The Arb’s Wild Creatures | News from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

By Holly Einess

Animal tracks are everywhere this morning after last night’s inch of new snow. Turkey tracks are readily identifiable, their three large toes creating an arrow-like imprint. Squirrel and rabbit tracks aren’t always easy to distinguish from one another. Both animals are bounders, with their larger hind paws landing in front of their smaller forepaws. But squirrels tend to land more symmetrically, their paws creating a square pattern, whereas rabbits’ front paws often land one in front of the other, creating a Y shape. (Think “SQuirrel = SQuare” and “bunnY = Y.”)

Turkey, squirrel, and rabbit tracks

I hear in the distance the whinnying call of a pileated woodpecker. This largest of Minnesota’s woodpeckers—about the size of a crow—has a distinctive red crest and a solid black back. Pileated woodpeckers can be found throughout the eastern half of the US, southern Canada, and the Pacific Northwest, and are non-migratory. (Minnesota has eight other native woodpeckers: downy, hairy, red-bellied, red-headed, American three-toed, and black-backed; also the yellow-bellied sapsucker and northern flicker. You can read more about each of these species here.

Pileated woodpecker

The Arb’s hiking trails are used in multiple ways in the winter. The paved Three-Mile Walk is kept clear of snow for those who prefer an easier walk. Some of the non-paved trails are designated for snowshoeing, while others are for x-country skiing only. Still others, such as the boardwalk, are open for those with good snow boots!

Skiing and hiking trails

I warm up for a bit by the fire in the café, then observe the action at the bird feeders. A gray squirrel hangs upside down, helping himself to the bounty. Dark-eyed juncos and a cardinal scavenge for dropped seeds, while a nuthatch and a downy woodpecker go for suet. 

Bird-feeder action

Back outside, I decide to take a peek inside the Keating Greenhouse (located in the Home Demonstration Garden near the start of Three-Mile Drive). The warm air smells of another season, and the succulents here are thriving.

Succulents in the Keating Greenhouse

A red-bellied woodpecker searches for food high in a scotch pine. The red on the belly is usually very faint and hard to see, and some people mistake these birds for red-headed woodpeckers, but the latter has an entirely red head and a solid black back.

Red-bellied woodpecker

Chickadees flit about in the trees near the Ordway Picnic shelter. A white-breasted nuthatch makes its way down a trunk. Squirrels clamber over the nearby bird feeder as juncos hop about on the snow beneath, foraging for dropped seeds. I head to my car, once again energized and renewed by my time spent in the company of the Arb’s wild creatures.

Holly Einess is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer.