Observations by nateharvey

The 2x2 bounding trail with a very consistent stride length, as is characteristic of Mink. Followed this trail for mile over the ridge, where it prowled Red Squirrel and Chipmunk holes, to another beaver pond.

I saw the salamander, big guy, 7-8" long. It walked about 3 yards in the snow, looping from the hole shown to another hole in the snow where it crawled into the leaves. Trail width approx 1.5". It was about 30 degrees. On a human trail in deciduous woods. It moved slowly, stretching its legs all the way forward with each step. Pix taken by Mike Bottini the following day, since I had no camera with me when I saw the beast. A biologist we contacted speculated that the salamander may have been diseased or could have been flooded from its burrow by heavy rains earlier in the winter (this would have been late December or early January).

A second Porcupine den. There were three in close proximity along this ridge. I followed a Bobcat trail that visited all of them. The trail was from the previous afternoon when the snow was first wet. At the third Porcupine, the cat trail was fresh, newly powdery, much harder to make out. The cat had been in there overnight. No sign of the porcupine's blood, but there was lots of room in the rocks that I could not get to.

Pictures of a sapling heavily browsed by a Porcupine and a close-up the browse on the sapling. The den is in the rocks in the background. It's a little more than 2" from the tip of my finger to the second knuckle.

Bobcat sit spot. The two front tracks are near the top of the photo. The heels of the hind feet are near the bottom, and the tracks of the hind feet are right below the fronts. The tracks are nearly 2" long each.