We get little [and big] visitors all the time. The edges of the creek bed are full of prints. Here are some that we found this week.
So, who left these tracks? With this handy-dandy
Northwoods Tracks guide - put out by the Wildlife Conservation Society - we can find out. [We got ours at the Muscatatuck NWR Nature Center.]
According to the guide, these tracks were raccoon:
This is a front left paw. Notice the very long fingers tipped with a claw. The claw marks in this print are very distinct - they aren't always.
These were possum. [Or opossum, if you insist. But only if you insist.]
Notice the very rounded finger tips. The right print is from a left front paw. The pad is very short - less than the length of the fingers. The left print is from a left rear paw. The pad is longer and there's an odd indentation that hangs way down off the right corner of the pad. [Kind of hard to see in the photo.]
So, there you have it.
Once in a while, if I'm really lucky, we find these tracks on the creek bed.
