Wildlife in Burlington
･:*:｡☃︎𓏲ּ For this post, I am not returning to my neck of the woods, yet exploring some of the other wooded areas scattered throughout Burlington. I chose to go into the mysterious woods behind my dorm for this assignment, as they have always allured to me but I had never gone. I went at the beginning of sunset, and it was gorgeous. I expected there to not be many signs of winter wildlife, but I was presently surprised.
Immediately, I was greeted with some snowed-in tracks. I am unsure what they are from, as the snow layered on top of it makes the print no more than a pattern of indents within the snow. Shortly after that, I also believe I had encountered some possibly white-tailed deer tracks, as the smaller heart shaped snow print reminds me of the deer tracks I had seen on our Jericho tracing lab. I also believe I had encountered some Fisher tracks, due to the wider footprint width to that of a dog as well as the general shape and size, which would make sense due to the body of water within the wooded area I was in.
Further into the wooded area, I encountered a long trail of small tracks headed to the pond in the area. They are hard to identify, but I am going to assume that it is either a squirrel or another small rodent species that would inhabit the area due to the small size of the tracks.
After finding this interesting path of tracks that I could not continue to follow, I stumbled upon some more white-tailed deer tracks, as well as what look to be the tracks of a domesticated dog from the laziness of the pattern and the too-familiar paw print of a pet.
Overall, I am hugely grateful for this prompt as I was able to explore a new area of Burlington close to “home”, and see how wildlife persists even in the smallest patches of woodland across the greater region. This has inspired me to look for tracks wherever I go, as wildlife is often more places than we imagine them to be.
