Shy Neighbors Leave Tracks and Need Our Help
By Cathie Murray
In Bow, neighbors help each other out, and find ways to celebrate together, like a fire pit during Covid times. But have you noticed some neighbors avoiding you? They wait until dark to come out, and even then they keep to the treelines and the shadows, or crawl under snow, leaves or the earth. 
These shy neighbors are wild, furry, four-footed creatures. Most travel and forage for food at night. Besides avoiding us and our pets, the smaller animals use night to reduce their chances of being eaten. Since the predators have to show up where and when the smaller animals are, night-time is where the action is.
Seed eaters! Grub eaters! Twig and bark eaters! Big critters that eat little critters! Big critters that eat frozen apples!
A few of the shy creatures who call Bow home in the winter are: White-footed Mouse, Deermouse, Star-nosed Mole, Meadow Vole, Masked Shrew, Snowshoe Hare, Porcupine, Striped Skunk, Opossum, Raccoon, Gray Fox, Red Fox, Eastern Coyote, Bobcat, Weasel, Mink, Fisher, Otter, and White-tailed Deer.
Want to know them better? Head outside the day after a snowstorm. A fresh coat of snow on a firm base is best, but look for tracks in your yard, local fields or woods after any snowstorm.
Tracks will tell you stories.
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