Happy New Year and Two Visitors Back - UPDATE January 3, 2025
Hairy Woodpecker
After being absent a week or two, the bald eagle swooped in a couple times but was out of sight in seconds—too fast to grab the camera. That was during a warm spell when the beef fat can remain unfrozen longer.
Then it got colder and the main takers of the beef fat were hairy woodpeckers. Blue jays tried to eat it, too, but focused mostly on sunflower seed hearts.
Fisher male
Finally, the big male fisher showed up and managed to work free a small piece of beef fat. I was surprised see him. It had been awhile. I turned off the inside lights so as not to scare him, but that seemed to make it worse. Like I’ve seen with deer, he seemed more nervous when he couldn’t identify me so easily, so I turned the light back on. He was calmer and focused on working free a small piece of frozen fat, but all my pictures through the window were mainly reflections from the lighted room. He left to eat the small piece.To let him know it is worth coming here, I splurged. I put out a big piece of rotisserie chicken that was not frozen. It took him so long to eat the little piece of frozen beef fat that I almost gave up, but then there he was. I had the lights out, sat still, and clicked when he smelled it. And that was it. He grabbed the bonanza and was gone. I thought ‘Happy New Year’ to him and hoped he’d remember that this is where the good stuff is.
On another note, the Black Bear Field Courses have only three openings yet, all in the July 21-24 course. Looking forward to them as a highlight of the new year as usual.
Happy New Year and thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
