Mother Nature - How Fickle Thou Art


Back-sliding towards winter 
                                       

First Chipmunk of
the year
We had a five-day run of tantalising spring weather. The snow had almost melted away as the mercury hit a near-record high of 15 Celsius on Saturday. The last vestiges of the white stuff I shovelled off our back deck on Tuesday – just in time for winter’s icy return Wednesday night.

Except for a few Juncos, the birds vanished, as new food sources were exposed by the melted snow. Chippy made a brief appearance to browse on the few seeds remaining on the ground and Frenetic Freddy, the red squirrel, made his rounds of the feeder participating in the clean up.

Heavy freezing rain coated the trees and made the roads slick with ice, resulting in school cancellations and traffic chaos for anyone who had to drive on city streets. Early this morning, as the temperature continued to drop, a fresh skiff of snow covered the ground, but not before I was able to record an unusual set of tracks in the frozen ice on our driveway. I knew the footprint shape and spacing was too far apart to be those of a  raccoon. I've only once observed a live Fisher slithering over the forest floor in the Lanark Highlands, and that was in the late fall when I was quietly sitting in a deer hunt stand.
Fisher tracks in our driveway


Living so close to the greenbelt means we are frequently visited by wild critters not often found in suburban environments. In this case, the tracks turned out to be that of a Fisher. Using AI search tools, I was able to identify the tracks imprinted in the ice. The Fisher is rarely seen by humans because it is mostly a nocturnal hunter. This beast is one of the reasons we have so few cats in our neighbourhood. The animals have adapted to feasting on the roaming felines, whose witless owners let them out of the house to prowl.

The cats often kill the birds I like to attract to our feeder, so when the hunter becomes the hunted the natural order of the wildlife kingdom mets out its justice. I often see posters taped to our street mailbox seeking information on the whereabouts of a stray cat that hasn’t come home in days.

Some years ago, at the edge of the Trans Canada Trail that intersects with our local park, I discovered a huge tabby cat completely stretched out, split from stem to stern with its internal organs ripped out and half eaten – a tell-tale sign that a Fisher was the perpetrator. I saw the wanted poster for that same cat and I wrote 'Killed by a Fisher' on the ad.

Rabbits are its usual natural food source, along with squirrels, but cats are definitely fair game. We also get coyotes wandering the neighbourhood occasionally and sometimes in broad daylight. They've also joined in on the pet hunt, and will take little dogs, given the opportunity. A couple years back one of these  predators ran right past me when I was cutting the lawn and I observed it dodging into back yards where  gates were open, searching for captive prey. Wildlife viewing in Kanata is a nice diversion from city living.












Comments

  1. Scott ShackellMarch 12, 2026 at 11:56 AM

    Lucky to have the green belt next door. One spring when I lived back home I remember seeing a Beaver in the Appaloosa Park start of the Carp River while walking Abby. It quickly smacked its tail and scurried into the culvert.

    ReplyDelete

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