What a wonderful sight!!

Our house has been down with the stomach flu. Hope it passes you all by. Just have not even been up to turning on the computer.

But now I am feeling fine!!

Saw a most amazing sight last week. Walking by my office window I noticed a brown blur out the window. Took a closer look and saw a first time sight. Now in my 60 years I have seen a lot, but when I see something new it just thrills me to my core. And most especially when it is something in nature.

This reminds me that I saw two playful weasel-types creatures running after each other in the deep woods a few weeks ago. They were very slender and low to the ground, so they were not the same as this buddy.

It was a mammal, trotting just about six feet away from the house going towards the woods. As it did not do me the favor of stopping so that I could grab a camera, I just had to enjoy the close encounter. Luckily I was able to call Mia who shared the experience with me.

This long chubby brown furry creature could have been a woodchuck (groundhog), except that its head was a totally different shape, and its color a darker, warmer brown, and its tail bushy.

After looking through my mammal guides, "National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England" Peter Alden and Brian Cassie, Chanticleer Press Edition, 1998, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, Peterson Field Guides, Mammals, William H. Burt/Richard P. Grossenheider, Houghton Miflin Company, 1976, and National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals, John O. Whittaker, Jr., Knopf,1980, I was able to determine that this wonderful creature was a fisher cat, martes pennanti, or marten of the weasel family.

The fisher is a rare, solitary mammal. ( So those other two cavorting in the woods were not fishers) It is a forest carnivore and likes to eat rabbits, rodents, porcupines, squirrels, birds, shrews, fruits, truffles and carrion. It is also said to like cats and dogs. Maybe that's why there are no more stray cats or many squirrels around our woods! They are 31 - 40 " long and 11-16 " tall, weighing in at 3 - 18 lbs.

The fisher is primarily nocturnal, sleeping inside hollow trees or logs (which are plentiful in our woods). It may use underbrush or a hole dug in snow as a temporary den. Need to be on the lookout for its den on next exploration out through the snowy woods! It is known to venture out during the day.

Memo to self: remember to keep a few of the downed trees as is for future fisher dens!


Another interesting fact I discovered is that they climb trees. They are at home on the ground and in trees. They travel through the trees just like squirrels. I need to be looking up more. This is how they can attack porcupines, from above them, pouncing on their heads and then eating them from their unquilled underside. So folks, if you want to know how to locate one, look for porcupine remains!!!!! LOL

Okay, I am properly surprised. Just looked up porcupine in my New England guide and sure enough they are in New England!! Who knew???

So the lesson in this for me is that I need to be on the lookout outside more. You jsut never know what may be lurking right under your own windows!!

Stay warm - we are now shopping for a new heating system - oh, such joy!!!!!!