Tracking Peoples State Forest

Went out tracking today.  The snow was good, a layer of powder several inches deep on a layer of crust, then more loose snow.  Forgot my snowshoes so it was a bit of work to get around.  In the end I walked several miles. Here’s what I saw.  

Deer Trail

Trailed this deer and the others with it.  Not far from the road where I picked up the trail I found them but not before they found me.

Deer Bed in Snow

I spooked them out of there day beds and watched the last one leave.  It moved away slowly, stopping and looking back before bounding away.  I did not have the camera out so no picture.  It wouldnt have looked like much anyway.  The deer were bedded in the laurel on a flat bit of ground on a hillside.  As I approached I knew it could be a bedding area and even thought to crawl but felt that if I crawled over every rise I would never see anything.  Hard to be patient.

 

 

Peoples Forest

 

Beaver Brook Pond, sunny and beautiful.

 

 

Unknown Small Mammal Tracks in Snow

Little mammal tracks.  Some others showed a fairly short tail.  They are small enough to consider shrew or the smallest mice.  They were on the swamp ice.  I went through several times and retreated.

 

Mink Tracks

 

Upstream on Beaver Brook a Mink slide.  It was the only sign of Mink all day.

 

Peoples State Forest

 

 

Otter Tracks

 

On the way out found these older Otter slides.  They went on for a couple hundred yards.

River Otter Tracks

End of Otter Trail

 

Above is where they eventually went into Beaver Brook.  Below is as far as I went in the other direction, about 200 yards.  I ran out of steam and headed home.  The next body of water in that direction is the Farmington River more than half a mile away.

Otter Tracks on Snow

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