Tuesday, February 22, 2022

3 More Days


 It was a warm day, and it felt very much like spring, 50 degrees, with a breeze. Tim had today off for President's Day, which was very nice. 

We went back up to the retirement property. When William and Tim went there on Saturday to set out corn, they studied the tracks in the snow. There were lots of deer and rabbit tracks, of course, but headed across the little wooden bridge, he saw foot prints without claws. Retractable claws mean a cat, and our only sort of 'cat' here is a bobcat.  



He came home all agog about that. Across the road, there had been a deer killed back when the snow was so deep that the poor thing could evidently not move fast enough to get away. My sister and brother in law thought that the killer was either a bobcat or a fisher because it was a pretty violent scene.


A Fisher

The tracks across the road on our property in such close proximity to the killed deer leads us to believe that we've got a bobcat in the area. Discovering a new creature in the area is always a bit of a thrill. My sister and her husband are less thrilled, being worried about new calves. 

So today, we went back up to check for tracks and to take a look at the game cameras. 
There were what appeared to fresh bobcat tracks as well as coyote tracks along with the expected deer and rabbit tracks. 

Tim switched out the camera card and we've got lots of deer pictures, rabbits, squirrels, foxes but unfortunately, no bobcats. Never one to give up, Tim bought another game camera to overlook the path the bobcat seemed to follow before. 

We tried to take William bowling but couldn't get a lane so we wandered around model homes to get ideas on a sensible floorplan for the house we will be building.  

We did not have internet or phone for the morning. Once again, I left a message for Breezeline's specialist; you know, Chris, the one that always returns calls.
 I have not heard back from him. 

This evening, I cleaned out the fridge. The freezer is stocked with 'instant meals' 
for the man who does not like to cook. 

Since the internet came back, again, I got the directions to the airport. 

I've done one last load of laundry. 
My travel clothes are laid out. 
The suitcase is ready to go. 
Just the last minute toiletries remain to be tossed into my backpack. 


Ellie K. the trip will be 15 hours and change. 
PS, would you mind sending me a quick e-mail?


18 comments:

  1. A fisher? I must look this up, it is a completely unfamiliar name to me (apart from the obvious, such as a kingfisher).
    Poor deer, yes, but poor bobcat if he or she can't catch any; they all need to eat, don't they.

    I hope all goes well with your trip! 15 hours is rather long, but then of course I am used to inner-European distances where the next country is only a couple of hours away, if that. For example, from Stuttgart to Zurich (Germany to Switzerland) it is just under half an hour's flight.

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  2. It's the circle of life, Librarian. I understand how it works. Fishers are pretty vicious animals, and they generally stick to the heavily wooded areas. You usually don't see them, period, let alone in a pasture. Bobcats are also pretty shy, and killing a deer is extremely rare for them. Their normal prey is much smaller. I would not consider either of them a threat to livestock. I also don't own livestock, so my opinion is irrelevant.

    I hope that this will not become a problem, because it really is exciting to have them around.

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  3. I am not sure if your bobcat is the same as our lynx canadensis, but I have briefly seen one of those. I think they’re related but slightly different. I did read up on it once, but well . . .

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  4. I think I might come off rather worse if I tried to stroke a bobcat, enticing at they look.

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  5. The old Maine woodsmen and farmers always said the only thing in the Maine woods to be afraid of were fisher cats (that's what we call them though they're not cats) and people. And we have black bears!

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  6. Did the deer die first? I have a hard time believing a bobcat brought down a healthy deer. I have no experience around fishers but I have heard you don’t want to corner one.

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  7. It is impossible to know for sure, Ed, but it looked unlikely. They had gone skiing and found the deer off the trail. The kill scene was pretty messy, definitely seemed that a struggle had occurred. They've seen sign of a fisher in the area as well as a bobcat. You are correct that it is not common, but there's quite a few videos and studies done if you google it.

    I personally think that it is very interesting. He is not unwelcome in our minds. The fisher? Eep. Hope he stays in the woods.

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  8. The days will go quickly now and you will be on your way. I hope it all goes smoothly and you have a relaxing, restful flight! You will have so much fun!

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  9. I assume you are flying into a London airport?
    No weather warnings for England on Thursday or Friday! I just checked.

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  10. I think the coyotes would kill the deer. Coyotes are opportunists and will kill a deer when it's in trouble. They will also run a deer into a chain link fence. the bobcat will join the feast after the deed is done. .

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  11. Exciting to have the trip coming up so soon!

    I have never in my life heard of a fisher. In fact I suspected it must also be known by another name, but apparently fisher is what they're most commonly called and they're known as that on Wikipedia. I don't know where I've been all this time, but my excuse is they don't live anywhere I've ever lived! (I HAVE heard of martens, which are apparently a relative.)

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  12. I had to look up fishers. They're related to martens which is what I thought it was at first.

    How long are you going to be in England?

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  13. Nope, GZ, I'm flying into Birmingham, and will land there Saturday AM. I've been keeping an eye on your weather there as well.

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  14. Bon voyage and do please send me an e mail once you are in the UK.

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  15. It's sometimes surprising what will kill what, when hungry. Back when we raised goats, coyotes were a problem. We haven't had any trouble with them attacking calves, but I still don't trust them and HATE hearing them yipping in the woods. Black Vultures (a little smaller than a Turkey Vulture, though I tend to call both Buzzards) will kill a cow and its calf during the birthing process. We've had it happen.

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  16. Kelly: OMG! I would never have guessed THAT! I don't mind coyotes or their yipping. But like I said, I don't have livestock.

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  17. Pixie: I'm gone for a month.

    Lynn Marie, we have black bears too. The bumbling oafs of the forest. The only time that I ever saw one that I was afraid of was one that had tipped over a refrigerator in our neighbor's picnic pavilion. He had pulled a case of coke out behind our wood pile and was sprawled out like a bearskin rug, biting into the cans and sucking the coke. I was trying to pull my dog away and back to the house. He stopped sucking soda long enough to growl at us both. I skedaddled. With the dog. To be fair, he probably had quite a caffeine buzz.

    Once we did have a problem bear. He was a little scary too, but he ambled off at some point and did not come back. Most of them though were funny critters.

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