January 30th, 2020 was the first time I ever visited Redstone Quarry. The towering rock faces left me in awe, as did the spectacular ice structures which coat the rocks, only in the coldest weather. Up close, you could see and hear the water melting delicately down the rocks’ surface. Birds chirped peacefully as I walked through this wet winter wonderland and gray squirrels danced in the barron trees.

The first tracks I stumbled upon are most definitely that of a gray or red squirrel, though if I had to choose one my best guess is gray. These animals are plentiful in this area especially and furthermore the tracks seem to be longer than those of a traditional red squirrel. The tracks are in groups of 4 and are relatively small, all characteristic of squirrels.

The above set of tracks was left by a “bounder”, an animal who places pairs of tracks on a diagonal, sometimes leaving only three tracks at a time. Some bounders include weasels, minks, martens, fisher cats and otters; only two of these options match the sizing criteria for the tracks that I found. Being that the tracks have a straddle of about 6cm, they have been left either by a weasel (with a straddle of approximately 4cm)  or a Mink (with a straddle of about 7cm).

This set of tracks was particularly exciting for me. As a diagonal walker with a straddle of about 7cm, this track could easily be from a gray or red fox. However, domesticated dogs are a lot more common than foxes and will have identical walking patterns to foxes, once the tracks have sat for a while and melted a bit into the ground.