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Wild Animals I Have Known… in the Finger Lakes (Part 1!)

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I lived for two years in or near the Bloomfields, and now we’ve been 25 years in Bath, and in those years I’ve spent a fair amount of time hiking, walking, or driving. So I’ve seen wildlife, and some of those encounters are worth remembering.

*Using binoculars to watch a herd of deer on Boughton Road near Bloomfield, I was delighted as a red fox arrived. He was minding his own business, and skirting the herd, but that wasn’t enough for one of the deer, which repeatedly lowered its head and rushed the fox… which was way too small to threaten a single deer, let alone a herd. The fox kept circling out farther in hopes of getting around, and the deer kept on blocking, until finally the fox trotted back where it came from, throwing its head over one shoulder to glare at the deer. I could see the fox’s mouth moving, but couldn’t catch what it was saying. Which was probably wasn’t printable anyway.

*On a trail through high brush at Ganondagan State Historic Site, we suddenly came upon a VERY young fawn. Instantly freezing, we rubbernecked around for the mother, which we knew would be close by. We quickly spotted her, looking worried as her little one stumbled toward us. All at once the fawn jerked to a halt, gave us a double-take, and lurched into the brush after mother, who led it quickly away.

*On a somewhat similar trail near Owego, I came upon a baby skunk. To my left was high brush. To my right was a lake. If I reversed course, I’d have to double back about half a mile. Where were the mother and the other offspring? Surely this little one would soon get off the trail?

Well, no. Did the babies spray? I didn’t THINK so, but I couldn’t remember for sure. Finally I retraced my steps a little, turned to face forward again, raced for the baby skunk, flew high over it, and hit the ground running. All ended well, for both of us.

*I was on the hill at the D.E.C. Twin Cedars site near Avon, watching waterfowl down in the lake, when a short-tailed weasel ambled out of high grass, strolled across the trail almost over the toe of my sneaker, and vanished into grass on the other side. (Might have been a least weasel. But the range doesn’t seem right.)

*I was narrating on a bus tour up Canandaigua’s Main Street when one of the out-of-state passengers asked if we had coyotes. Yes, I told her, but we won’t see any on this trip. Seconds later, as we crossed the train tracks, I glanced to my left and there stood a coyote, at 10 o’clock in the morning, looking things over like he was planning to buy the place.

*Watching birds at a pond off Mitchellsville Road in Steuben County, I saw a muskrat swim up to another muskrat on the shore. The two of them rubbed noses and kissed.

*Driving a dirt road near Buena Vista, we saw what we thought was a mastiff shuffling toward us. When it jerked its shocked head up, we saw that it was a yearling bear. The bear rushed off the road and started climbing a tree – a juvenile response, which together with the size and the season of the year convinced us that this was one of the previous year’s young, recently chased off by its mother and now on its own for the first time.

*Interesting though those tales may be, they don’t even mention woodchucks, bobcats, beavers, fishers, rabbits, squirrels, possum, or raccoons – maybe another time!

Our Changing Wildlife

“The times change, and we are changed with them.”

The Latin saying speaks sooth. “Change and decay in all around we see.” Sometimes change is sad, and sometimes it’s scary. But it’s sometimes exciting, often fascinating, and always inevitable.

In the space of a couple of weeks recently I saw several deer… a wild turkey… a beaver dam… and some black squirrels.

All of them represented CHANGE here in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier. In parts of our region deer are so plentiful that they’ve become a nuisance, and Steuben beats every other county in the state for deer take during hunting season. But there are old men and old women who remember being taken from school and put onto a bus so that they could be taken to a field where they would see that exciting rarity… a deer.

Much of our region was cleared for farming by 1900 or so, and much of our native wildlife had disappeared. As farming dwindled after World War II, the forest came back, and with it came the fauna.

With the deer came the turkey. It’s not unusual to find them along main roads and back roads alike. I know two spots within five miles of Bath where the flocks roost in trees along the Finger Lakes Trail. They’re forest birds, and they come with the trees. Just as Steuben is number one in the deer hunt, it’s consistently in New York’s top five for turkey take.

As the turkey increase, the pheasants decrease. Ring-necked pheasants are an Asian species, introduced after 1900 as a game bird, since the turkeys had vanished. (The state raised them at Bath Fish Hatchery.) But pheasants are a field bird. More trees, more turkeys. Fewer fields, fewer pheasants.

