Winter can test your outdoor spirit. Not everyone’s idea of fun is sitting on a frozen lake waiting for a fish to bite, and snow-packed trails can turn a simple walk into a workout without skis or snowshoes. Gray skies and bare trees may make it feel like the world has paused for the season.
But if you can muster the will to leave your cozy indoor space and step outside, you’ll discover that winter is anything but idle!
High in the trees, you might hear the sharp, scolding chatter of a squirrel—annoyed that you’ve wandered too close to its food cache. Near frozen lakes and wetlands where water quietly moves beneath ice, look closely and you may spot a frog soaking up what little winter sun they can find.
Former Naturalist Fellow Mark Roos leaning over to get a closer look at animal tracks in the snow.
And then there are the signs right beneath your feet. Winter’s blanket of snow reveals what the rest of the year keeps hidden: the stories of animals on the move, written in their tracks.
Here are some common animal tracks you might see:
Deer and rabbits
Along the forest floor, well-worn highways made by deer and rabbits often lead to thick raspberry and bramble patches. With green plants long gone, these woody stems become an important winter food source, and repeated trips leave clear trails in the snow.
A white-tailed deer standing in the winter woods framed by red dogwood branches.
Rodents
Mice and voles spend much of the winter beneath the snow, using it as an insulating blanket that helps them stay warm and hidden from predators. Their tiny tracks appear where they surface to gather seeds or nibble vegetation. Squirrels remain active aboveground, relying on food caches they hid earlier in the year—and their impressive memory—to find them again.
Tracks likely made by a vole coming and going from prairie vegetation.
Coyotes
Coyotes are active year-round, and winter is prime hunting season. Their tracks often tell stories of dusk and dawn hunts for rabbits, squirrels, muskrats, and other prey. Scattered fur marks the end of a successful chase.
Coyote tracks leading across the boardwalk on the farm pond at Dodge Nature Center's Main Property in West St. Paul, Minnesota.
Birds
Even birds leave signs of winter activity. Chickadees flit through goldenrod and shrubs, searching for insect eggs and galls, while wild turkeys move across the landscape in flocks, scratching for seeds before roosting together in trees at night.
Turkey tracks in fresh snow. These tracks are among the easiest to identify. Look for three long, thin toes that meet in a triangular shape at the base.
Each set of tracks is a reminder that even when the woods look quiet, life is still busy at work.
Author: Naturalist Andy Vang
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