{"id":2937,"date":"2013-01-18T17:00:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T22:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=2937"},"modified":"2013-01-15T16:09:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T21:09:06","slug":"a-snow-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/01\/18\/a-snow-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A snow story"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s frustrating and fascinating to encounter a story, have an idea of the plot and characters, but not enough vocabulary to really pin down the details.<\/p>\n

Such is this story\u2026written in fresh snow a week or so ago. Naturalists, trackers, hunters, trappers, storytellers, help me out here.<\/p>\n

Skiing\u00a0 along the edge of a big open field, my neighbor and I encountered a funny trail:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Looks like…what?… a beaver with an outrigger instead of a rudder?\u00a0 Somebody dragging a stick? It headed over the hill toward a tiny vernal pond, disappearing entirely where the snow had drifted just right:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My neighbor and I both count five toes. Isn’t is funny how the 3-d effect pops back and forth?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This field is bounded by woods on three sides, with a beaver meadow and open brook on the fourth. Lots of habitats, and lots of wildlife: turkeys, partridge, deer, coyotes, and small stuff as well. We often find evidence of their goings-on. And while warmer seasons might really be busier, winter snow reveals more to me. Somewhere I have a wonderful shot of the imprint of an owl’s wings, fully extended in the snow as it dropped on some small prey. So we keep our eyes open.<\/p>\n

A bit later and a hundred yards away along the other side of the open snow, there was the same trail again, going into some woods.\u00a0 A clue! Then,\u00a0 just down along the brushy margin to the right, was another trail:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Those swishy lines made more sense\u2026and not far away, here\u2019s where they originated:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A scuffle, and tiny bits of fine, grayish fur.\u00a0 Looks like someone met their death here, and was carried off into the underbrush.<\/p>\n

And just beyond was clearly where predator and prey came together:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, the plot seems fairly obvious. But who are the main characters? Cottontail, right? And the five toes? A fisher? The thing my Petersen Field Guide doesn\u2019t say is whether a fisher\u2019s track would necessarily show claws. We didn\u2019t see any sign of claws.<\/p>\n

Fisher seems likely. But can anyone explain the original track, of footprints beside\u00a0 single, fairly substantial and continuous drag-mark? Ideas? Different narratives? I’m curious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s frustrating and fascinating to encounter a story, have an idea of the plot and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3083,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937\/revisions\/3083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}