In Search of Fishers and Playing with SLR.

Picture of a Fisher but not one that I took. I am hoping that all mine will be close mouthed ones. Actually they are really cute and I think the most dangerous part of them is their retractable claws from what I have read.

I took the new camera with the 18-55mm lens out for a test spin in the back yard in hunt of the fishers and to give them our discarded Christmas tree for their collection. I do find it funny that most of the information I have read on this creature does not fit the mold for our backyard neighbors. First they are supposed to be nocturnal but I see them at least once a week during the daytime running through the yard. Second they are supposed to be solitary animals. There are three that I see traveling together since last spring and they are all full grown and not pups at this point. Third they are generally thought to keep their distance from humans but that has not been my experience. They have been very bold and will run through the yard while we are outside and once while I was trying to snap a few pictures (which I did but they are not very clear) they turned around and came running back toward me and two of them ran up a tree about 10 feet away from me and started in with some noisy vocalizations. DEP assured me that even though they make a great meal out of small dogs and cats and I often see dead squirrels hanging out of their mouths that they shouldn't bother a toddler. When I was rafting this past spring the raft guide told me that they were plentiful in that area and had been known to take down black bears (not sure how true this is?). I am not totally reassured but so far the only time they seemed to have any interest in us was when I pursued them with the camera. I did find many of their tracks in the snow yesterday and found some of their favoite little caves. (pictured below) I still have much to learn about the camera though and was playing with some of the settings so the pictures are not the best they could have been at this point.