Animal tracks tell stories

HOLDEN – Last week stories of many little animals were revealed written in snow. Many kinds of mice live in the fields, shrubs and forest near the Fields Pond Audubon Center building. Their stories are fun to decipher.

The meadow mice, also called meadow voles, are plump little creatures with short blunt noses, short ears and short tails.

They tunnel through the grass and hide their softball-sized nest of grass within their maze of tunnels. After the 2 inches of snow that fell melted last week, the tunnels of meadow voles were plainly visible. One of our naturalists came up with the term “nature’s Twinkies,” because they are the quick snacks of foxes and other predators all year.

In winter, the foxes’ snacking habits sometimes can be seen in the snow. A fox will walk slowly back and forth, listening carefully for the noise of a mouse under the snow. When the fox is close enough and has a good idea of where the mouse is, the fox makes a prodigious leap, trying to land with its front feet on the mouse. If successful, it grabs the pinned mouse in its mouth and – Crunch! Gulp!

At the Fields Pond Audubon Center, a big picture window is called the “Wild Fox” window, after a children’s book of that title.

One winter’s day a few years back, a group of schoolchildren was astounded to see a fox catch a mouse – in broad daylight. That was a lucky, unforgettable sighting. Usually foxes are nocturnal and the next morning, the story is found – written in snow, punctuated with several drops of the mouse’s blood.

Even that dramatic story in the snow is not a daily find. Last week, the animal track highlights were just the everyday scuttling back and forth, and the tunneling of these interesting little meadow voles.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.