I’m back in Burlington so you know what that means…another Salmon Hole blog post! I was so excited to go back to what has become one of my favorite spots to walk to in Burlington. I was a bit worried going into it that I wasn’t going to see many signs of animal activity, since most of the snow had been melted by the recent rainfall. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the presence of multiple different animal tracks in the slush. While following the tracks of one particular animal (which I believe was either a large dog or potentially a coyote), I strayed away from my usual spot. However, I still noticed some changes since my last visit in the area that I normally stay in. For one, all of the buckthorn had finally lost their leaves, and some of the Northern Red Oaks were still holding on to their last bits of foliage. I also noticed that mosses, liverworts, and lichens were continuing to thrive in the wet and rocky environment that is the Salmon Hole despite the seasonal drop in temperature.
Moss (left) liverwort (middle) and lichen (right) making their presence known during the cold winter weather
Once I started to walk away from the path I usually go, though, is where things started to get really exciting. Like I mentioned before, the tracks of a larger mammal really stood out to me. It was really thrilling getting to take out my mammal tracking guide and following the prints in the snow until I couldn’t anymore. It made me wonder where the animal was going and why. It was really cool to try and put myself in a coyote’s shoes and think about what they’d be doing.
Tracks off the beaten path next to my mammal tracking guide. Assuming these aren’t dog prints, I believe they’re from a coyote (this could make sense due to their adaptability to areas that have higher human presence)
Another set of prints I found walking in the direction of the Winooski river. These were somewhat melted and so they were a bit hard to identify but looked a lot to me like squirrel tracks.