Saturday, November 17, 2001

Fisher Finding

Today I was walking the rear of the property and on the other side of the swampy river bed with my daughter's dog Max. There is a small earthen dam or dike to the north where one can walk across to the other side. At one point I could hear a bizarre grunting sound. At first I thought it was a duck quacking in the pond, then maybe it was a frog croaking and then I thought it sounded more like a squirrel chattering. In fact it was a combination of all three and it did not come from the marsh but from up high in a solitary tree. There I saw a fisher [Martes pennanti] who was probably scared up the tree by the dog and not able to escape.

It clung to the tree from behind and stuck its head out in a fork in the tree. It is really a cute teddy-bear like animal. There was a muskrat [Ondatra zibethica] swimming in a large open water course nearby and I suspect the fisher was stalking it when rudely interrupted.