Observations by danwright

Lots of these in a sandy area up from Lake Casitas. I'm putting on two photos to show what looks like the longish stride pattern in one photo, and just that there were lots in the other photo. This is sand so none of the prints I saw were clear. I wouldn't normally put these prints where since they are not clear, but I just want to know what they are (deer?).

This would be on the large end of a coyote. Coyote are around there, but so are domestic dogs. I think the shape of the digits are more stereotypical of coyote, but given there are likely more d.dogs there, I'd go with that.

Lake at low levels, though had recently rained.
Lot the size and more space between pads than on a domestic cat. I saw what looked like a large fox from the distance as I was walking to the lake, maybe a red fox. Maybe this is one of its friends.

By an edge of a creek where it had rained recently. This is a residential area (in a park) but in a small town in foothills. What got me was that these tracks are 2'', and that would be big for a domestic cat. There seems less negative space than for a bobcat, which is the right size for the tracks. My bet is on domestic cat, but I think I wanted it to be something else.

Sorry the penny is far from the tracks. I took this photo from above because deep mud there. A saw small frogs there. The hole looks like scorpion hole in the western deserts, but that isn't it. The marks could be a frog coming out, and going back in. Interesting one (I think).

The bulbs on the tracks were clear (I got a cast but only 2 for the digits came out). I looked this up, and it matched the Western scrub jay and the web said they are abundant in central Texas, so going with that. It is narrower than pigeon and smaller than crow.

When I first saw this I was hoping crawdad, but those probably aren
t pincher marks (I made a cast of this, but these didn't show well, (though the small shrew/mouse at the bottom did show). The drag is really big for a tail, so I am thinking beetle.

I'm adding this to note that I made a casting of this which shows the prints. I'll bring to the next class if anyone is interested. As far as IDing, it is mouse size and as a group we said some type of mouse (this was circled by Dave for us).