Snowy tracks

Well, we had some snow here but not much! Just enough to cover the lawn while still letting the grass to poke through. And it didn't last long - it had mostly melted away by lunchtime. There was enough, however, to show some interesting tracks across the driveway...

So, out came the nature journal, along with my little three-legged fold-up stool in an attempt to keep me out of the snow. I measured the tracks so I could draw them life-sized, although a certain amount of melting was already happening...

The track-leaving culprit is a moorhen. Although we're not near a river or lake, there are ponds in the village (including one next door), as well as ditches and drains, and we have at least two resident moorhens that we see quite regularly.

Drawing this reminded me of some sketches I made a few years ago, when I looked out of an upstairs window and found a moorhen at eye level, perched up in the conifers!