Animals Leave Clues In The Winter Woods

Tracking coyotes in the snow at the Middlesex Fells in Stoneham.

Walking through Stoneham's Middlesex Fells in late January, a day after a light snowfall, it finally felt like winter after a cold, rainy and muddy season unusual for the Boston area. The soft, wet ground was now hard and covered with an inch of snow.

Spring and summer migratory birds such as the Baltimore Thrush and Oriole thrive in warmer climates. Their obsessive songs include the occasional "Chickadee Dee Dee" tit and "JJ" blue jay chirp. remote alarm

I did not see any animals, but squirrel tracks in the snow indicated their presence. The straight dog-shaped leg, one in front of the other, tells the story of a passing coyote. According to an article in Backpacker magazine, "How to Recognize Animal Tracks in the Snow," coyotes are "perfect pacers," meaning they place their hind feet in the tracks of their front feet, creating a single footprint on the trail. Foxes are also ideal steppers, but their footprint is smaller.

The coyote trail runs through the forest, among the pines and greenery. The greenery was bare, without leaves, like most of the trees and shrubs in the forest at this time of year, but their trunks were green, a distant reminder of summer.

Sometimes I look up as I walk, hoping to see a coyote leaving tracks, but it may have been walking through this forest last night in the dark.

Hare tracks in the snow next to coyote tracks indicate that the predator may have been driven off. Interestingly, the larger footprints of the hare's hind feet are located in front of the smaller front feet. When rabbits jump, they land on their feet first, and then their hind feet touch the ground before their front feet, Buckpacker says. The same is true for squirrels, which also tend to jump to the ground.

The interweaving of thorny trees in the area provided the rabbit with protection from predators such as coyotes and foxes. Having fallen into a trap and trying to free myself from barbed wire, I can attest to its effectiveness as a deterrent.

Coyote tracks disappeared in one area and reappeared in another. I followed the coyote trail for a bit, then returned to the main trail.

A young man running down the icy path a hundred yards away nodded and waved his hand. Despite the fact that it was about 30 degrees, he was wearing only sports shorts and a T-shirt. he must be a braver man than me.

I stood looking at the spring pool. These temporary pools are filled with rainwater and meltwater and are used by amphibians such as frogs and salamanders in the spring, and by invertebrates such as dragonflies to breed until the pools dry up in summer. I frequent this pond in March and April when loons and tree frogs call for a mate during their spring breeding ritual. Now it was covered with a thin layer of ice, and the button bushes that temporarily filled most of this half-acre pond looked bare and disheveled. In summer, the six-foot bushes will be covered in green leaves, and the eponymous clusters of white globular flowers will attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

The view of the frozen pond reminds me of walking along the banks of Little Creek, a stream that flows across from the Quantico Marine Base golf course in northern Virginia, as a 12-year-old boy, when there was too much c. me To my surprise, I saw giant frogs swimming under the ice. I think cold-blooded animals like frogs hibernate in the mud in the winter, but perhaps the frogs want spring on those cold winter days just as much as I do.

It's hard to believe that in just a few months these spring ponds will be brimming with life as the first warm spring rains wake up the amphibious army from their hibernation under the frozen leaves and forest floor. After hatching, yellowtail frogs, wood frogs, and spotted salamanders visit the ponds annually to mate and lay their eggs. Hundreds of spring watchers will raise a deafening chorus of piercing whistles interspersed with the croaking of wood frogs.

But so far it was relatively quiet in the forest.

I remembered what I needed to do and continued walking towards my car. At that moment, I remembered a line from Robert Frost's poem "Standing on the edge of a snowy night." , drive a few miles before going to bed."