Observations: March 16, 1996 Time: 9:15 am Weather: Overcast and cold, slight snow cover

Tiny Trails After a snowfall in Irving Nature Park you may see two pair of tiny tracks cut by a short horizontal line from a dragging tail! that zig-zag and then disappear at a small hole in the snow. These are the tracks of the Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), a tiny mammal less than 10 cm. long with a tail of 5 to 13 cm in length. Its coloring is reddish brown or grey brown fur with white under parts. This little creature uses tunnels made by burrowing larger members of the same family, like voles, mice or rats. Deer mice eat berries, nuts, seeds and insects. These secretive, quick, tiny animals are occasionally seen in the early evening hunting for food. Sometimes you will see the Deer mouse up a tree. For such a small mammal it has a lot of energy. Deer mice have been tracked travelling over half a kilometer searching for food near home in one evening.
Cloven Hooves Common tracks to find in the park's winter snow are large cloven hooves. Naturalist detectives describe them as two elongated semi-circles facing each other. These tracks belong to the White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). These graceful mammals browse on buds, leaves and twigs in the park and also on the winter saltmarsh grasses. Shy of any contact with people the deer are most often seen moving away, their white tails flipped up and fluffed out as an alarm signal to other deer. Bucks (males) grow antlers by late summer and shed them in January or February. You rarely find the antlers because other small animals chew them for their nutrients.
	Strange Growths In the winter some strange shapes appear on some of the dead plant stems. Dry goldenrod stems may show a long woody bump. Willows can have a cone-like growth at the end of a stem. These unusual growths are called galls. Sometimes galls are caused by fungi or bacteria, or by insects like midges and moths that eat into the stem and lay eggs there. Secretions from the developing larvae cause the plant stem to bulge and change texture. Galls are commonly found on Pin Cherry and blueberry bushes.

The Naturalist's Notebook is published quarterly. If you have any questions or topics that you would like to see addressed, please call John Gilbert, Manager, Fish and Wildlife, J.D. Irving, Limited, (506) 632-7777.