Footfall

One practical use of the snow: a way to track visitors. For example, a lone javelina (above), though I'm surprised at the drag marks.

More unusual -- an invasion, well, at the least, a family of racoons who left three distinct trails.

One trail was two or three individuals who headed up my stairs and thence on up the hillside.

Another group headed for my back porch/grotto and thence disappeared.

Here are the coon's footprints with a proper measure. Neighbors immediate hurried to their koi pond upon seeing all the evidence of raccoon. And while I saw plenty of snow paws of cats and dogs, there was sign neither of chipmunk nor vole.

Blog Notes: I missed other reports on our Sunday/Monday snow. Be sure to check in with The One Acre Wood & Dagny's Desk; Photos from Prescott focused on ice.

Snow Is For Tracking

Color me frustrated. I tried several times to photograph this set of tracks -- different angles, different times of day. No luck; it took extreme PhotoShopping to bring out the footprints above. May I describe what I saw? Mystery #1 is that the tracks (which are small) appeared from out of nowhere in the middle of the snow. Mystery #2: the feet were together at the spot where the tracks started and it looked as though whoever/whatever it was had dragged his tail. The closer the tracks came to my pyracantha bush, the more separated the prints from each foot were. My speculation: a robin landed, hopped a bit and then walked to its favorite berry bush. But this is sheer guesswork! (FYI: I have one friend whose resident robin regularly gets drunk on older pyracantha berries that have gone alcoholic.)

Fact is, unless I have wee marsupial-type critters in my yard, I would guess that many of the tracks I saw today were made by birds. Like those above. I didn't see anything that looks like mouse or chipmunk trails and those are the only small mammals hereabouts. A little disappointing. (And yes, I did consult with The Google to back up my theorizing.)

This is another set of tracks, even smaller, looking like a small bird was hopping along.

On the other hand, there's no question about who made these much larger hoof prints: that javelina family of four which seems to have moved into the immediate neighborhood.

But then I didn't need hoof prints to tell me javelina have been around. For your information, the Internet is loaded with pictures and references on animal scat. Even better, you can buy your own replicas for the coffee table at under $10 a pop here.

Note Two Days Later: As the snow has melted (not entirely), it turns out that the set of tracks #1 at the top of this post did not appear out of nowhere, but came from under the car. Now I'm thinking that maybe it was one of the local chipmunks after all.

Two Bonus Inches: Better Than Nothing

As a matter of fact, I was rather amazed to find the pots topped with a bit of snow this morning. The storm that had been hyped happened yesterday, when we also got two inches, but by bedtime, all that snow was gone. Today, after a night of light snow that added up to a seond two inches, the temperature hovered around the freezing point and the snow lasted a little longer.

A snow-whitened roof made a nice backdrop for the small pines across the way...

...and always looks picturesque on the juniper
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The Max cat couldn't be persuaded that the weather was not fit for GrannyJ nor cat. He just had to get outdoors. Cats have their rights, after all. He didn't last very long; he's a reasonably intelligent cat.

He did leave a couple of neat paw prints in the snow.

Quite as cool: the first car prints coming round the bend. I'm rather amazed at how the camera renders the white snow in so many different colors!

And then there was the assortment of trails made by one of the next door dogs, his master, and a pick-up truck.

We had some melt; it always begins with the rocks, which hold heat.

The snow is always lighter in the shadow of a big tree; the bare spot above appeared early.

And so we got a wee share of the big storm that is now barrelling for the Plains and the Midwest, where they will be hard hit again. I do wish that Prescott had received a few more inches of that moisture!