On The Wild Side: Making tracks in the snow

By ANN BROKELMAN

I absolutely love the snow, and these last few weeks in Toronto have been amazing. I don’t remember seeing this much snow since my own kids were still in elementary school.

For any of you who don’t quite understand my fondness for this abnormal snowfall, I have two notable points to add: First, I grew up in North Bay and this amount of snow is nostalgic. Second, and most important, my husband does all the shovelling!

In today’s article, I’d like to talk about tracks I’ve recently seen in the snow, and, if you see some around, you will know who left them.

Now, if you’re thinking I’m going to explain how to recognize bunny prints, or what deer tracks look like: nope! Those are easy enough to look up. I’m going off in strange new directions!

First up: Red tailed hawks. Confused, dear reader? Bird tracks in the snow, not what you were expecting? Good! I’m trying to keep these stories fresh and interesting.

So, I was driving around the other day when I saw a red-tailed hawk fly out of a tree and land on the ground. I didn’t think it had pounced on anything, which was confirmed as it started awkwardly walking around. I’m guessing he thought he saw something, went down to investigate, and tried walking around to look for whatever had gone missing. Either way, after just a few minutes, he flew back up into the trees.

I got out of my car, waded through the snow, and had a look for myself. Next time, I’m going to have to bring my snowshoes.

I didn’t see anything interesting that would have captured the hawk’s attention, but his tracks captured mine! You might easily mistake the look of the tracks for any other birds, but this is where some inductive reasoning should help.

A lot of birds leave the same shaped footprint: a capital Y but with three points instead of two. Chickadees, crows, and bluejays (to name just a few) would all look to be about the same shape, but there aren’t that many birds around here that would have tracks the same size as a red-tailed hawk. Beyond that, you’re only looking at other birds of prey.

Owls don’t often leave any tracks in the snow, though you might see their wing prints, as they tend to leave wing impressions when they grab a mouse on the go. Furthermore, their footprints often look more like a slanted K. So, that just leaves sharp-shinned hawks and cooper hawks.

But, again, red tails are simply, and significantly, bigger. My boot size is 9.5 for reference in the photo in this article beside the tracks.

My next wacky track sighting might make you think that someone tiny had appeared off a ski jump, touched down, and then disappeared. Try to picture two parallel tracks that looked just like those left behind by a skier, only they appeared out of nowhere and seemed to disappear the same way.

This adventure began when I went down to the lake to see if any waterfowl were available for a photo shoot.

Sometimes I get lucky, as they’ll be clustered together in a small pool that hasn’t been closed up by the ice.

This time, as I approached the shore, I saw the odd ski tracks out on the ice leading to the edge of one of the open pools. Part of me feels I should have figured them out earlier, but maybe my morning coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. I stood there, wondering what could have made the tracks, when I caught sight of two trumpeter swans flying my way.

These beautiful birds came in from a distance, slowly but surely descending, and were heading towards the same pool I just mentioned. As they got closer and closer, and got lower and lower, I watched them lower their landing gear feet.

Of course! Their feet slid across the snow-covered ice, leaving the long trails, before the two plopped down into the water with a splash. Mystery solved.

This has been a great winter for learning about tracks and who has been walking about your property and neighbourhood. Let me know what you see!