ID'ing tracks

[Guyon]

Sparrow or finch. You can see the two-foot hop-hop-hop-hop motion, and the piece sticking off the back is the leg lightly touching the snow after each tiny impact. The thin lines between the tracks are where he or she dragged the foot through the snow because they don't jump very high...and that's deep snow for a little bird.

Thanks. I Googled "sparrow tracks" and found some other similar tracks.

My pic again for comparison...

 

[Rick Marchand]

Guyon...
Can you see how the sparrow looked to the left? ... the slight pause... the inturned right foot and the shorter gap between the next set of tracks?

Never know for sure.... but I think he was looking behind himself over his left wing...

Tracks are fun.... even when you might be wrong... lol.


Rick

 

[Guyon]

Guyon...
Can you see how the sparrow looked to the left? ... the slight pause... the inturned right foot and the shorter gap between the next set of tracks?

Never know for sure.... but I think he was looking behind himself over his left wing...

Tracks are fun.... even when you might be wrong... lol.


Rick

That's a great observation Rick. I need to start thinking more three- (3D space) and four- (time) dimensionally.

 

[Watchful]

Good catch, Magnussen!

When I started teaching tracking to my oldest boy, I would have him make up stories about what the animal was doing at each step.

9 times out of 10, I agreed with his imaginative assessment.

It's funny, perhaps, but usually that little bit of imagination you use about what the animal was doing...turns out to be exactly right!

 

[Ramm9]

"see this track he's wearing tennis shoes...now look closely at this other one...you can see he's barefoot, 176lbs, just ate dinner, is looking over his right shoulder, and put on a hat..."

 

[Rick Marchand]

"see this track he's wearing tennis shoes...now look closely at this other one...you can see he's barefoot, 176lbs, just ate dinner, is looking over his right shoulder, and put on a hat..."

Nice... what he failed to notice is that it was actually a female, between 22 and 26, blonde , nude and menstrating.......... see that little drip?






Rick:thumbup:

 

[Ramm9]

Nice... what he failed to notice is that it was actually a female, between 22 and 26, blonde , nude and menstrating.......... see that little drip?






Rick:thumbup:

...too obvious so not mentioned...that's how the weight shift caused by the hat could be spotted:thumbup:

 

[Guyon]

...too obvious so not mentioned...that's how the weight shift caused by the hat could be spotted:thumbup:

Nonsense. The person was obviously gassy, and the weight shift indicates a small fart.

 

[nemoaz]

Don't get too mouthy or he'll send grandfather after you.

 

[PropThePolecat]

Hey KMM...

Just a beginner tip for distinguishing squirrel from rabbit. I know you don't have rabbit so this may be of little use to you aside from small hare.

Rabbit/Hare tracks predominantly make a "1-1-2" arrow formation pointing in the opposite direction of travel.
PUSH-----tap-tap-PUSH-----tap-tap-PUSH----tap-tap......
Even though it's a domestic, here's a good slow-mo vid of a rabbit running... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L8MlALPWQs

.. While squirrel are more symetrical "2-2" in their grouping pattern.
PUSH-----tap--PUSH-----tap--PUSH-----tap--PUSH.....
Slow-mo vid of squirrel bounding... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocK_WRUqbFI




Mind you, tracks change depending on what the animal is doing... this is just a typical example.



Have fun.
Rick

Thanks for the tip Rick!