Tracks

One of my favorite things about having snow on the ground is being able to see the tracks of whatever creatures visit. When I first moved here about 20 years ago, seeing deer tracks in the snow was exciting. Deer sightings were a rare event.

Now they're so common, I'm surprised when I don't see deer tracks the morning after a snowfall. That's not a problem right now -- the frozen pond right now is simply covered by their tracks!

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You can see that the snow on top of the ice looks a bit slushy. That's because the snow we got the other day was initially rain, and that white blanket hid a layer of wet stuff above the ice.

With temperatures well above freezing this week, I expect the ice to melt to a point where it will become treacherous to walk across...

I'm hoping they are smart enough to notice -- I don't want to have a startled deer thrashing through the pond! There are sleepy fish and frogs in there!

They're not sticking to the pond area of course, so I can see where they've been wandering:

Surprisingly, one of them decided that this was the right path to take, somehow getting past the trellis, around the Japanese maple, over the probably-cracking-this-winter terra cotta pot, between the chairs and down into the patio:

Footprints are not the only thing they've left behind:

Luckily they're somewhat careful about where they step, as they just missed this Agave:

There are a couple more smaller Agaves under the snow too -- maybe I should put up a little fence so they don't get trampled?


I would have taken more photos of tracks in the snow, but somebody tramped all around the yard knocking snow from the bamboos, ruining most of the photo opportunities.

I'm sure there will be more opportunities for snow track photos later this winter.

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