Thursday, February 7, 2013

What's your guess?

This photo was taken near the lake this morning. What kind of animal would do this?


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beaver is my guess .

Sylvia Currie said...

Good guess, but I think beavers stash food and stay inside their houses in the winter. Also, this looks like an animal that was going after bugs, not bark. My first thought was a bear, but there were no tracks in the snow. Any other guesses?

Anonymous said...

piliated woodpecker?

Anonymous said...

Porcupine

Sylvia Currie said...

Somebody sent this along: "A very short moose that likes to eat bark?" :-)

Anonymous said...

Well yes, moose do like to eat bark, but is that a dead tree? So I guess that it is the largest of the woodpecker family, they can chop out a large area easily.

Sylvia Currie said...

Piliated Woodpecker is the most popular guess (from people who commented here, and others who got in touch with me) although it's a odd to see them eat so close to the ground!

Anonymous said...

We saw this tree as well when we were snowshoeing - our guess was the Lynx up there - looked like claw marks on the base of the tree.

Sylvia Currie said...

A lynx! That's an interesting guess. From what I've read lynx will mark their territory by scratching trees. In this case it looks like he got carried away! :-) There are tracks around that area as well.

Anonymous said...

Big paws too - almost the size of my hand!