13 November 2012

RFI Fishers and Red Wolves, Montreal

Hi, I will be in Montreal for a couple of nights over thanksgiving weekend. Does anyone know any spots for Fishers or Red Wolves around there. I am guessing there will be Fishers visiting bird tables somewhere in Montreal… but where.. where… where?

Thanks

Jon

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8 Comments

  • 13 November 2012
    Vladimir Dinets

    You can ask at http://birding.aba.org/maillist/QC , I guess. These people have a lot of bird feeders.

  • 14 November 2012
    Coke Smith

    I am interested in learning what you find out. I was under the impression that the Red Wolf could only be seen in Alligator River Wildlife REserve down in North Carolina….If there a population in Quebec too?

    http://www.outer-banks.com/alligator-river/index.html

  • 14 November 2012
    Jon Hall

    Hi Coke, I am not sure that everyone agrees but many people think the wolves at Algonquin Ontario are Canis rufus… I am not sure what is known about the distribution beyond what is here, nor do I know how hard they are to see at Alligator River http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3747/0

    I have got some good information for Fishers that I will share soon – seems there is at least one small park in Quebec where they are very common and easy to see.

  • 14 November 2012
    Coke Smith

    I spoke to some rangers at Alligator a couple years back and they said that it was possible to see the wolves there but of course it is very hit-and-miss. They said the area were the wolves stayed mainly was in and off the main access points but they were seen along the main roads from time to time. I have yet to get there but it is very high on my list to see if I ever get back to the states….This might be worth a three-day weekend out of NYC sometime for you!

  • 14 November 2012
    Vladimir Dinets

    Coke: I spent some time at Alligator doing my gator research, and saw one wolf in five (I think) full nights of driving around. I also saw a dozen black bears during that time. That was in spring.

    Algonquin wolves are something considered a separate species, C. lycaon, but the approach most consistent with all data is to consider them a northern subspecies of C. rufus.

  • 14 November 2012
    phil telfer

    Hi Jon, I had Algonquin marked as a place for Fisher. A friend was told they are regularly seen there and he saw one in a couple of days.

  • 27 November 2012
    Jon Hall

    I got some useful information on Fishers from the Quebec birding list server that I want to share. Near Montreal it seems like a large pond near the Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague Bridge, at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is one spot to look (45.236218,-74.015923). Fishers are “often” reported from there, though I don’t know how often or how much people look. I took a quick look on the way from Montreal back to New York but it was snowing quite hard and so I didn’t stay for more than 20 minutes. It looked like it had potential though.

    A more reliable sounding spot is a small park called Park du Bic, 30 km from Rimouski (about 550k east of Montreal). A small population of Fishers live here – apparently there are a high density of Porcupines to eat though the Fishers also raid the trash cans. The person who told me about them hadn’t been there since 2009 when he said they were easy to see – he saw several and took some pictures… so I plan to visit in the next few months

    http://www.pbase.com/gproulx/image/133555946

  • 27 November 2012
    Coke Smith

    Wow! What a shot! I would love to have an image this close and steady of a fisher. Mine were all moving at warp 9!

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