Seeking Sign

Take a walk in the forests and fields and you may see sign that many living creatures have passed that way. Use all your senses to pick up clues and maybe you can answer the question, "Who goes there?"

Thump, thump, thump-thump-thump, it sounds like an engine, but if you are in the woods chances are you are hearing a ruffed grouse calling. Is that a radio-like "beep-beep" sound? Probably a sawhet owl.

Have you smelled an odor similar to skunk, but sweet and almost piney? That is the scent mark of a red fox.

If you find sap flowing from a deep puncture in a sugar maple give it a taste. Thank the red squirrel that made that deep bite, and leave some sap, as it will be coming back to eat the sugar after the sap has dried.

So many things to see, look down for tracks and wing tip marks in the snow, on twigs and shrubs for signs that hares have been munching, and up on a tree trunk for shredded bark from a porcupine.

Dig through the snow to the subnivian layer between snow and ground. Feel warmer there? That is the cozy winter home for mice and other small mammals.