Tracking

My Dad called this morning to ask if Kali had been down the hill in the past 24 hours.  He saw big dog prints on the Spring Road (halfway down our driveway), and wondered if they were from her.

She had not been that far from the house, so I went down myself to check things out.  On the way, I saw rabbit tracks.

Those little guys can really move!  You can see that they can hop further than my biggest stride, which is about 4 feet.

These I think are from a squirrel, as they ended at the base of a tree.

At one point, it also dug in the snow...looking for a buried acorn?

 

I also saw raccoon prints and opossum prints, but they did not photograph well.

When I got to the tracks, they were confusing.  At one point they looked typically canine, which is to say that you can see the toenails in their print. 

 

Here is Kali's print, which is not very clear, but a big larger than those previously.

 

This is Stella's print, quite a bit smaller.

 

Some of the tracks looked more cat-like, meaning they were rounder and did not show claws, as cats retract their claws when walking.  These were about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in size.

These are from our barn kitties, only an inch or slightly less in size.

Since all of the prints down on the Spring Road came from the same animal (they were in the same line of tracks), they had to have been canine, and most likely from a coyote.  At the closest, I found its tracks within 200 feet of the barn (and therefore from the chickens.)  I think it is likely male, as I found urine markings, without signs of squatting.  Perhaps he has had an old injury on one of his hind feet?

I also saw deer tracks.

 

And in the chicken run, I saw the chickens' typical asterisk print.

That is the extent of my afternoon walk in the Poplar Ridge woods!