Showing posts with label keep eyes open. Show all posts
Showing posts with label keep eyes open. Show all posts

3/19/13

Critter Tracks

After a nice, hard rain, there's a section of dirt and gravel that is near the bridge and curves around down to the creek. I've seen tracks and last week I decided to take a picture of them.

I know there are beavers and racoons along this creek because I've seen the coon and I've seen the toppled trees from the beavers. But I've also seen what I thought was a mink. And I'm sure there are opossums, since I've had them in my backyard about a mile away.

Here are the tracks:
Then I took a close-up of a pair and laid my key next to it to give me an idea of what size they were. My key measures 2 inches.
So then I start looking for images of what this critter might be and found these charts.

And no, they weren't dog tracks. The dog tracks usually are on parts of the trail that get muddy, but not this area. Since it was a weekday after a nice rain, I'm pretty sure these were uncontaminated.

Looking at these pictures on the second chart, I would guess that it was some sort of woodchuck, though its track pattern was more like the prints on the lower right corner. How about a weasel?

What do y'all think? Any suggestions?

Later, Peeps!