Sandy's Garden ... Paw-Prints in the Snow

This explains why, very shortly after last week’s snow stopped, I took my trusty but little-used snow shovel from its resting place in my garage and cleared the snow from an area of the patio to the rear of my house.

Well satisfied with my efforts, I proceeded to change the destination of some past-their-best slices of bread from the grey caddy to the patio, breaking the slices down to make the food more accessible to birds. Then, smug in the belief that I had helped our feathered friends, I returned to the welcome warmth of the house.

Putting food out for ground-feeding birds attracts grey squirrels which, having better memories than birds, can be relied upon to take only a very few days to become regular visitors in their quest for food; and, of course, if there’s no ready-to-eat fare available, they will seek an alternative like my bulbs.

Birds, too, have memories, even if these are inferior to those of the squirrels. They will become guaranteed daily visitors to gardens where experience has taught them that there is likely to be food.

Conversely, they will not waste precious feeding time during short winter days checking gardens where they have no realistic expectation of finding sustenance. And so, gentle reader, as I suspect you have already worked out, since I had taken no account of this known fact, darkness fell with all the bread remaining untouched on the patio.

But, by the time I was awake and dressed the next morning, the food had all gone. Even though I am not an early riser, it was still scarcely light when I made this discovery, meaning that the food had to have been consumed by a nocturnal prowler, a conclusion confirmed by the absence of any bird footprints from the still-lying snow surrounding the cleared area.

But yes, there were paw-prints to, around, and from the feeding zone. So, what quadruped had left these tell-tale signs of its night-time presence?

My assumption was that it had been a cat, for the route to and from the patio was one which I know is taken by a neighbourhood moggie during daylight translations from the street to Network Rail’s estate.

An internet search for cats’ paw-prints found plenty of artistic impressions resembling the prints in the snow but a near-absence of photographs of paw-prints similar to them. Nevertheless, I am satisfied that they were made by a cat.

But the next day I saw that a fresh set of prints had appeared marking a route from the patio at right angles to that taken by the cat. The appearance of this line of prints was also different.

Where pussy had stepped out neatly, with paw-prints evenly spaced, this animal had obviously gone left, right, rear-paws-together-jump, left, right, rear-paws-together-jump.

One look at a video of a rabbit in motion confirmed my suspicion that this second set of prints had been made by a rabbit.

And I don’t wish Flopsy a happy New Year!