Site Discussions

Exquisite writing! A beautiful hook, and enticement. Great back story that set the stage. This article created an eagerness in me to get out there and discover.

I enjoyed reading Kathy’s story about wintergreen. I have fond memories of my mother making wintergreen tea for me as a child. Do you know where dried leaves can be bought or how I could make wintergreen tea? Thank you for any help you have.

Another fine editorial, Dave. I believe your phrase “cultural conservation” succinctly describes the mission of Northern Woodlands. Keep it alive, it’s worth saving.

My family and I are moving to Concord, New Hampshire in a couple weeks and my 5 year old son really wants to explore and find crawfish. Can anyone offer some tips about where and how to find them in the area? Any help is much appreciated.

This was absolutely fascinating!  We have many fields at our house and I enjoy the fireflies immensely.  Our back yard field is SO full of them that when I walk into the field I get smacked in the face by many.  It is a glorious sight!

A fisher was photographed in the Bronx three years ago: https://naturalsciencesresearch.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/fisher-photographed-in-the-bronx-first-ever-nyc-record-of-this-squirrel-and-rat-predator/

The only difference is that the coal miners life is killing them had. That they are not healthy and happy. The factory workers were getting high union wages and had boats and cars and lived well, not exactly the same but maybe closer. Farmers that will not plant different crops to keep their farms going and are living on government subsidies…The indigenous people were flexible and resilient. They adapted to place. They were free. not sure it is the same. The family farmer of a while ago is close.

What a great editorial. Pictures do say a 1000 words.

I have heard them scream working a a fresh water marsh invoking terror to nesting geese and ducks. I assume raiding eggs while the females are sitting on them. They are no match for this opportunistic feeder.

Great article.  I’ve had the same experience, except in a reverse.  I’m the teacher who gets to stay home in the summer with my little girl.  I find myself thinking the same way though - how am I going to get all of this done today with Laila? Late night planning sessions (mostly mentally) for the things I wanted to get accomplished, odd hour building projects, squeezing efficiency into all my extra seconds…and changing up my usual woods routine for easier paths became the norm.  The next thing I knew it, my little girl was 3.  Now I’m the one with the puffy eyes when I think about how fast it’s going.  I think the mantra for guys like us is ‘be present, be present, be present’ - because that’s just what it is…a present.

Have seen fishers crossing my yard and the road here around Mansfield Hollow Lake. Have also heard a horrible scream a few times and was told it was a fisher cat, but it could also be the fox families that live here. Glad to see all the wildlife around here. There was even a moose photographed here two years ago. Saw three osprey last night, too. And bats live in my house’s fascia boards…not in my belfry!

I have many trees down both sides of my property and a large deer population that is devastating my gardens. If I run the wire across the tress like your picture and then attach mesh fence to it will that solve the problem?

I see no benefit in repopulating fishers. They are vicious killers who I believe have killed more pet cats than porcupines.  Because they are so fast and quick animals don’t even have a fighting chance.  I would be extremely happy if they were to become rare and endangered!

Ah yes! I may be 73 in a few weeks, and a Nam vet, but I still remember my daughter at that age when she was so small one of her nicknames was Tea Cup Buns - they were so small they would fit in a tea cup. And the time does flee way too soon. But it is replaced every day by something new.

This nest was beautifully constructed in the middle of a hanging flower arrangement outside of our porch.  The nest is tight.  I swear if it fell in a pond it would float for days.  The eggs (6) are a half inch in length, colour is light to medium shade of blue with a few tiny black spots on the ends.  Nobody has seen the mother yet though she scared me one night after dark when I went to water the plant. This was before I knew the nest was there.  Anyway the chicks are beginning to hatch this morning I’d like to know what species of bird we are raising.

I know they are here in the Ohoi Valley. I have seen three personally in the last 4 years and one on a game cam last year.

Enjoyed the article, I have been told that porcupines can scream, maybe when a fisher is chasing them?

In my great many years spent outdoors in NY and southern Canada, I have seen MANY Fishers, even called them in while turkey hunting, but have never had the experience of hearing one scream. My first observations took place in the 1950’s in the Adirondacks, but now they are everywhere.

Enjoyed your column very much.

I live on the Kennebunk River and have seen their ‘lope’ at dusk as they cross the road. A few years back I found one that had been hit by a car. I stopped to move it out of the way - and because my curiosity got the best of me - and was really surprised how long, and heavy, they are. I reported it to the Roadwatch program.

Re fishers screams: I have personally heard a fisher scream. My house is on the Josias river in southern Maine. One day years ago while watering my garden with my back to the river, I heard this god-awful scream from behind me. I whipped around to see high on a branch in a tree in the wetland between the river & my land, a fisher. Below the fisher, on the tree trunk about 8’ below was my cat. He was about 30’ up the tree. When he heard the scream, plus my scream of his name, he started to shinny down the tree. When he came to me I grabbed him & brought him inside. The fisher paced back & forth on the branch high up for 15 minutes before he came down & moved on.

Some of the confusion about fishers screaming or not may be the similarity to the red foxes territorial cries. I have heard that many times on my 16 acres of woods. My cat was the usual instigator in those cases.

So whether you believe my story or not will not change the facts of it. I feel lucky to have been able to experience it.