Tracking Critters at the WinMan Trails

With frigid temperature not uncommon these past several weeks in the Northwoods, it’s been a struggle to get out and enjoy all this beautiful snow!  Throughout the winter the Discovery Center is offering guided snowshoe hikes at the new WinMan Trails (www.WinManTrails.com).  On a recent interpretive snowshoe on the trails, participants found plenty of sign of critters out and about in the milder (12 degree!) temps.  It can be hard to come across wildlife in the forest, as they hear us they quickly hide themselves.  However, winter allows us to easily see what was once there, no critter needed.  Looking for animal tracks, scat and other sign is one of the most enjoyable winter activities in my opinion.  Enjoy some of the sights we came across on our trek, and if you are interested in learning more about the sign animals leave behind, join me Monday, February 17^th from 12-1 at the Winchester Public Library as we discuss and explore that very topic.

The first animal sign we came across were these snowshoe hare tracks.  The snow consistency was just right, and you can actually see the toes in the snow.  Snowshoe hare have extremely large and furry feet to keep them above the snow, a great adaptation to survive our Northwoods winters, along with their fur growing in white in late fall as the days get shorter.  Hare are considered hoppers, and as their smaller front feet land on the ground, their larger back feet swing around and land in front.  In this picture, the snowshoe hare was heading up the shot and away from us.

This human-made  sign we came across on the ski trails.  Someone had been out enjoying the WinMan trails with a fat tire bike!  If you haven’t yet tried it, I highly recommend it, it’s really fun!  These trails are meant to be enjoyed by everyone!

Halfway around the trail, we started to see trees that looked like this.  Immediately we knew a porcupine was in the area.  Upon closer inspection you could see the chew marks up and down smaller deciduous trees and also in the red pine in the old plantation.  However, we didn’t see any fresh tracks in that area.  We continued on…

Ah ha!  a fresh trail!  Porcupine are sometimes called the ‘snowplows of the forest.’  They have big, boxy bodies, short legs and when they walk through the snow, they literally plow through it, leaving a trough looking structure behind.  If you look close you can actually see the foot tracks in the trough.  Upon closer inspection, we found long hairs along the trail and drag marks from quills on the side of the trough.  Of course, scat was also found J  

We decided to wander off trail a bit to see if we could find the critter.  We knew it had to have been out that morning, as we had just a little dusting of snow the night before covering up the trails.  In about a minute we came up to a pile of brush with an opening, and the trail led right into it.  Wanting to respect the animal and its space, we didn’t get too close, but we were able to see the porcupine inside the den!  All we could see were quills poking out, then it heard us and went deeper inside.  What a neat find!

Overall, it was a very successful day of interpretation, discovery and recreation.  The WinMan Trails offer miles of groomed and ungroomed snowshoe trails, beautiful terrain, and many things to discover!  Enjoy the WinMan Trails a different way by joining us February for the WinMan Windigo Snowshoe Stomp 5K, 10K and 1K kids snowshoe race!  For more information please visit www.WinManTrails.com.  See you on the trails!

by Licia Johnson, Naturalist