Footprints in the snow

The snow has almost gone, hereabouts.

One of the delights of a fresh snowfall is the sudden appearance of animal tracks, that reveal just how much activity is going on in a seemingly empty winter landscape. Here are a few from earlier this week.

A field mouse, hopping from top to bottom of the picture - you can see the line where it dragged its long tail in the snow.

A grey squirrel, with those prominent claws used for climbing

A moorhen, with that little sideways-facing spur at the back of its foot

A grey partridge. The line between the footprints is where the claw on the long central toe has dragged through the deep snow

A pheasant - similar to a partridge but larger, with a longer stride

A domestic goose - big webbed feet

Mallard duck, webbed-feet turned inwards as it waddled

The ubiquitous rabbit. Fore-feet are placed one in front of the other when they lands, then longer, larger back feet overtake them before they land.

The goose that thinks it's a duck...

We met this confused greylag when we were out walking in Weardale this afternoon. It seemed to think that it was a parent of these mallard ducklings and attacked anything that came near them, including me and someone's dogs that got curious about the infant mallards. The mother mallard seemed perfectly happy with this interspecific child-minding service and led the way, with the goose bringing up the rear.