While cycling toward Essex via Walker Road I came across a fresh but fading track from a wild neighbor crossing the road too soon after the white line was repainted. I braked and looped back to reexamine these distinct but not definitively decipherable paw prints.
My first instinct was that the accidental graffiti artist must have been a Bobcat or Coyote. I sent our friend (and Rosslyn’s wildlife steward) John Davis the pictures with a note.
Geo: Please look at those photos I just sent you and tell me if you don’t think that’s a pretty big cat that walked across the freshly painted white line and carried its tracks out into the road. And if you don’t think it’s a cat, what do you think it is?
John: Wow, tracks on pavement are unexpectedly bewildering, aren’t they? I guess with you Bobcat because no claws show, but shape almost seems like Coycat or Bobote! If symmetrical, probably canine; if asymmetrical, likely feline, Sue Morse would remind us.
Geo: I find the tracks really exciting one way or the other. I’m going with a Bobote!
Coycat or Bobote? Bobcat or Coyote?
I’m planning a return ride to Walker Road to see what I might discern…
What do you think?