Tracks Give Away a Bobcat's Prowlings

I love hiking in the winter because the snow gives me the opportunity to see animal tracks.   I live in Concord and usually walk the local trails, so I go to the same places over and over again, in every season and all kinds of weather.  On today's walk, I found an animal track bonanza by a stream with a bit of open water.   All the tracks I'm used to seeing were there - dogs, coyotes, squirrels, deer, turkeys - and for a change some tracks I don't see as often - a cottontail rabbit.  

And there was one track, just one that looked a bit cat like.   I decided that was just wishful thinking on my part.   It was probably just a weird dog track so I moved on.    Even though I'm out in the woods every weekend I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen bobcat tracks.   Elusive cats!   

Much later in the walk we wandered off trail for a bit following our curiosity.   As we bushwhacked back to the trail, I saw a line of tracks and my heart skipped a beat.   Perfect, round cat tracks in a nice neat line - definitely a bobcat.    I put my mitten down on the snow to provide scale to the photos.   My mitten is 10 inches long - about the length of this cat's stride.     So maybe that was a cat track way back at the stream.    

While seeing tracks always adds joy to my winter walks, nothing is as thrilling to me as the tracks of a bobcat.