The Mysterious Case Of The Squirrel Bunny

Fresh snow is a wonderful opportunity to see what is going on in the woods that surround us.  We all love to go walking around the woods; following animal trails and trying to figure out where they were going and what they were doing.

I have always loved tracking but I get a real kick out of snow tracking because it is so easy.  Most of the time you track you might get one good print on any given trail and the rest of the time you are following signs of disturbance, which are super easy to lose track of.  When you are tracking in the fresh snow you see EVERYTHING.

It is like a replay of the night’s events in high definition.

The boys love track in the morning and insisted on wareing their ‘snow camo robes’ (over snow gear) for this weekends events.

If this poor bunny only knew what was tracking it down.  Run Bugs, RUN!

The trail winds down and around.

That doesn’t stop the big one.

The little one is winded more easily and likes to look for really good prints of each animal.

We saw a lot of hare, squirrel

and fox.

Field mice too.

While on the trail of one particular hare we tracked it around some trees and then the trail stopped.  Fresh snow in every direction completely undisturbed.

HOLY CRAP, bunnies can fly?!

It turned out they can’t fly but they can hop along a very narrow fallen branch and jump down on the other side.  When we saw the tracks in the snow on the branch we all doubted if we had been tracking a bunny, this thing was as agile as a squirrel!  The tracks are unmistakable and so we were left with some pretty strong proof that we had not been giving them enough credit.

That thing was practically a coney ninja!

We meandered around, it is the only time of year we don’t worry about staying on the trails since there is no danger of ticks.  The woods are crisp and beautiful.

Except for the squeals of the boys all is quiet.  The trees creak and grown in the light wind and the sun tracks low across the horizon.

It is such an awesome way to pass the morning.

By the time we got to the frozen bog; the boys were bushed and ready to scoot around on the ice being ‘bulldozers.’  Eating fresh snow as they go while trying to find things frozen in the ice.

As I mentioned before there are some amazing things frozen in that bog.

Isis and Daddy continued on to find more interesting tracks.

 We sat on the ice telling stories about ninja bunnies and flying foxes.

Or trying to be better bulldozers.

Daddy and Isis retuned at a run and skidded to a stop on the ice.

Something all three boys tried to prefect over the next half hour.

As our noses turned red it was time to head back indoors.   Everyone good and tuckered-out, except Isis.

She really got into this tracking thing and is surprisingly good at scenting a trail in the snow.

“It went HERE!!”

“Then over here…”

All the way home.

I guess it is not very shocking.  Huskies are very well adapted for this type of thing under these conditions and it shows.  Who knows she might actually take a nap today.  Anything is possible.