This week, I decided to explore the around lakeside bike path for animal tracks, scat, and sightings.

I started my journey near the ECHO Center, but didn’t have much luck finding any tracks until I got much farther onto the path. As I walked down the path I found many dog prints, a few of which had frozen over, so the prints themselves were made out of ice and surrounded by snow.

I suspect that these tracks belonged to two (different) dogs since the first set were about 2-2.5 inches long, the second set were about 1.5-2 inches long, and both had a diagonal walking track pattern and more of an H shape in between the toe pads. While taking a closer look, I was also able to find a few claw marks at the tips of the toes that are consistent with the nails of domestic dogs.

I also found what I assume to be dog scat, as it was more of a cylindrical, caterpillar shape and did not have any coating on the scat. It was also a darker brown color, consistent with the average color od domestic dog scat.

I was also able to see a few American Robins while on my walk. I was able to conclude that the bird in the picture (while not pictured well because it kept moving) was an American Robin because of its gray/black back and wings, burnt orange chest, and yellow/golden beak.