The tracks in the snow were from a snowshoe hare. The hare was moving to the left. The beech leaf is in the right rear footprint — the rear feet land in front of the much smaller front feet.
There was the scat nearby.
I learn from Mary Holland that the round, brown, fibrous hare pellets have actually been ingested twice to get as much nutrition as possible from the consumed twigs, the bark, and plants buds.
There were more tracks and sure enough they led to a snowshoe hare tucked low out of the wind on the east side of a small brush pile down a small hill.
I slowly crept closer. Snowshoe hares feel they are well camouflaged; plus they hate to run unless absolutely necessary.
I got a sequence of a twitching nose. These three photos were taken 1/10 of a second apart.
I slowly crept closer. The photo below is uncropped and taken at a focal length of 250mm.
This was not my first encounter with a snowshoe hare, but it was the best one. Here is a photo I got hiking on Moose Mountain in 2006.
