Who goes there in the night?

We had more snow. I managed with the blower. I was so happy to have it back. This was 14cm worth.

 

With snow comes more tracks. I'm finding that Good Bunny Labbit is so fast, she doesn't register on the camera. I have to go clip by clip. Ah well. It satisfies my curiosity. 

There are tracks here, perhaps #75 squirrel, and another mystery. 

The snow height discouraged it. 

I looked at these as I took the garbage out Monday morning. Not as long and thin as Butch raccoon, and the pattern is different. I wrote a piece on animal tracks for our local lake newsletter. The stride of this track is short. Fishers have five obvious toe pads. 

Look who I found on the camera! Skunks are omnivores, both plant and other animals. They eat just about anything: bugs, mice, eggs, insects, worms, grubs, bird seed,  plus fungi, roots, leaves and berries, most of which are scarce right now! 

The gate patterns I haven't seen before. Mostly the skunks have been around in the other three seasons. Not winter.

 

We often have a skunk roll by in the dark, this one was lactating. While they are crepuscular (active dusk and dawn) they den up in winter for extended periods. They aren't true hibernators, like Fred Groundhog. A lot of our little mammals do this, like Butch who holes up in the really cold weather.  

I seldom see them in the day time. This one pretty much ignored me.