Tracking Deer

Freshly fallen snow is such a great medium for tracking animals. Footprints in snow are easy to spot, even for young children. My children and I have been tracking out in the snow over the last few weeks. We have identified squirrel, cat, bird, but our favorite is deer! {Oh and I can't forget to mention that on Christmas Day we even found reindeer prints! Sure am glad we left out carrots for Santa's furry helpers!}

When we are out tracking we love to follow the animal tracks and pretend that we are that animal. My five year old has gotten very skilled at tracking the prints and describing why the prints go in a certain direction. "The deer went this way because the logs were in his way." "See how he didn't go down the steep hill, but went this way instead."  "I bet the deer wanted to go to the stream for some water."

We also enjoy looking for deer beds. These oval shaped depressions in the snow are easy to identify and generally we find them in clusters of 4-6 deer beds. We also have been looking for deer hairs that may have been left behind, but we haven't found that treasure yet!

Here is one treasure the deer leave LOTS of for us....their own special version of Cocoa Puffs!

~~~ This afternoon we were inside eating an afternoon snack when we spotted a deer at the edge of the woods. After watching him for a bit we noticed that he had a limp on his front left leg. My son could hardly believe that animals get injured like people. Guess he had never thought about that concept before...nature has so much to teach us!