Tracking

My husband is very observant, especially in the outdoors. We can go down our 4-wheeler trail in the summer and all the sudden he will halt, hold up his hand, motion me alongside and then point out some tracks on the trail. "Look, a moose and her calf. They were running and they came through less than an hour ago."

"How can you tell how long ago it was?" I ask, full of awe at his tracking abilities.

"Well, we just came through an hour ago and they weren't here then. See how they are on top of our old 4-wheeler tracks?"

"Oh." I respond. Then, "Well, how can you tell those are our 4-wheeler tracks? They look like all the other tracks I can see."

Then I get a "wow, you are really unobservant" kind of a look. "Our tires don't look anything like those other tires. See our trailer tracks?"

Again, I respond with an amazed "Oh." I'm very articulate at times.

In the winter he points out our snowmachine tracks and says, "If you ever get lost you can follow our tracks back home." I look at the million snowmachine tracks all running together and over one another and I say, "Oh." He can see I'm unconvinced so he shows me how ours are different than the million others. I confess, I can't really see much difference. But I try. "Oh, now I see. Ours is narrower than the others?" He rolls his eyes and points to the line running down the middle of each ski and then how much wider my track is than the standard machine. "Oh." Again I am unconvinced. My only hope is to never, ever get lost. I keep him in sight at all times.

Here is a test to see how observant you are. Who made these tracks?

Here's the first clue: It's winter, so it must be a winter bird. You did guess they were from a bird didn't you? Next clue: I took the pictures at my work which is a garbage transfer station.

This is another animal walking through the parking lot at my work. Can you guess what it is?

Answers tomorrow. After I ask Tim and find out for sure!