An animal that I think is a pine marten was at Quill’s house. It’s ears are the right shape, but are so close together in the 
Quill housepicture that I wondered if it could be a gray fox. I put a face shot of each in for you to decide. Anyway, that’s the closest an animal has been to the house.
Out the window, squirrels are digging down through the snow for sunflower seeds that got covered up.
 |
 |
 |
| Red squirrel | Pine Marten | Gray Fox |
Down on Woods Lake, temperatures in the mid-30’s today caused some of the snow to melt. As temperatures fell at sunset, the moisture turned into mist. The last snow to melt in the foreground was where a pine marten had packed it down, making its tracks stand out with the ring of snow around each one.
 |
 |
| Marten tracks on Woods Lake | Mist over Woods Lake |
With Cyber Monday coming up, I wanted to share this idea for helping the Bear Center. iGive is in 1800 stores that will donate up to 20% (varies by store) of your purchase to the Bear Center http://www.bear.org/website/how-to-help/igive.html
Another way to help the bear center is to shop on Amazon using AmazonSmile and designate the North American Bear Center as your charity of choice at http://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about.
And don’t forget the Bear Center’s web store at bear.org.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center