Prints in the snow

Having continuous snow on the ground allows for the opportunity to take a closer look at all the activity going on around the gardens. This is a time when wild life is unable to easily find the food they need to make it through the winter. Birds especially need help with food when the ground is covered by snow. And now the snow is about two feet deep and covering most of the plant stems of seeds that I left at the end of the season for the birds to eat from throughout the winter.

As the snows come in it becomes necessary to supplement the food that the birds normally have access to. We keep our feeders full and once the snow has taken over we create areas where we can leave seed out for them to get more readily. We use the grill, once it is cleared of snow, as a buffet for all types of bird food, as well as our sun room steps which are protected from the snow. On sunny days I also spread seed our on the section of driveway not reachable by our dog. I spotted a robin sitting in my Autumn Olive buy the driveway accompanied by two Mourning Doves on Thursday. It was a sunny day and they were just huddling in the sunshine trying to get warm.

These are the marks made by birds finding the bird seed we threw out for them on the snow.





It can be quite fun to look for animal tracks in the snow. I actually remembered to take my camera out on a few treks to capture photos of some tracks. These were tracks made by one of our cats heading into the woods from the house. These were easy to identify, but only because the tracks were right out from the house.




As I got away from the house I found others that required closer photos. Those will be the subject of future posts.




These tracks seemed to be those of a squirrel or maybe a rabbit. They will take further investigation, which was very easy to do this year with the snow here to stay for awhile!




Somewhere I have pictures of different tracks for easy identification. Need to locate them!!