Tracks in the Snow

Another up-and-down weather week, ending with a much-ballyhooed snowfall on Thursday and Friday - which was built up by media frenzy to sound like the coming of another Ice Age, but turned out to be an easily-shovelled 3-5 inches. (This is Wisconsin. It snows here every February. Why such an excess of alarm?)

Today is sunny and beautiful, and the thermometer reads a warm 35º when I take off for my walk.

The snow has a soft, chastened appearance, as though beat down by sun and warmth to the realization that its days are numbered.

This tree is already thinking of spring. Tiny leaf buds like picots line its twigs:

Tracks are everywhere today. Fresh kitty tracks on the snow-covered marsh...

...cat AND bunny tracks on the trail:

Mini snow golf, anyone?

Next I see the handprint of what appears to be an amateur photographer:

And a beauty of a pawprint (another cat I think), with what looks like a star in the center:

Next, some bird tracks which puzzle me. Too small to be turkey, so my next guess is pheasant - or maybe quail? Google says no to either of these when I get home and search. What other gallinaceous birds run wild in Wisconsin?  Another quick search yields grouse. Bingo!

The tracks are lovely and ribbon-like:

Day-old deer tracks lead the way through the trees...

...following a trail which ends at some very recognizable tracks. Wild snowmobiles have been this way lately - a pack of them by the looks of it:

Shadow shot!

Tired grasses drape over a fence:

Across the field, white birches stretch lacy arms upwards to catch the sun:

At their feet, more tracks. Cat on the left, and I have no idea what made the two types of prints on the right:

These tracks I recognize instantly...

...as those of the Adult Female Blogger.

Just next to my feet are some wild turkey tracks, but the lighting is wrong and I can't get a good shot. (You'll have to imagine them.)

Energy levels are running low, and the antibiotic I took with lunch is rampaging through my digestive track causing panic and distress in the local inhabitants. Just a few more photos and then I'd better head home.

Detail of a favourite river birch:

An irresistible (to me) goldenrod:

And bittersweet, still shining brightly even after months of winter:

On the way home, I hear sweet birdsong above my head, and look up to see where it's coming from. Three blackbirds fly out of a tree and land on a telephone wire:

Perhaps they can see spring from up there.

:)

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