Who here has seen any of these animals in the eastern us?
Who here has seen any of these animals in the eastern us?
I've seen two fishers on my property in Western Maryland, up in the Allegheny Mountains. I also have weasels. The fishers are a recent arrival, seen last year, over the 13 years I've owned the property. The weasels have always been there. Pretty animals, but they play hell with the other small wildlife. The rabbits took a big hit. The bears, deer, coyotes, bobcat, and fox have been unaffected.
Anyone who wishes to do some reading about these critters is invited to go to Pennsylvania Game Commission's website and read their online wildlife notes. Reading them all will keep you busy for days and once finished you will know more than 99.9% of all A.T. hikers about the wildlife that lives there.
Last edited by emerald; 08-04-2011 at 13:57.
Mrs Gorp sent me a picture of a serious "fisher cat" photographed in her backyard in VT.
I saw a Fisher just south of Front Royal back in '99, unfortunately I didn't have a camera.
I saw a fisher in Vermont in 2000.
I have seen a pair of pine martins (close relatives) north of the whites in Nash Stream Forest. Cute little guys!
Pine Martens and fishers used to be all over the Adirondacks - I'd See a lot of them in the winter and deal with them living under shelters in the deep of winter,.
.....Someday, like many others who joined WB in the early years, I may dry up and dissapear....
I saw a fisher in Vermont in 2001, around July 4.
I would love to see a fisher cat in person. Fisher cats rock!
My B-I-L saw a fischer in NJ last year in his yard, just outside of Lambertville, not too far from Delaware River.
Seen them in Western Ma.
I once saw a fisher in a tree from the A.T. in Maine personally. It seemed like a redundancy because it happened so fast.
I had to ask myself, did I really see what I thought I saw in the fading light? When I saw it again in my mind's eye, it still looked like a fisher cat to me.
Last edited by emerald; 08-05-2011 at 10:32.
I saw two pine martens playing off of the Tuckerman Ravine trail just before the Lion head trailhead during my winter summit of Mnt. W. back in 2008. And I have seen a fisher in my back yard up in a tree. Very cool animals.
skinny d
I think I saw a fisher at night near my house, on the road. I had to look it up afterward to figure out what it was. I know they are in this town (Central Mass, near NH). I think they'e one of those animals that are present more often than they are seen. I would guess that they'd be present on the AT from PA north, and more common as you go north.
Fishers are one of the larger weasels; I think the only one bigger is the wolverine. Loggers up north like them because one of their favorite foods is porcupine.
They like to hang out in Spruce trees. They do not eat fish, but do eat small mammals, birds and bird eggs and of course porcies.
Least weasels are pretty small and not seen a lot because of their size. The common weasel is the one most associated with taking small livestock and small game. They have suffered a reduction in population because of loss of habitat (although they do adapt well to living with us) and they do love our ready supply of food.
Fishers were reintroduced into WV (which is the getting to be the southern part of their range) in the 1970's. I am jealous of those of you that have seen one. They like the trees and are night "riders". WV does have a low but stable population of fishers in the higher elevation counties.
Give Me Mountains & I Am Happy!
This happened over at one of the back L/Ts Over by Flowed Lands inthe Adirondacks.
It was late winter '96. I was sitting at the edge of the lean-to one sunny afternoon after climbing Skylight and Gray, enjoying a cup-a-soup and a ziplock full of oyster crackers. The bag was in my hand, dangling between my legs as I sipped my soup, full of relaxation. I suddenly felt a tug and looked down between my legs and there was a Pine Marten with the bottom corner of the bag in its' mouth.
I jumped a foot in the air and both of us let the bag go! As the bag hit the ground, oyster crackers flew everywhere. The Pine Marten disappeared for a moment and I got on my hands & knees to start picking up the crackers.
Curiosity got to me and as I peaked under the L/T floor, the Pine Marten scurried out and grabbed a cracker and scurried back. This went on for about 1 minute or so - each of of scrambing to pick up crackers - the Pine Marten must have picked up 30 or so byt the time it was cleaned up
(Oh....he got the Lipton egg noodles that spilled from my mug as well)
.....Someday, like many others who joined WB in the early years, I may dry up and dissapear....
In the Adirondacks, where I stomped for many years, I used to bearbag in the early years, but then I started having problems with Pine Martens getting into food bags - I learned in winter to hang a bear bag closer to the ground than closer to the branch simply because on 2 occurrences, I watched Pine Martens climb down my bag rope (Hanging 2 feet from the branch) and scurry off over branches as they make off with plastic sandwich bags of food/pop tarts from my food bag (Had a Zip open top bear bag then)
On another winter trip (around '96), I also had a problem with raccoons getting into my pack (Leaning against a tree overnight) - I had no clue what was in my pack at first - only I awoke hearing rustling noises and looked out my tent with my light and saw that my pack kept "bulging around from the inside". The pack finally fell over It finally fell over and one fat raccoon waddled out - several seconds later, another fat coon waddled out. It was pretty amusing. Fortunately they did no damage.
For areas that had no camping activity and plenty of snow, I would just bring the foodbag into my tent.
.....Someday, like many others who joined WB in the early years, I may dry up and dissapear....