Wild Walks with a Four-Year Old

By Margaret Gillespie

Snow has been sparse this winter but animal tracks are still out there ready to tell a story. I started exploring tracks with my niece, Yesi, last winter and she was ready to go again with the first snow. Last week we specialized in one kind of animal track – repetition is a good thing especially since those were the only tracks we found! The small tracks usually ended at the base of a tree which was the clue Yesi needed to “think squirrel.” We became red squirrel experts!
On a recent walk, we were excited to find one of our favorites from last year. Yesi could slip two fingers into a deer track and she had fun trying to trick me with deer tracks she made herself! We found a place where several deer had followed each other across a narrow stone dam. Just upstream we found a challenge for the two of us, along with our poodle companion, Mica. A pine tree had fallen over the stream and we made our way across, determined not to slip! Of course we had to go back and forth – such fun!
Have our adventures encouraged you to get out and explore on a “warm” winter day? Good news!