Thursday, January 26, 2012

Raccoon tracks in a light dusting of snow

Dan went out tracking this morning after noticing how nicely Teddy's paw
prints showed up in the light dusting of snow we got overnight. A
raccoon had been prowling along the wetland edge in the early morning
hours, leaving these tracks. There's also been a lot of fisher
activity, retracing the same path and taking advantage of fallen logs to
move about the wetlands.

Earlier this week Dan found a set of bounding bunny tracks along the
side of his house. The racing rabbit cleared 10 feet between bounces.

4 comments:

  1. A Concord resident living near White's Pond reports having seen a fisher family crossing through her yard in the past week. I've inquired about a photo and there may be one. Given their solitary nature, wouldn't a female with kits be the only possibility, and wouldn't early February be unusually early for them to be on the ground foraging together...even with this warm weather?

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  2. Yes, it would be unusually early, even with this warm weather, because the fisher's reproductive cycle is triggered by day length. If there were just 2 animals, it could be a male and female checking each other out. If more than two, I wonder if she saw a family of otters. Would love to see a photo.

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  3. Thanks, Janet. Otters might be possible. I will try to get a photo. Lydia Rogers, one of our Concord trackers, just emailed me that she's caught fisher in pairs several times in the wildlife tunnels in town...likely siblings, she thinks.

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  4. Sibling fishers -- an interesting thought. I remember an outing to Quabbin Reservoir where I thought we had 2 juvenile bobcats traveling together in winter. I haven't seen that for fishers, but why not.

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