More lists? Creatures?

[Tramper Al]

Hey,

I have been informally seeking out wildlife sightings on my various New England outings. There are finite numbers of species of mammals, ampibians/reptiles, birds, butterfiles etc. You can pick a specific source, like "Audubon Field Guide to New England" (34 mammals, analogous to the 4000 footers) or DeGraaf's "New England Wildlife" (64 mammals, might be more like NE 100 Highest or Trailwrights).

Has anyone found themselves actively compiling a 'list' of such species, and trying to find specific ones? I know that some of the birders really go off the deep end, but how about you mammal lovers? Sighting only, or photograph? The rare White Mountain or Katahdin butterfly, anyone?

Just curious, I'm sure I would never do anything like this.

 

[Papa Bear]

Sure. Birders are worse than peak baggers. I'm a semi-retired birder and have (now somewhat disused) state lists, year lists, life list, etc. etc. And hard-core birders have web sites (which have replaced hot-line recorded phone messages) that give rare sitings. I remember about 10 years ago there was a rare Eupopean sandpiper (I think it was a "Spotted redshank") spotted in Wellfleet, down on the Cape. When we went there to check it out, there were birders from everywhere in the US who had flown in to "bag" this bird. We only had to drive a few miles. Yes, we got the bird.

Just another compulsion. Have fun.

Pb

 

[Jack Waldron]

Flower Bagger

I met a woman a few years ago who was a flower bagger. Her goal was to locate and photograph all of the alpine flowers pictured in the Slack/Bell book on New England Alpine Summits.

 

[LittleBear]

I met someone who was "pond bagging." She did, however, put an elevation limitation on the ponds and was visiting every one that was higher than xxxx feet (I don't remember what her cut-off point was). She said she picked that particular elevation because it seemed as though there were "too many riff-raff ponds below that elevation."

 

[Tramper Al]

Very nice

It comes under the heading of hike your own hike, obviously. In addition to peak and trail-bagging, I have heard of focusing on ponds, waterfalls, fire towers, wildflowers, sea shells, and birds.

The bobcat has eluded me thus far. Other than that, I have had pretty good luck seeing the larger mammals out there.

Anyone want to go rattlesnake stalking? It looks like the Blue Hills or the Taconics, but I'll take any advice I can get.

 

[Artex]

Here's a cool online resource for reading more about your favorite little critters.

enature.com

It's like an online field guide. Quite nifty.

 

[SteveHiker]

I've never kept track of the mammals I've seen while hiking, usually just small rodents anyway, although I did encounter a moose as documented here, http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=2323

But before I moved to southern, suburban NH, when I lived in southern, rural VT, just in my yard I've seen, white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, possum, porcupine, skunk, fox, coyote, raccon (including a rabid one), chipmunk, grey squirrel, red squirrel, meadow mice, grey mice (ok, they were in the house), black bear, and a fisher cat.

 

[Rik]

Tramper Al,
I have seen rattle snakes several times on Tongue Mt. near Lake George and also on Overlook Mt. in the Catskills.

 

[Papa Bear]

There's a place in CT on the AT, coming down to Route 7 from the south where Rte 112 crosses, where we saw one: CT AT section report. And here's the picture: Rattler Picture.

I've read in other logs of similar sightings in the same general section, so they must be common there.

Pb

 

[Turnbill]

I met someone who was "pond bagging."

I used to work with a guy whose goal was to land a float plane on every lake in Maine (above some minimum size that I don't recall). It was usually kind of fun. We'd be flying along and he'd suddenly drop down to do a touch and go on some remote pond that he hadn't visited. However, it was occasionally a bit scary, like the time we were coming off one pond and suddenly noticed a set of power lines across the low spot in the trees we were headed towards. Luckily, we cleared them (or I guess I wouldn't be writing this!). He's retired from flying now - I'm not sure if he ever completed his list.

 

[spencer]

Hi Tramper,

for your bobcat, try doing a couple of loops around the Quabbin around dusk. When I lived there, I had several sightings doing just that.

I think I'm going to start a list of peakbaggers. I will bag baggers.

The list might start with the top 100 posters on VFTT. There of course would be some hints since people often post their plans here. I might be lucky and check off the elusive Roy S. or see the more common HarryK (HarryK is of course anything but common, but I mean his trips of late would be easier to find him on than the ones Roy posts about).

Happy hunting...

spencer

 

[Tramper Al]

Great

Thanks, Spencer, I like both of your ideas.

I was thinking about setting a camera trap to aid my bobcat stalking, and the Quabbin is near enough to make that feasible.

On a June hike, I added both Mohamed E and Gene D to my peakbagger list, in a single hike. Not bad.