Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Friday 13 February 2009

Puzzle time: Tracks in the snow

It snowed again last night, re-covering the garden and plants in a soft white duvet. It covered the satellite dish too and blocked the signal, just as we were snuggled down watching Masterchef, after eating obscenely large portions of toad-in-the-hole, mash, sprouts and red onion gravy!

This morning it's mild and the snow is melting fast, but still lies a few inches deep in the front yard. Cliff returned from shovelling a clear path to the garage to say that there were strange tracks in the snow and maybe I should take photos.


There were two tracks, one less distinct that the other as it has been covered with a thin layer of snow. The track came from the corner of the yard nearest the river and the road, crossing the yard diagonally to the hedge on the other side. The more distinct track them emerged about 15 feet along the hedge and returned to the riverbank. You can see the scale next to our footprints on the left of the photo.


In some places there are breaks in the track . . .


and here too . . .


When 'it' emerged from the hedge it did this . . .


So, what was in our front yard last night? And what lives near our river?

We've no idea, have you?

17 comments:

  1. How weird? Definately one for alien obsessives out there. Perhaps it was a snake with the hiccups?

    Anyway, toad in the hole, mmmmmmmm....

    Cheers
    David

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  2. My guess...it was perhaps an otter having a bit of fun..
    In Sweden we don´t have many of them left..

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  3. Something with a trailing tail which obscured the tracks of feet? The bit by the hedge seems to show small foot-prints. Intriguing!

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  4. I'm thinking that you have taught those spice girls to unicycle.

    Thanks for tagging me,I'll have to look and see whats in the folders.

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  5. we have one of those creatures here too, it lives several feet up and runs from my office to the gate..... took me ages to work out what it was.
    It's very friendly though, and brings in my phone calls.... dropping its straight track all at once when the ice thaws.
    Unless you do have snakes about, of course!

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  6. Honestly, it's not a trick. We're baffled!

    Hi David - yes, the toad-in-the-hole was delicious!

    Tesa - it would be amazing if it was an otter (and not impossible). I have looked at other examples of otter tracks and I think they would be larger and more curvy.

    VH - you're on to something, but like you we can't think what it could be.

    Gina - it is! will we ever find out?

    Karen - you may be right!

    Rhiannon - LOL but no.
    Nor is it a snow boarding squirrel!

    Could it be a hedgehog? but then, do they jump!

    Celia
    x

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  7. OMG Wendy!!!! LOL!!!!

    How crazy is that - had us going, didn't it!

    Celia
    x

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  8. Doesn't seem big enough for an otter...are there still wild mink in your area?(used to be, years ago).
    Perhaps it's a super-sized amoeba or paramecium...

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  9. Ask your chum who's good on dragonfly ID.

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  10. I have tagged you for an award...take a look on my blog....xxx

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  11. I know from a farmer friend that mink are all over the UK but seldom seen due to their sneakiness...

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  12. Snake with the hiccups from the comments had me laughing :O)

    Did it reach a destination?

    D

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  13. Is it drips or rods of ice from telegraph wires? There are no footprints so that's all I can think of - unless it's a beaver, whose tail is obscuring his footprints but that's pretty unlikely!

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  14. How spooky, I really want to know now!

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  15. Have we any indication of scale?

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