horvath@granite.ma30.bull.com (John Horvath) (05/30/91)
An article in Monday's Boston Globe mentioned that a birder had seen an Eastern Mountain Lion while birding the Quabin Reservior area in Massachusetts. The Quabin area is a large valley in the northern middle of Massachusetts that supplies drinking water for Boston. Before it was a reservior, it was the home of 3 small towns that were literally picked up and relocated when Boston's water needs grew. Now its an unihabitated area that's a favored area for hiking and observing nature (such as bald eagles and otters et al). I've read a few reports of people who thought they had seen signs of mountain lions there over the years, but no one claimed to ever get a good look or other evidence (prints etc). But the person who made the report this weekend sounds like a responsible observer (he's a manager of an Audubon reservation here) and has been on tours of africa where he has seen lions. In the article, he says that the lion crept silently away as soon as he saw it. This would be unusual if its true since the eastern Mountain Lion is regarded as extinct (west of the Mississippi) and was last reported here around 1850's. The wildlife manager at Quabin believes that if the report is true, that its possibly an escaped "pet" lion. You may wish to carry a Zulu lion stick on you next birding trip! Plum Island, on the northern coast of Massachusetts, has a national wildlife refuge that's probably the best all around birding place in New England. The refuge is only accessible by one road that goes straight thru the middle of the narrow island to its end (about 6-8 miles long). There are about 6 areas to stop and walk along roped off areas to the beach. Every year some of the beach areas have been closed off to allow Piping Plovers to complete their nesting. This year, the entire ocean side of the refuge is closed to allow undisturbed nesting until august. In the past, the signs saying "closed area" weren't completely effective. One could always see some moron walking thru restricted nesting areas or jumping in the dunes, destroying the formations. This weekend was the first time I was able to visit there since it was closed. You can still drive down the road and bird on the marshy inland side of the island. The other side is completely roped off and there is no place to park at the boardwalk trails. The non-refuge tip at the end of the island is still accessible to swimmers and it even has an expanded parking lot beyond where the road use to end. It looks like the closing will work. It seemed to reduce alot of traffic on the road to people who were interested in observing nature. I was hoping for some distant peek at a Piping Plover, but there is no way to see the beyond the dunes to the restricted side. There were plenty of shorebirds on the marshes, not much variety in warblers, but lots of kingbirds, martins and swallows on the road sides.