enjoying the November woods before the snow

[forestgnome]

Time to work off a Thanksgiving feast and stalk moose yards before the winter.

This antler was dropped last year...

This big guy is already in a yard area, waiting for winter. He's already dropped his antlers...

The bark on this spruce has been shredded all the way around the trunk...

These are very strange patterns made by something in the dusting of snow on the ice of a small pond. Please ID if you know what did this...

happy trails

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Easy!

Crop circles! Nope, no clue. Were there human footprints leading to them?

KDT

 

[forestgnome]

Crop circles! Nope, no clue. Were there human footprints leading to them?

KDT

Hah!!! I thought the same thing! Nope, no human tracks within a mile or so, but there was what looked like a small bird track running through it, and there is a single moose track very close. You can see moose hoof in the lower left.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

They look like a drywall mud bucket to me. Hard to explain without footprints though.

Tim

 

[islandside]

Two guesses....

1. The stems and blades of grass were once longer, and the wind blowing them around caused them to draw the circles until they wore out and broke off..

2. A bird displaying?... I have seen male turkeys dragging their wing feathers, strutting in circles for the females...

I think I like the first one more, especially if there was no evidence of turkey or grouse tracks nearby...

 

[sardog1]

Two guesses....

1. The stems and blades of grass were once longer, and the wind blowing them around caused them to draw the circles until they wore out and broke off..

2. A bird displaying?... I have seen male turkeys dragging their wing feathers, strutting in circles for the females...

I think I like the first one more, especially if there was no evidence of turkey or grouse tracks nearby...

It's No. 1 -- the key is the perfect circularity of the marks and the stubs remaining in the middle. (Turkeys, and other birds, do not leave marks like this.)

 

[grouseking]

Good stuff, as usual!!

grouseking