Don't eat yellow snow...seriously you shouldn't.

That's right I wanted to start this post off with what I consider to be my best find to date...fisher piss. I am sure yall are asking "oh track master how did you find such a wonderful treasure?" Here is my story...
Now right before the snow had begun to seriously vanish I was able to get out early one morning. As I was trucking along in the wonderful 6 degree air, a set of tracks crossed my usual path. Now do to my past mistakes in identifying tracks, I was able to conclude that these bad larry's were in fact my nemesis the fisher.

Even got some tail on this one...

Needless to say I got excited and started following these tracks up and over hills, around in circles, over frozen creeks, and also some not so frozen ones. I was able to follow these tracks for nearly 2 hours to my complete and utter joy. Another really cool find was I found another set of tracks that converged with the original set. Now right near were the two sets intersected was a large pine tree, at the base of this tree the needles at the base had been all churned up and the snow was a trampled mess. Now I couldn't tell if this was two fishers who had a run in over territory or perhaps some spring time lovin going down. So I followed the tracks and they stayed together for a quite a while. Eventually they split and shortly after I found gold or yellow.
Mating season is right now, taking place in March and April. Also, it is possible that there are some kits in the area because February and March is when fishers give birth. So it is certainly possible that these fishers were in the throes of passion. As far as fisher territory goes it actually varies from season to season. In the winter a fishers range can be 5 square miles and 3 square miles in the spring. Males and females territories do overlap so I am thinking and hoping that next winter there will be even more fishers in the area.

Two fishers, one fisher following his/her own tracks, or an eight legged fisher?

Mother load...or just a load

Today was a glorious day to be in the woods! Warm weather, melting snow, mud, the stench of rotting vegetation, and what I can only assume was an owl orgy. But first I wanted to reply to some comments from the few poor buggers that have read this blog. First off was a question regarding whether or not we have deer? Oh yes we have them and a lot of them. In fact from the information that I have found, Massachusetts regards 6-8 deer per square mile as a healthy population, in my yard just the other day there was a herd of 14 (I live in Rowley). Essex county is actually sometimes deals with over population of deer.

Here is some deer poop, and there were three other piles around this one.

 Another question was why do female fishers delay pregnancy? There are several species that do this including; kangaroos, red pandas,seals, otters, and bats (there are about 100 mammal species that do this). Typically they delay pregnancy until their physiological needs are met and they have the best chance of allowing their offspring to survive. BUT interestingly enough why the fisher holds off for a full year is still a mystery. Check Out: http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/animals/archives/1992/mothers-in-waiting.aspx it is pretty interesting stuff, if your into the whole pregnancy thing.
I also need to clarify something, the picture I showed in my last blog I believe it was this one...
Is not a fisher. Fisher tracks have 5 toe prints, this only has 4. Now ruling out a bobcat, that leaves a member of the Canidae(dog-like mammals) family, which only show 4 toes in their print. Now if the medial toes point slightly inward it is apt to be coyote...unless its a wolf. But if they are more neutral or point outward then it is most likely a fox. These were some big prints and unless we've got godzilla foxes living in Rowley then these are coyote tracks. Today through the melting snow I was able to find and identify, thanks to my new knowledge, the 5 toed print of the elusive fisher.

But I have lost myself, the real meat and potatoes are the owls gone wild. Now thanks to the heads up from the professor I have been looking and listening for these feathered freaks to start making a ruckus. And they did not disappoint. I will go more in depth next time about there romances. Plus the answer to how critters keep their feet warm.

Bonus turd. 

Could be colder...

So last Thursday morning I ventured out into the balmy 6 degree morning air in an attempt to find some fresh tracks after the dusting of snow that we got in Ipswich/Rowley area last Wednesday evening. I was fairly optimistic about my chances of finding so good looking tracks...and I was right. I was able to find a fair amount of fisher tracks(right).What was interesting was how the fisher tracks seemed just wonder around. I followed the tracks to see if I could follow his/her movement but they just went around in circles, stopping at random, only to double back on its self. So I thought maybe it was mating season and a male was chasing a female around, but male and female apparently don't come into contact with each other until late March early April when they start breeding. What is pretty cool is that the female delays fertilization for 10 months. This could mean that there shall be some fisher kits around, cute and vicious what a great combo. I also saw fox, rabbit, racoon, and mouse tracks. What was strange was the absence of deer tracks, normally they are everywhere but after that snow fall not a track was to be seen. Perhaps the extremely low temps forced them to stay huddled up. I am also curious to know how all these little critters manage to keep there feet warm... So I am pretty sure the owl that heard was the barred owl. They have incredibly creep call, that can alternate between the normal hooting and then this crazy laughing.