Aha! The Rodent mystery is solved (I think)

There have been a lot of tracks about in the powdery snow.

I've been deeply suspicious about some tracks. I know what mice tracks look like. Little toes, teeny feet. The deer mice tracks from step-to-step are about 2" apart.
I consulted my sources, various guides. Reviewed previous posts/photos: Tracks in the snow. These were different.

There was a dragging tail, which is typical of a mouse in snow, but the feet were larger than mice. I haven't see these tracks too often. Not until recently, with the terrible cold we've had: The Polar Vortex. It's been around under the bird feeder.

Rodentia

tracks with a tail
–much larger than
a mouse
The tracks are 8" apart.

We have a lot of rodents about. Rodents are characterized by constantly growing incisors. The single largest group of mammals >is Rodentia. Most non-flying mammals are rodents: there are about 1,500 living rodent species (out of about 4,000 living mammals overall).

This is a large and varied species: according to uBerkeley,

• the larger family includes common pets: guinea, muskrats, chinchillas, porcupines, lemmings, deermice, field mice, voles and packrats,  
• but excludes shrews, moles, hegehogs, rabbits (double incisors).

Most are herbivores.
Lots carry disease, like Hantavirus.
A lot of these are diurnal, we see deermice in the daytime all the time, but see evidence of their tracks from the night, and safety, of the dark.

Capybara - largest rodent

Vole (larger than deer mouse).

Shrew
Love the little toes!

The largest rodent, Capybara, I happen to have a photo of one, from the Lynwood Fun Fair. They can be 66 kilos!

Deermouse

Back to my critter, which is nocturnal.

Packrats or Woodrats

Woodrat - from Wiki

I've heard of packrats, vaguely. My mother always accused me of being one! And she was right. You never know when you need stuff for crafts!

After doing some research, there seems to be quite a few varieties of woodrats; Eastern Woodrat  ( Neotoma floridana >) a Key Largo Woodrat, Allegheny woodrat, Bushy-tailed woodrat, or Packrat. Bushy-tailed Woodrat - Neotoma cinerea, The Allegheny woodrat ( Neotoma magister ), is a species of " pack rat >" in the genus Neotoma . Once believed to be a subspecies of the eastern woodrat , extensive DNA analysis has proven it to be a distinct species. ^[2]

The rats that infest cities are called Norway rats. (Our soon-to-be D-I-L's cat caught and ate one a few years ago in Vancouver.)

woodrat Wiki

Woodrat house - used with permission
Kim Cabrera

Woodrats build really cool homes (see: Kim A. Cabrera's web page: out of sticks and shiny things. This is why they are called packrats!

I shall have to have a look out for this type of shelter in our forest/wetland, it's great habitat for them. The previous homeowners stacked brush in the forest to clear paths. They might be a house! They build bulky nests of stick, towers that can be 5' tall.

They are anywhere from 28cm - 45cm (11 - 18"), including the tail, near as I can figure.

The mystery of this critter is that something has been in the shed, gnawing and removing the garbage can lid. Several times now, I'd thought I'd forgotten to replace the lid.
I've checked for holes in the shed, but the snow is up around it and I needed snowshoes. I grabbed snowshoes, and couldn't see any entrance in.

Identifying tracks

There are lots of things to determine: the length of the track, size of the tracks, my hand span is 8", which would fit with a woodrat.

 

Lots of track aids. This one includes Eastern woodrats!
Beside my thumb: 4" - 6" from the top set of prints to the last paw. Yep.

Time to link up with Saturday's Critter party....  
and 

Camera Critters #310

Evidence in the shed

I've seen chew marks on the handles, and I'm now sure I put it on after I filled the bird feeder the other day.
I cannot imagine how a woodrat pried the lid off, but it must have!
There are tons of black sunflower seed hulls on the floor, and something has eaten a lot more than would fit into a mouse tummy!

Their scat is quite different, too.

just for comparison

This is not how I left this garbage can,
filled with yummy black sunflower seed!

sharp teeth!

Determined little twerps!

The key to the mystery is the scat.
The black, rice-like ones are mice.
The larger, beige ones have
to be a larger woodrat.