Girls Day Out

Hi all,

Martha, Suzanne, my daughter Amy and I spent a couple of hours this morning tracking the former beaver pond area above my property. We enjoyed sunny, blue sky, not too windy, a bit chilly. Snow conditions excellent for snow shoes. We started up the Plymouth Mountain trail a short way, then took a left turn to survey the area around the wetland. We found lots of young serviceberry trees. Now that we know what to look for, we're finding them everywhere; some heavily browsed, some not. Also noted browsed young balsams. We noted a weathered track (probably a moose, judging by the stride and size of the prints), and some small prints, probably mouse or vole and on the way back, two coyote tracks. We may have seen a very large white pine "babysitter tree." There were some small claw marks, which cubs could have made, but no indication of the sow marking the tree. We checked out a few old apple trees at the head of the wetland looking for bear sign, but didn't find any. A lovely way to while away the morning.

Here's a way to remember our focal species: BBFMMO (pronounced BIF'MO) for Bear, Bobcat, Fisher, Mink, Moose, Otter.

We'd hoped to find signs of otter or mink, and wonder where they are. We'll investigate large brooks and the lake edge next time. Also, no sign of fisher. A few years ago they were plentiful around here. Now they appear to be gone.

Let me know if you'd like me to email you the next time we go out.
Linda