Lightening in a Bottle x 2 – A second unforeseen and wildly magical encounter with a Fisher!

On a recent evening at dusk, I was walking back to my parked car when a swiftly moving dark shape crossed my path. We had an eye to eye moment before he went bounding off across the snowy landscape.

Note how the Fisher leaps with great power, yet appears to stay on top of the snowpack. Fishers have highly specialized feet that are well adapted to snow. Their five-toed feet are large, distributing the weight evenly, and the soles of the feet are covered in fur; both adaptions creating a “snowshoe effect.” Anther very cool fact about Fishers is that their ankle joints can rotate nearly 180 degrees, which allows them to descend trees head first, a very rare trait among mammals.

I believe he is a male because he was so large and his fur appears somewhat coarse. The females are smaller, with glossier fur.

Here is another video of a Fisher that I filmed several years ago, where you can see him descending the trees head first:

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE – AN UP CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH A FISHER!

Saying goodbye to 2023 with a look back at just some of the magnificent creatures and scenes we see all around our beautiful North Shore.

The slide show begins with January and runs through December. When clicking through, you can see the photos are captioned and dated. If you would like more information, all the photos are from posts written throughout the year, and most of the posts have short videos featuring the animal.

Some of the highlights were a Northern Lapwing blown far off course, Barred Owls, flocks of Snow Buntings, successful Gray Seal rescue by Seacoast Science Center, the return of handicapped Super Mom and Super Dad to Good Harbor Beach, Great Blue Herons nesting, Rick Roth from Cape Ann Vernal Pond team helping me find frog’s eggs for my pond ecology film, Bald Eagle pair mating, Earth Day Good Harbor Beach clean-up, Osprey nesting,Creative Commons Collective native plantings at Blackburn Circle, mesmerizing encounter with a Fisher, Mama Dross Humpback and her calf, Beth Swan creating PiPl logo, PiPl chicks and Least Terns hatching, Pipevine Swallowtail pupa, PiPl t-shirts and decals selling at Alexandra’s Bread, rare Nighthawk, Spring Peepers, chicks fledging, trips to Felix’ Family Farm with Charlotte, Monarchs in the garden, Merlin, juvenile Glossy Ibis, and a flock of Horned Larks.

Perhaps the very most memorable moment was a wonderfully close (and extended) encounter with a Fisher. Read more about that here: Lightning in a Bottle