The snow of two days ago is no longer a pristine expanse of white. To jog my memory of the plant and insect life I resort to forcing two cubic feet of summer. To recall the animal life of the warmer seasons, however, I only have to go outside after a snow. Though winter subdues them, most mammals continue to be at least partly active in the cold weather. The unseen presence of these mammals can, in fact, be more tangible in winter, when their tracks are easier to spot.
Fresh snow is a piece of blank paper that records the faintest scribbles.
I wrap myself in a heavy coat, pull on waterproof boots, and go out to see what they have been writing. There is no evidence of the chipmunks that loiter under the bird feeder in warmer weather. They and the woodchucks in the north meadow are in deep hibernation, as unsociable as the birds that have flown south. New falls of snow are quickly doodled by the squirrels, however. Though both gray squirrels and red squirrels take long naps in the winter months, one or two squirrels are active for part of each day, except in the deepest cold.