Site Discussions

Marvelous article, thank you Peter Pfeiffer.  I’m going to order your book.  Your story is an inspiration.  I live on the edge of Irving land in northern Maine and industrial forest management is a whole different world.  I hope I can do as well by my land as you have by yours.

Excellent and beautifully written article. Here in CT the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been undertaking a process of live trapping females and attaching a collar with GPS tracking device. The collar automatically drops off within a year and is retrieved. The data is helping wildlife biologists understand more about where the females go during mating and young rearing season. Thanks again for an interesting article

Thank you, Ms. Spikol.  A most excellent article, and fascinating in-depth behavioral notes and breeding habits.  We get so excited when we see relevant tracks around the Lakes Region, and our family share notes about the tracks, out below our back steps, along the water’s edge.  I think a Trail camera is in our future for more evidence to share.  Thx Tom

Very poetic article.

Touching and informative to read.

I live on the edge of a large National Forest in Addison Co. Vermont.

There is an arm of South Mountain that is called Bob Cat Ridge.

And a restaurant in Town named The Bob Cat.

from Lincoln Vermont,

D.Mortier

We really enjoyed this article. It has been years since I have seen a Wood Turtle in the wild. I have spent hours looking and hoping. We were lucky enough to witness a mass Map Turtle nesting last June in the Champlain Islands. I have video of communal nesting. Watching the female dig with such determination and skill was an amazing experience I will never forget.

I’m afraid I have to agree with Bill up above. These birds are bullies to other small birds. One or two of them will crowd out a feeder and threaten other birds who show up by puffing up their chests and lunging at them. They will eat until everything is gone. So they are not welcome. all I have to do is open my front door and off they fly. The smaller birds (chickadees, titmice, finches, wrens, etc.) immediately fly back to the feeder. So I suppose that, other than Bill, no one else has noticed this?

I give Pete’s book Hard Chance 5 stars!  It’s well-written and informing, and he has a wry sense of humor.  It deserves a place on your bookshelf.

This was informative. Thank you for sharing cattails with me.

Fred,

A sapsucker would be surprising, but hairy woodpeckers are present year-round in the Northeast, and we have been seeing them frequently in our woods in Vermont. My guess is that you have a hairy woodpecker that has found a rich source of insects or other prey in that butternut!

Now I know what I’m looking at…other than a beautiful sloping field bordered by two lovely maple trees…as I eat my Kimball’s Special in Jaffrey all summer! Thanks!

Wonderful tale of observation, truth & resilience. So much resonated. Thank you
Juliet

I bought my land from a neighboring farmer with whom I later served on our town’s board of selectmen.  I wish I had asked him more about his early days trying to make a living on a rocky piece of land in pre-skiing Vermont.  The stories I did hear were wonderful.

I was friends with Peter back in the 70’s in Maine and the 80’s in Naples Florida. It’s refreshing to hear his story and would love to see him again someday.

I have a woodpecker that looks like a sapsucker or hairy woodpecker drilling sap from my butternut trees everyday and it started about 1-2 weeks ago and now is only 2/17. Isn’t that early?

Great description of the Reserve. I had NO idea that Maine still had 5,000 intact acres of uncut old-growth forest! This unique place is now on my list of “go to” places to visit and fish. I’m particularly intrigued by the blue-backed trout, a species I have never caught or encountered elsewhere in Maine.

Enjoyed the observation of how the Downy and Hairy woodpeckers coexist. We have both at our feeders, and noticed that the Hairy won’t share the suet, with one exception: they will eat side by side peacefully with the Carolina wrens. Perhaps they think Carolina’s are as cute as we do.

Wow, what a great article.

What a beautiful piece. Thank you for your close attention and your ability to articulate it so poetically.  I, too, love the word ptyxix/ptyxis, which I immediately looked up.  Your explanation is the best. I have been one of those hikers.  It seems to me that drawing the leaf buds will be the best way for me to really see them.

Yesterday in a wildlife management area in Montville, Maine my friend and I were snowshoeing in foot deep snow.  We came across a weird track that curved and twisted all over the woods.  It’s overall pattern was wavelike going forward with 2 troughs, one on either side, and a 4-5” swept depression in the middle.  Must have been something with a fat belly scraping the ground and a waddling gait.  I thought porcupine.  After awhile we came across a dead porcupine, face down large and, fat, with some light yellow snow near it.  There was no apparent injury and no blood at all.
The body was cold but still soft, especially the belly. 
What is the story here?  Any thoughts?  It was a well nourished animal.

This was such an interesting article simply because living in New England we tend to take White Pines for granted.  They have always been here and we hardly acknowledge them.  We have a grove behind our house which is home to lots if creatures.  Ivhave watched the cones form year after year and wondered about gestation and so on. My husband and I love them.  So happy to know more about them!