More TREES also mean more BEAVER. The last quarter of the 20th century saw their busy families return in delightful numbers… though of course they can be a nuisance when their dams flood our homes or our highways.

Our son and I observed a lot more black squirrels this year. Black fur is a natural morph for the gray squirrel, but why were their numbers going up? I’m told, by someone I’ve consistently found knowledgeable, that most squirrels were black when the first Europeans arrived – it provided camouflage in the shaded forest. Gray fur did better in open fields, and proportions swung in that direction. As more squirrels live again in forests, the numbers swing the other way.

As with the deer, the turkey, and the beaver, so with the black bear. Fifteen years ago the Encyclopedia of New York State estimated about 200 bear in the Alleghenies of the Southern Tier, where they were creeping across the state line from Pennsylvania. It’s a whale of a lot more than that now, as they’ve spread throughout the reforested parts of the Finger Lakes, and extended their range eastward to meet the westward-growing population from the Catskills.

Fishers and bobcats have taken so much advantage of the returning forest that we now have hunting and trapping seasons.

One native animal that has NOT returned since being hunted to extinction is the wolf. But the wolf’s absence, along with farmland going fallow, opened the door for the highly adaptive coyote, which is now perfectly at home in most of the state, field and forest alike, and even makes incursions into cities.

Besides the turkeys, other birds have ebbed and flowed with the changes. Cardinals, once rare above the Mason-Dixon line, have become commonplace, partly due to widespread planting of the decorative multiflora rosa since World War II, providing a year-round food source. They’ve also profited from global warming has made our winters less severe.

The Canada goose has also benefited from global warming, as grain is now grown much farther north in Canada than ever before, and their numbers boom. In many communities they now stay put all year. But their haunting call on their southward journey is still the herald of winter to come, and summer slipping away.

The Best in Our Wildife — the Tory Awards Part Two!

Two weeks ago in this space I amused myself by making up a new set of awards – the Tories, named in honor of Roger Tory Peterson, the Field Guide man, whom I once had the pleasure of meeting, on the fiftieth anniversary of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.
The premise is simple – an award for my most memorable encounter with any given type of wildlife. It had to be a good encounter (no bear attacks), and it had to be an encounter in which I was not stressing, pursuing, or threatening the wildlife, not that I ever do. Given the focus of this blog, the encounters had to be in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier, and they had to be true wild encounters – no releases, captive animals, or the like.
In that first blog we awarded Tories for woodchucks, deer, bear, skunk, mink, and short-tailed weasels. So for our second installment we start with one of my all-time favorites, the

BEAVER: and the Tory goes to… a beaver I discovered just after dark at Boughton Park near Bloomfield. It was standing in the branches of a tree that had fallen (or been dropped?) into the pond, hanging on with one foreleg and using the other paw to strip greenery from the shoots, then stuff it into its mouth. Lovely sighting, even if it was increasingly in silhouette as the night darkened.
Honorable mention A family of beavers I used to visit at a farm on Mount Washington Road, near the Bath-Urbana line. I used to stop of an evening and just watch them for a while. Nothing’s more restful than paddling beavers going about their business.
RED FOX: and the Tory goes to… a fox I spotted in a field along a country road between Victor and Bloomfield, hard by an obscure monument to the creation of the Northern Spy. This fox trotted from the woods out into the field this summer afternoon, intent on its own business and minding the same. But there were in that same field a herd of deer, who took exception and disputed the passage. Because of the size differential this fox posed no threat to the deer, but one or more of them kept charging him, heads lowered. They never actually got close enough to butt, but they sure got close enough to threaten. The fox kept trying to circle around, but the deer were having none of it. Finally the fox gave up and stamped off back where it came from, at the least minute throwing its head over its shoulder and making a few parting comments. Since I was watching through binoculars I couldn’t hear what the fox said, but it was probably unprintable anyway.
Honorable mention The inattentive and very startled fox that almost walked into me on the Bristol Hills Trail in High Tor, above Naples.
COYOTE: and the Tory goes to… a coyote that took me completely by surprise. I was a step-on bus guide for a New England group riding from their hotel in Elmira to Sonnenberg Gardens, telling them local stories along the way. We’d been discussing wildlife when someone asked, “do you have any coyotes?” I assured them “yes, but you won’t see any this trip.” So there I was standing and talking, facing backward at the bus passengers as we rolled up Main Street in Canandaigua. I glanced to my left as we passed over the old railroad way and there’s a coyote, at ten o’clock on a sunny morning, just standing there and looking things over like he’s planning to buy the place.

