Winter Dreams Archive: 07 March 03

We sweat in the sun and snow

    07 March 03: We've had it on our list to go back to the Deep Cut section of the old Genessee Valley Canal while the snow was on the ground. Today was perfect, with sun and temps of 30 degrees F. or thereabouts, after many, many subzero nights.

    Last October when we visited the Deep Cut, the standouts were the turning leaves and a lone heron. Today, the story was sun, corn snow, and animal tracks -- and winter red berries, of mountain ash, and fiery red, bare canes.

    There were herds of deer numbering from five to 20, here and there near Letchworth State Park, which adjoins the Greenway and Deep Cut.

• Read the original tone-setting post to this log
• Archive of Winter Dreams log entries

These fiery red canes seem to shout their readiness for spring.
Animal tracks form a circle and pose a question or two. For starters, why a circle? Did the animal bounce around in a circle before running off? Second question -- what was the animal. I think it was a rabbit, or hare , if you like.
One spot still had some bright red Mountain ash berries on the bare shoots.
This is a closeup of the same sort of tracks as in the photo above. I think the tracks were made by a bunnie/rabbit/hare. You see the narrow front paws and the bigger back paws. The tracks were in line, suggesting a bounding animal, like a rabbit, or bunnie, or hare. I'm clearly not encumbered by any skill with animal signs. It's actually a lot more fun this way.
We're looking east from a dike across the bottom end of the Deep Cut. This is where we saw the heron last October.