One of my favorite things...

Okay, I am back. I guess I got lost in wanting to do more for this troubled world. But I will remind myself of what my friend said, “every little step counts.” That’s why I still like “Going for a Walk,” every little step counts in walking and what you do in life.

So my son is doing this tracking project and taking all sorts of photos of animal tracks. Have I already talked about animal tracks? Probably. But on my list of favorite things they would rank pretty high. I feel like I am looking into the secret world of animals when I see their tracks- you usually don’t see the animal you just see where the animal was.

Sometimes stories are written in the tracks. Today, in the new snow, we saw where a squirrel jumped from a tree, hopped to an area, dug up some ponderosa needles, and went to another tree. Did the squirrel find something to eat under that patch of needles?

This past spring we visited Death Valley and stopped by the dunes. I had to stay back with our dog but the others headed off for a quick journey to the impressive sand dunes- my family and dozens of other people. As I hung close to the parking I checked out the vegetation and the sand near there. Hundreds of tracks told a tale of life hidden from these daytime visitors. Tractor-like tracks- an insect?, four-footed tracks with a tail on one side then another- a lizard, more lizards, more insects, mice, other rodents, rabbits, a fox? And now where were all of these critters?

Once I felt I chanced upon a nighttime story. We were coming home late in a light snow. As we drove up the road slowly we could see a group of five or six deer on the street under the streetlight. They kind of looked around before one-by-one they turned and trotted into the neighbor’s yard, into the darkness. My biologist-side explained that they had been on their way to some available vegetation. But for some reason the image that lingers is a night-gathering, a party for the deer. In my imagination what we had interrupted was a brief moment of the deer enjoying the spotlight. Maybe if we came upon the hoof prints left by these deer the next day, it would have looked like a dance.

Making your mark

I have been a little preoccupied with this NaNoWriMo challenge- it has kind of tired me out. I have been making a lot of mud pies, and they are not pretty nor do they look much like mud pies, but it's fun.
It's dry here in Flagstaff. We have gone past the "oh, wow, what terrific weather" to "when the heck is it going to snow?" stage. We need it desperately.
I took my usual walk yesterday and noticed tracks in the loose soil. The tracks were very clear. You might not be able to tell but in one photo I could see the creases from the foot pad of the animal. I believe the clawed animals were skunks and they followed the trail for at least half a mile before they veered off towards a house. Hmmm.
This is a collection of tracks: bike, foot, skunk, dog.


This is the skunk (?) track where you can see the crease in the paw.

All together now, for comparison. I am not good at reading tracks so I have no idea if there were two or more of these critters. Looked like more than one tho.

Deer crossing.