Enjoyable Sightings

By A. Sayward Lamb

Some of the extra benefits of hunting or fishing are evident by the sightings of wildlife not commonly seen. Let me give you some illustrations of what I mean. These are some of my most memorable recollections, which have occurred since I began hunting and fishing, well over sixty years ago.

The rarest sighting occurred back in November, of 1943, while I was attending high school. A friend, the late Ronald Weston, and I were hunting on a very crusty snow on the top of Mollyockett Mountain, in South Woodstock, Maine. We were deer hunting but it was so noisy underfoot in the crusty snow that we knew we really didn’t have any chance of seeing deer. Nevertheless, we were a couple of teenagers who enjoyed just being out in the woods. There was no use in trying to be quiet, so we simply walked along, crunching our way through the open hardwoods. We both spotted an animal crouched down on a huge flat- topped rock. After a short time, we came to the conclusion that it had to be a Canadian Lynx because the coloration was more of a grayish brown than a bobcat and it had very long tufts on the tips of its ears.

On the count of “Three”, we both fired our guns at it. I was using a shotgun, while Ronald was using a rifle. The Lynx was at least seventy-five yards away, so I didn’t expect buckshot, which I was using, would be effective at that range. As soon as we fired, the lynx sprang into action as it leaped off from the rock! The long leaps caused it to break through the crusty snow but that didn’t seem to slow it down a bit. We walked over to the rock where we checked for any evidence that we might have wounded it but found none. In over fifty-five years of hunting, this is the only Canadian Lynx that I have ever seen in the Maine woods.

Another animal not often seen is the fisher. I believe that they are of the weasel family. They have beautiful dark brown fur and their body is sleek and streamlined, with short legs. They are extremely fast which enables them to catch squirrels and other small animals. They are also one of the few animals to effectively kill porcupines. I have never witnessed them attack a porcupine but I understand they use their agility to quickly flip the porcupine on its back and ripping open the belly, avoiding the quills. I saw my first fisher back in the middle 1950’s, on Davis Mountain, in South Woodstock. I was deer hunting and took a stand by sitting on a stump in a natural basin of mature hardwoods. It was early in the morning, and I was waiting for deer to come feed on the mast crops of acorns and beechnuts.

The basin rose quite sharply on the westerly side and nearly at the top were some rocky outcroppings. I sat on the stump very comfortably enjoying the warmth of the morning sun. I happened to notice a movement on the ledges and saw a dark brown animal darting rapidly across the rocky outcroppings. I noticed it was about the size of a woodchuck but had a longer and sleeker body. I looked at it through my rifle ’scope but soon realized this was an animal I had never seen in the woods. I saw it several more times over a period of a half-hour. I was intrigued and anxious to find out what kind of animal I had been watching. It was an interesting sighting but I still had some more hunting to do, so I left the basin heading for the top of the mountain. Later that afternoon, I described what I had seen to a good friend Leon Baker, who is an excellent hunter and trapper as well as a professional woodsman. He told me that he would guess from the description of the animal that I gave him, that it had to be a fisher. I was aware that fishers were moving into this part of the state but this was my first sighting of that beautiful animal. Since that time I have seen numerous fishers and have had the opportunity to study their habits but I still get a thrill whenever I see these beautiful animals.

In October of 1996, my wife and I were driving along the Mann Road, where our cottage is located. We were pleasantly surprised to see a wild turkey step into the roadway a short distance ahead of us. The turkey ran up the road for a couple of hundred yards before it went back into the woods. Having never seen a turkey in the wild, at first we wondered what we were looking at but soon realized this bird had to be turkey. Back during that period of 1996, these birds had been introduced into the coastal counties of Maine but it was a rarity to see a turkey this far inland. Since then they have become so numerous that they are becoming a nuisance in many areas of the state.

I have seen bobcats on many occasions over the years. The earliest sightings happened in 1937, when I was ten years old. My father took us four brothers with him to help haul out hardwood limbs that he had cut from tree tops that were left over when bolt wood was harvested by Penley Brothers, who owned a clothespin factory in West Paris, Maine. Our job was to haul them to a trailer where they were loaded and hauled home to supply firewood for the winter months. Several times that fall, we saw a bobcat alongside the wood road that we drove over to harvest the firewood.

The bobcat would be sitting, or crouched, only a short distance from the roadway, but as we approached in the vehicle, it would quickly run out of sight. Still, it was exciting for us to see it up so close to us. Last year while deer hunting with my son Jim, I still-hunted an area near his home while he chose to sit in his tree stand. I hunted out a small area and eventually came to his tree stand. He told me the only thing he had seen was a bobcat that walked across an opening and went directly under his tree stand. I recall seeing some sort of movement out ahead of me but the sighting was so brief that I could not identify what I saw. No doubt, this could well have been that same bobcat.

