Bears!! Beavers, Fisher, and My Favorite Deer - UPDATE November 18, 2024
Notch the Deer
Charlotte at den 11-16
Charlotte at den 11-16
Bears are back in the news. Charlotte the mother of three cubs who alternated visits with Lily and her four cubs to an old den disappeared near the beginning of October as Lily did a little later. We thought no one would use the den. Then about 8 PM on November 16, Charlotte was back with her three cubs (we think three, but only two were on the camera at a time) and they piled down into the den together. The picture is of just Charlotte. Maybe more later. We’ll watch with the trail camera as they settle in. We’re not quite sure of Charlotte’s lineage. The fact that Charlotte and her cubs are settling in this late—actually later than I remember any bear denning up in all my studies here—makes us think she was disturbed from her den by a deer hunter and knew this good den to go to.
Beaver w branch for food cache
Beaver w/branch for food cache
Beaver on lodge
Beaver on lodge
One of the beavers did something I’d never seen before. It surfaced with a branch in its mouth next to the old den across the lake directly over the food cache. It started swimming toward the newly mudded den near the WRI. I grabbed the camera and got in position for a picture if it indeed was taking the branch away from the old den and bringing it to the newer one. I got ready to click when a beaver climbed up on the lodge. Just as I was clicking its picture, the beaver with the branch emerged from underwater with the branch that it quickly dove under with to add to the new food cache. The reason it had emerged from underwater with the branch is that enough ice formed last night that it had to swim under the ice to get to the lodge. I suspect the beaver action this winter will be at the den nearby.
Fisher at night
Fisher photographed last night
Fisher in Jan 2024
Fisher in Jan 2024
Last evening, I thought I was learning something from the five red squirrels as it got darker and darker and two of them disappeared. I thought that even though they have a light here to see the food, they probably want to travel to their night spots while it is still light enough to see and avoid predators. Then I saw one of the squirrels sitting perfectly still on the second floor deck looking intently at something on the ground. I wondered what it could be. Then suddenly there it appeared as the squirrel raced to a tree and up to the tippy top. It was a big fisher, presumably a male that seemed familiar here, as it checked the spots where I’d put beef fat last winter. He wasn’t in positions that let me see his chest blaze and he was never in one spot long enough to click before he zipped down the tree to the ground where there wasn’t enough light for a picture. I went downstairs to a window looking out and there he was as a dark spot next to the big log. I tried to take a picture but it was too dark for the camera to focus and it wouldn’t click. I switched to manual focus but couldn’t see the blob well enough to be sure of the focus. I clicked a half dozen pictures to see if he held still in any of them. The shutter speed was a quarter of a second, which meant that any movement would be a blur. But this picture looked brighter than it was and showed his very distinctive chest blaze—the same I had seen in daylight a little over 10 months ago on January 8. I put out 10 pieces of bologna, but they were still here this morning. I’ll put more out to see if he comes back tonight.
Fisher Jan 2024 standing
Fisher Jan 2024 standing
Late this afternoon, I saw my favorite deer—a doe named Notch (see the notch on her right ear) who is the most trusting. She was her usual self and looked straight up at me with her pretty face and irresistible eyes and got her reward of a scoop of sunflower seed hearts. She seems to know she has me trained.
For Charlotte, we’ll see what the trail cam shows us over the next several days as she probably settles in with her big cubs. We’ll figure out what to do next.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
