For this post I did not return to my phenology spot, and instead I went to the Aiken Forestry lab on Spear Street. I went here in a hope to see some sort of wildlife sign.
However, I only saw one track while I was there. It is what I believe to be a cottontail rabbit.
I believe it to be a cottontail rabbit because the tracks are in a gallop pattern. What also points towards the track belonging to a rabbit is the fact that the feet are not parallel to each other and instead are in more of a diagonal pattern. This points towards the tracks belonging to a ground dweller instead of a tree dweller like a squirrel.
The tracks also likely didn’t belong to a mouse as the tracks were a few inches long, and the stride was far too large to be a mouse, being around a foot long. The tracks were also not big enough to be a snowshoe hare which means it was likely a cottontail.
I also saw some birds while I was out there, including chickadees, a hawk, and what was likely a tufted titmouse.