Pine Martens are another beautiful animal that I have seen only while I have been hunting in northern Maine. They are rarely seen in the southwestern part of the state. On a deer-hunting trip near Moosehead Lake, I watched three pine martens several times during the week that I was there. I have also seen pine marten alongside logging roads in the area east of Flaggstaff Lake. Their fur can range from a medium brown to golden honey coloration. They certainly are a beautiful and interesting animal and are fun to watch in the wild.

Up until now I have not mentioned about unusual sightings of birds. One of the most unusual was a Snowy Owl. Many years ago when I lived in South Woodstock, I saw three snow owls sitting on a fence post around the perimeter of our garden. This was during the late fall and there had been a severe snowstorm which we often call a “Nor’easter”. I later read that these owls had been literally “blown off course” and those three at least, ended up by our house. If I remember correctly they hung around a couple of days before leaving the area.

The last sighting I had of a snowy owl was in November of 1994, in the area a few miles east of Eustis, Maine. I was riding in a pick up truck and happened to spot the owl sitting on a stump on top of a knoll in an open clear cut. There was no snow on the ground, so it’s white plumage really stood out from its perch on top of that knoll.

Another unusual sighting of another specie of bird occurred while I was on a deer-hunting trip in the area north west of Seboomook, in northern Maine, with a couple of friends. We camped out in a travel trailer in an old clear cut that had been logged off a few years earlier. I was hunting alone in the westerly side of the huge clear cut. As I sat watching the surroundings, I noticed two Pileated Woodpeckers fly across the opening and alight on the side of some nearby trees. I was puzzled by what I saw because the crowns of their respective heads were bright orange instead of the usual red coloration. This is the only time that I have seen that coloration on this specie of woodpecker. To date, I have never been able to find anyone who can explain why both of those birds had that unusual orange color on their crowns. I am hoping that someday, some “birder” can offer an explanation. This was another time when I wished that I had been carrying my camera to substantiate my story. Until I receive an explanation, I will have to accept the fact that this was just another “quirk” of Mother Nature.

Even though we did not see the animal that made the tracks, both Leon Baker and I saw wolf tracks in an area about seven miles easterly of Flaggstaff Lake. As it happened, we decided to still-hunt a narrow piece of woods that ran along both sides of a small brook. Leon hunted on the westerly side of the small stream, while I still-hunted on the easterly side. When we finally met up with each other, Leon asked if I noticed the unusual tracks in the snow that crossed back and forth across the brook on several occasions. I told him I had seen them and from their size I felt coyotes could not possibly have made them. He concurred and as we talked we decided to study the tracks further, by measuring the width and length of the tracks, as well as the stride made by the animal. After looking at them for quite a long time, we both came to the conclusion that we were looking at tracks made by a wolf. Eventually we went back to camp and after a short lunch, took our cameras and went back and took photos. The tracks were several days old but still showed up very clearly where the snow had not melted. The following day I took my camcorder and planned to take more images with that camera.

As it turned out, I never did get back to study those tracks because I found myself sliding on black ice about seven miles north of Eustis, on Route 27. I was the fourth pick-up in a period of just over a half-hour to crash into some rocky ledges. I ended up having to have a car-hauler take my vehicle back home and Craig Ryerson was kind enough to let me use his truck to go home. The only lucky thing for me was that I was wearing my seat belt and although the truck was considered a total loss, I never sustained any injuries from that accident.

I later corresponded with a lady from the Federal Wildlife service and although she could not verify the tracks as being made by a wolf, she did verify that the measurements of the tracks and stride of that animal were with the tolerances of those made by a wolf.

Coyote are another animal that is relatively new to the state of Maine. I have seen them on many occasions but only three of four times when I was hunting. I may have already told you about missing a shot at a coyote because I did not have a cartridge chambered in my rifle. I also saw one near the Small Place, in South Woodstock. This one came out into a wood road soon after I parked my pick-up truck. I had just loaded my rifle when I saw it but it crossed the roadway so quickly that I never had time to shoot. I could see the tall grass parting immediately beside the roadway as it headed toward the woods but I will not shoot unless I can clearly see my target. It isn’t uncommon to see coyotes up in the North Maine Woods as they hunt for rabbits, mice, and other small animals along the logging roads. Most of those times, I have been riding in my pick-up and they are long gone before I would ever have time to get out, load the rifle and shoot at them.

Although these unusual sightings are not common, they do happen often enough to make them memorable occasions. I hope all of you find them as interesting as I have, over the years.