A REFRESHING WALK IN THE SNOW ... I WONDER WHAT'S BEEN AROUND LATELY.

Hive account@farm-mom and I have our way of letting each other know how we feel when asked. The reply is, I feel like a million bucks is as good as it gets. That's how I've been feeling lately.

On the morning of this walk, six inches of snow had fallen the night before. I knew a walk was in my future, especially with the way I was feeling. Our son was visiting for a few days and his dog Hunter tagged along. Since I was the first one up, I let the dog out to do his thing, sniff around, and chase a squirrel or two. By 10 A.M I was out the door, ready to go.

As I walked down the front steps I noticed his paw print on the landing. Seeing that I decided to go back into the house to grab the camera and see what other tracks might be imprinted in the freshly fallen snow.

All of the pictures of the wildlife in this post were captured here on the farm, but not during this walk. I've included them just to show you the animal responsible for leaving the tracks.

The first tracks I ran into were that of the White-Tailed Deer.

The tracks that a deer leaves behind are unmistakable. I ran into these tracks throughout the entire walk.

Here you can see that two of these magnificent animals were traveling on the same path.

As the deer make their way through the landscape their gait is such that their legs land just off-center of their body, leaving tracks as you see here. Their stride is long and most times you can see that the snow has been disturbed between where their hooves landed. I would imagine that after a long winter, their legs are weary.

This picture was taken at the end of last winter.

This White-Tailed deer has to weigh over 180 pounds. They can reach this size in as little as two and a half years, but most often, at this weight, they will be four or five years of age.

This size footprint has been left behind by a larger deer. As deer get larger their hooves will spread out when walking. Deer hooves are made up of keratin, which is the same thing our fingernails are made of.

This disturbed area was created by a deer as it makes its way to the vegetation below.

After visiting the top plantation I made my way to our pond, hoping to run into some different footprints.

I was not disappointed! A critter had walked around the rim of the pond. These prints were not left by a deer. My guess is that this trail was left by some sort of cat. We have spotted both a lynx and a bobcat on our property. Seeing these animals is rare and what a thrill it was to spot these cats in the wild, if only for a second.
Their paw print is more like a dog. Their trail leaves behind a single line in the snow as they walk with one foot being placed directly in front of the other.

I took this photo this past summer. From the way he's cleaning his front paws he probably just got done dining on some leafy greens in our #hivegarden.

This area was laden with his rabbit tracks. A rabbit leaves another very distinguishable track. Their long front paws land side by side with a space between them while their back feet seem to land as one.

From the looks of its track you would think that a rabbit only has three legs .

Another common animal that calls Upstate New York its home is the turkey.

The footprint of the wild turkey is a classic game bird track.

It has three toes pointing forward with one small toe in the back.

That was one of the best walks I've had in a while years.