With the mild winter, raccoon are active now

• Tracks in snow

Raccoon tracks. Note the waddling gait. Photo by Larry Weber for the Budgeteer
• Raccoon footprints

Seen here are raccoon footprints in the wet sticky snow of a mild day. Notice the finger-like toes. The dollar bill serves as a size indicator. Photo by Larry Weber for the Budgeteer
• Larry Weber

Larry Weber

Talk about it

As we approach the middle of this most unusual winter, we now experience temperatures a bit more like normal, but still the snowfall is lacking or limited. Late January is about halfway through our snow season, and at this point, we may be on a record-setting pace. Often we think of records to mean “the most” but with this winter, it refers to the least. However, unlike the halves of many things, the halves of winter snowfalls are seldom equal and often far from being the same. All of us can remember years when early season provides much snow and little later, or the opposite. The winter of 2006-07 is one of note. Nearly half of the 80 inches of snow came in 10 days of late February and early March. No doubt, the winter still could have much to show us.

I have found that the limited snow cover we do have, and the mild record-setting temperatures of early January, have revealed much activity among our local wintering wildlife. With many sites being devoid of snow, especially the south-facing locations, it can be a bit hard to see tracks. Other places, such as parts of the woods and the surface of lakes, ponds and swamps, still hold a bit of a snow cover and abundant tracks.

Mild temperatures and light snow on the ground may slow our winter sports and perhaps cause us to think of danger to our septics, but these conditions allow for much movement by local critters. Normally by this time of January, deer travel on well-used trails or yard up. Many other mammals wander about in a hunger mode, while small rodents stay beneath the white blanket. This year, they seem to go anywhere. Snow depth is not an impediment. And the temperatures have brought out some mammals that we usually do not see in January: chipmunks, muskrats, skunks and raccoons. In snow often about only an inch deep, tracks tell their stories.

The snow itself has also varied. Usually snow in January is a dry powder type. But with the warming temperatures, the snow has recently been wet and sticky. Subsequent cold caused crusty conditions. Light dustings of new snowfall in the past week have formed a slight coating on this hardened snowpack. Each is different for showing tracks.

Powdery snow easily reveals the gaits of active animals and we easily see where the walkers and hoppers move about. The actual footprints are a bit hard to see in this substrate, but when warming temperatures cause the snow to become sticky, clear footprints show up. Colder temperatures cause crusty snow and many times this material is hard enough to hold up the body of a passerby, showing few tracks. But a dusting of snow lying on the crust provides new chances to read tracking news, even if a bit limited.

With all these varied snow conditions of the past few weeks, I have seen a plethora of tracks belonging to about fifteen kinds of mammals that have been moving through the winter season. Most of these are no surprise and I would expect to find them in nearly every January, but the mild times have told stories of movements of a few that I did not expect; most active of these is the raccoons.

Anyone in the Northland who maintains bird feeders is familiar with this masked neighbor. Raccoons use their hand-like front feet to open our feeders, trash cans, etc., to find food to fill their omnivore diet. This is until the cold comes. They are not hibernators, but will sleep through the coldest time, waking in mild times; they are seldom seen in January. Last year, more typically, I did not see their tracks until February. But this January I have already found these tracks. With their varied diet, they likely found needed food to get by and now with the return to cold, I expect them to go back to sleep. We’ll see them again later in the winter as its second half unfolds. And, no doubt, this season will continue to be one of note and discussion.

Retired teacher Larry Weber is the author of several books, including “Butterflies of the North Woods,” “Spiders of the North Woods” and “Webwood.” Contact him c/o budgeteer@duluthbudgeteer.com.

Tags: budgeteer, budge opinion