Don’t we live in a delightful region for wildlife? Anyhow – how about you? What are YOUR most memorable wildlife encounters? (Good ones… not counting gorings and such.) Chime in on the comments, or just think about it yourself. Ask the kids for their memories. Make a specific list when you take long trips. Have fun!

And For Our Very Best Wildlife — the Tory Awards!

The deer have been coming down to the roads a lot lately, what with the deep snow, the high winds, and the low temperatures. That got me to thinking about memorable encounters I’ve had with deer, and THAT go me thinking about other encounters.
So just for fun (and for this column) I figured I’d make up a list, but keep it ONLY to encounters here in the 14-county Finger Lakes region. It has to be a good encounter (one I can look back on and smile), and it has to be with an animal truly in the wild… so an otter release, for instance, doesn’t count. Also, I pledge that I did not disturb or distress these creatures in the process. Since we’re in Academy Awards season, I decided to call my awards the Tories, since I once met Roger Tory Peterson. And the categories are…

WHITE-TAIL DEER: and the Tory goes to… a fawn we met while walking a trail at Ganondagan State Park near Victor. We were working through waist-high grasses where a meadow met a wood, and suddenly, there on the trail ahead of us, was a very young fawn – dry, but still a little unsteady on its pins. We all froze, meantime craning our necks for the mother, and quickly spotted her in brush a few steps off. The fawn spotted us and stumbled toward us for a few steps before suddenly panicking and lurching off toward mother, after which they made their getaway together.
Honorable mention A herd of thirty or so that our older son and I spotted driving a country lane, probably in Howard, on a misty summer’s night. They looked almost supernatural.
Curio A bi-colored deer I used to see along I-390 driving between Bath and Dansville. The hindquarters were all white, while the forequarters were the standard brown with large white dapples.
BLACK BEAR: and the Tory goes to… a yearling we all encountered shambling down a road near Buena Vista. It was (relatively) long and hangdog, and at first we thought it might be a mastiff, but quickly recognized it as a bear and coasted to a stop (car windows all UP). A few seconds later the bruin spotted us, raced to the side of the road, and leapt into a tree. This was a juvenile response, and it’s likely that the bear was a yearling that had recently been chased off by its mother – the size and the season were both right for that.
STRIPED SKUNK: and the Tory goes to… an utterly adorable TINY baby skunk who puttered into the path I was hiking around a pond in Owego. This was a great sighting, BUT the brush on either side was too high and thick to get around… and it was a LONG walk back. I racked my brains as to whether baby skunks could spray, decided that even if they couldn’t, their mothers certainly could. Deciding to trust myself to surprise I backtracked a few steps, then raced forward, vaulted over the baby skink, and raced onward, to no ill effects for anybody.
WOODCHUCK: and the Tory goes to… a delightful specimen that had is home in a high bank on Route 54 between Bath and Hammondsport. It had built itself a little parapet at it’s hole, about half-way up he bank. There it sat the livelong day, propped up on its forelegs, watching the cars stream by.
Curio A woodchuck near our house when we lived in Bath village. A local cat would stalk this woodchuck, and the woodchuck, which outweighed the cat by several times, was terrified. It would always run away and duck into its hole. I felt like I should give it lessons in self-esteem.
SHIRT-TAILED WEASEL: and the Tory goes to… a specimen at Twin Cedars near Avon. I was on the hillside, using binoculars to watch the waterfowl below, and had been standing still for quite a while. This weasel stepped out of the (relatively) all grass, sauntered across the path and almost across my sneaker, and vanished into the grass on the other side.
MINK: and the Tory goes to… a busy little number on the Geneva waterfront. I was at an onboard reception for the arrival of a sailing canal boat, built at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, when I spotted a mink darting in and out among the rocks of the retaining wall. Pretty soon there was a small crowd of us watching the show on a lovely summer afternoon.

And that’s only half the list. We have something else planned for next week’s blog, but the Tories will be back the week after that!