple days before we visited the Intervale, so I was hoping we would see lots of tracks! We didn’t see as many as I was expecting, but it was still a lot of fun to go somewhere else, and we did still see some cool tracks!
While this track doesn’t look very fresh and has lost some detail, I think it may be from a wild turkey. The toe drag marks (vertical in the right image) and the long front toe led me to this ID.
I saw another snow mystery that I hadn’t seen before:
I think this strange, even line in the snow may be from an underground tunnel, probably built by a small rodent.
Speaking of rodents…..
I think that these tracks are from a shrew. It looks like it emerged from a little thicket and sat under a log. Shrew feet are all around 5-6 mm, and these tracks are very small. There’s also a clear tail drag line between the feet, which is another clue that makes me think it’s a shrew. The tracks are all pretty much the same size, so I don’t think it’s a mouse.
I also saw something that probably loves to eat shrews.
Based on the track size, diagonal track pattern, and x-shape in the track, I think this is a red fox.
A tracking session wouldn’t be complete without a grey squirrel (or grey squirrel track) sighting! The larger hind feet look about 5 cm long, and the front feet aren’t staggered, so even though the tracks are old, I think it’s still a pretty safe bet to ID them as a grey squirrel.
Unlike the grey squirrel tracks, this was not something I was used to seeing. I think it may be a collapsed/melted version of what I thought was a tunnel (from previous photos), but I’m not sure. It’s only about 2cm wide.
I’m not really sure what this is, but I think it may be a bobcat. It looks about 6cm long, which is the right length for a bobcat track. The toe pad also looks like the right shape, with the sides kind of scooping in and then two bumps on the top.
I found using iNaturalist to be very easy. The top row of observations in this image are mine! I think it’s a very cool platform, and I hope to get to use it more intensively in the future!
