Tales from Swallow Farm

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Who goes there? Tracks in the Snow.

It's been a while since I took these pictures, when the snow lay heavy. One afternoon, when there was not a room in the house where I could gain respite from the building works, I decided to take a stroll down the land and see who had been visiting over the last few days.

Now I don't claim to be any sort of expert tracker and the deep snow meant that paws, toes and claws were not clear. But thre have certainly been a few rabbits or hares hopping about in search of food. Rat tracks were thankfully confined to just one isolated group, near the empty chicken house. The mole(s) had managed to dot the white landscape with fresh mounds of soil, though none of them seemed to have gone wandering over the surface, which was a shame. Other tracks I found were pheasants, blackbirds and woodpigeons. Occasionally there would be an amazing snow fairy pattern where a bird had landed. Rodent (probably field voles) tracks occasionally led from one hole in the snow to another and in one place it looked as if an owl may have pounced on one. Confirming what we thought, a fox had left its traacks near the house - they only seem to come near the farm in extreme weather. Other tracks were probably stoat or weasel and a good many left me stumped.

Take a look and see if you can guess who's been visiting.