Fishers are Thriving!

Fishers are thriving in Mill Brook Preserve! Using tracking and trail cameras, we have been monitoring their presence. For three years we have been watching fisher activity at a dead tree with a hole at the top.

There is a fisher with a tan ruff around her collar that has come back two years in a row at nesting time. She could have been using a nest box in the tree to raise young. One video shows an uncharacteristically ungraceful ascent up the tree, possibly because of a belly full of babies. But despite four cameras surrounding the tree last year, we never saw babies. So far she hasn’t returned this year. We have seen blood-tinged urine by another dead tree, suggesting a female in estrus. We’re now watching a second tree.

At least three fishers likely call the Mill Brook Preserve part of their territory. Last spring, a camera at a fox den caught two young fishers checking it out together. Neither of these had the tan ruff around the collar that the one at the tree has. 

A diverse ecosystem, where predator/prey relationships are in balance, is our goal. Large, contiguous forests with mature and/or old growth trees provide what they need. Fishers were extirpated from this region but were reintroduced and have made a big comeback. They have a tendency to return or stay within the home range. It’s our pleasure to host them!