Powder revives the forest, fields and wild spaces. Yesterday they were lifeless and dark, and in the morning the powder turns white, bright and alive. The first snow showed a picture of the nocturnal life of the beast, deaf and closed hitherto. Powder made everything invisible visible and told about the life secrets of the forest.
Powder. Meaning of the word
The meaning of the word "powder" in the main publications is interpreted the same way. Powder is considered a layer of fresh snow. Sometimes it is called the first snow. And in the hunter's dictionary, you can also find such an answer to the question of what powder is: "This is snow that fell all night and stopped by morning." The word is common Slavonic. The term goes back to the same basis as gunpowder, powder. It turns out that the earth from heaven is covered with white powder - snow of any kind: wet (snow porridge), loose and frozen (groats), feathery and tender, puader (mainly found in the mountains), virgin lands. By the way, "virgin lands" among snowboarders, for example, means almost the same as powder - an untouched, freshly fallen soft layer of snow. Among hunters, the powder that has fallen out each subsequent time is called “perenova”, because it hides the oldtraces and reveals new ones. Depending on the type of snow that has fallen, there are types of powders. But we'll talk about that later.
Wildlands
Without snow in winter, the life of the animal world is invisible to the untrained eye. You can wander for hours through the forest or the steppe and, except for birds, not meet a single living creature. But then white powder sprinkled the ground, and strings of animal tracks became visible. Paradise for a real pathfinder is a forest covered with the first snow in the period of late autumn or the so-called pre-winter. At this time, many animals are still active, which have not yet gone into hibernation: raccoon dogs, badgers. Some representatives of the animal world are also active, which in winter most of the time - under the snow and appear extremely rarely on the surface: muskrats, moles, water rats. In the field of powder, it reveals the paths of movement of individual ground squirrels and jerboas, which have not yet completely hidden in holes either. If new snow does not fall for a long time, a so-called “multi-track” is formed. In this case, it is rather difficult to distinguish a fresh trace of an animal from an old one, but new favorable aspects are opened for pathfinders to observe: it is easier to find animal trails, determine favorite places of animals, traces of their struggle with each other.
Types of powders
The visibility and quality of traces largely depends on the type of powder. Experienced people who often visit the winter forest, but mostly they are hunters, fishermen, amateur trackers, and just villagers living "from the forest" andthose who regularly go there for various reasons, up to the preparation of firewood, know well what powder is, and by the look and type they will immediately determine what kind of snow has fallen. Deep and high snow is called "dead" powder. It is difficult for a person and a large animal to pass through such snow, and for a small animal, even more so, they sit, wait, and there are no traces. On the "printing" powder, on the contrary, traces are visible and invisible, and all are clear, embossed. "Hard" powder is also called "noisy". It usually happens in frosty weather - loose snow creaks under the feet of man and beast, creating noise. The hunter gives himself away, but the game is good, he hears in advance about the approach of danger and manages to bury himself. "Grassroots" powder - snow carried by the wind from one piece of land to another. Accordingly, one can easily guess what “horse” powder is - this is a sediment falling from snow clouds. There is also such a thing as “warm” powder. This means that the fallen snow lies in warm weather and is already beginning to melt.
Porrosha is a faithful assistant to hunters
Snow isn't just for kids in winter. There is a certain contingent of men who look forward to this type of precipitation. Hunter. What is powder, he knows firsthand. If fresh snow has fallen, then you can accurately determine where and where the beast ran in recent times, and just right to take a gun and go hunting. It is easy to spot pheasants, gray and white partridges by such “hot” tracks, especially early morning is suitable for this, before they have time to fly to a new feeding place after spending the night. ForIt will not be difficult for an experienced hunter to read the traces on the powder: whether an elk has passed, whether a squirrel has galloped, or a mountain goat has been compressed by snow. Many years spent next to the beast taught me to read the "white book".
And in the city, the dust will crush the powder, cover the houses and streets with a snow blanket, brighten many in the yard and in the soul. Nature. She will always bring something good for a person. You just need to learn to wait.
