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  • Encounters with Wildlife?

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

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 #645360  by trainsinmaine
 
I've sometimes wondered about moose and trains. Some of these animals weigh upwards of twelve hundred pounds --- sufficient, I would think, to do fairly significant damage to a locomotive, if not derail it. I've never heard of such a thing happening, however.
 #645375  by toolmaker
 
My most memorable wildlife encounter while hiking up a cinder embankment to check out a former Lackawanna ROW about 10 miles north of the Tunkhannock Viaduct. There we had a surprise encounter with black racer snakes resting in the morning sunshine.

A buddy and I stepped over them in the low brush during the climb up both thinking they were discarded black hose tossed off for scrap. When we finished taking pictures and prepared to cross over the hose again, there was movement and 2 heads become apparent in the mix. What a thrill. We found another way down the hill to our ride that didn’t involve bushwhacking.
 #645409  by CannaScrews
 
AHHH let's see:

On the Naugy, I've chased a red fox up to the dam at 22 mph whereupon it made a sharp right & zipped up the dam face - cool!

As someone previously mentioned, there was a coyote [Ky-ote for youze Easteners] north of Chase Bridge near Mt Hartley once.

Lotsa times the red tailed hawks will move from tree to tree ahead of the loco for a mile or so.

Great Blue Herons abound & they are territorial - so you always see them in the same spot - down by the old Thomaston clock factory and up by MP 16 [south of East Litchfield].

In the summer, Kingfishers are around Reynolds Bridge.

Snapping turtles have made their nests in April/May in Waterbury along Hancock Brook.

Deer ? Many, many - good venison if I had a rifle at the time [and a hunting license] to jack them.

Ground hogs - let me count the ways.

Frogs/toads - yup - look for the splashes when the loco comes up on the pools along the ditches.

Beavers - whew! They manage to get around & sink their teeth in trees along the ROW. Lodges abound. It seems they have their winter & summer habitats & move around with the seasons.

One person mentioned the sight of a "rat"as we crossed the Naugatuck River [he's from New York}, and given the triangular head was most likely a beaver in the river. Funny.

Also Lotsa Turkeys [2-legged kind].

And chipmunks all over the place.

Turkey Buzzards are overhead all of the time - watching for hedge fund executives going belly up.... no doubt,

Crows? Ravens? Apparently Waterbury along the river by Watertown Junction is one of the places where they congregate for their evening "coffee klatch". Hundreds of the birds will be seen at early evening roosting in the trees and conversing with themselves.

That's what is on the hoof/feather/paw/fin on the Naugy.
 #645420  by eman577
 
trainsinmaine wrote:I've sometimes wondered about moose and trains. Some of these animals weigh upwards of twelve hundred pounds --- sufficient, I would think, to do fairly significant damage to a locomotive, if not derail it. I've never heard of such a thing happening, however.
1200 lbs. vs. 250,000 lbs plus: Not much of a challenge. I do remember a couple of footboards (back in the old days) being bent a little by hitting moose, but nothing substantial. I imagine a high speed impact would possibly cause a moose to be thrown up and through a window or something, or maybe dent something. But I doubt, other than broken glass, one would do enough damage to sideline a unit.

I know a guy who claims to hold the record for moose hits on his road, with 36.
 #645429  by superwarp1
 
Bear and Moose populations are exploding in western Mass. Momma bear and cubs can be found in my backyard every year at least once. Juveniles from past years make regular visits. Bird feeders will be coming down soon. I've seen moose tracks and other signs in the hills of Russell and Montgomery along the banks of the Westfield river where the CSX(B&A) line is. Lots of coyotes.

I've seen dear eating along the tracks in Westfield even if a train is going by. Lots of reports of mountain lions in the area. Most wildlife experts out here agree they are there but the state does not recognize them. why I don't know. That's one animal I don't want to see.
 #646507  by svobronco
 
Friend of mine who is a CSX conductor tells me a story about hitting a moose on the Boston&Albany out in the hills of western Mass. They didn't hit the moose, the moose hit them. At about 5mph they tried turning off the lights, and blowing the horn. Apparently the moose took the horn as a challange and charged the train hitting it square on. Needless to say the moose lost the challange. And then there was the story of rolling thru the Worcester station during the morining commute with a deer wrapped up in the steps, to the horror of those waiting for their ride to Boston.

Greg
 #647592  by wally
 
too many encounters to list. hundreds of deer and moose. several dozen with black bear. one with a mountain lion in idaho, and a single elk in idaho. thousands of wild turkeys. a bobcat in my yard a few weeks ago. perhaps a dozen coyotes, and an equal number of foxes.

none were particularly threatening. indeed, for most of the bear and the one mountain lion, i had a "rear" view.

i treat them all as wildlife, not as domestic animals or farm animals, no matter how "docile" they might appear, and i don't intentionally get close to them.

truly, the biggest heart-pounders are the damned ruffed grouse that wait until the last possible moment and thunder off in a flurry of wings.
 #659160  by NellsChoo
 
Hmmm... lots of cool birds, some cute turtles, a chipmunk, one coyotie this winter (a little scary), and that's about it!!

Though yesterday was funny... I was at Ayer (with nothing going on, of course) and had the car running. A crow took a drink from a puddle on the platform. Then he flew over by my car, and started eating some fries someone had dumped on the ground. Then he started to pick up a bunch at a time, then drop them, then pick them up again. Next thing I know, he's out of sight. He walked with a beakfull of fries in front of my running car to a large puddle next to me. He dumped the fries in the water, swished them around a bit, then ate them! He followed up with more water, then off he went. I'm guessing he had to soften some of the fries.

Smart bird!!
 #659924  by ewh
 
I remember when I was about 6 years old walking along the New Haven Fitchburg Branch seeing two blacksnakes that had just been cut in half, just minutes before, by the northbound local, lying side by side, heads ends between the rails and tails outside the rails. They were probably going from one part of a swamp to another that the right of way went straight through. Although blacksnakes are not poisonous, they are aggressive and will bite. So, New Haven 2; Blacksnakes 0. There were tons of blacksnakes between Southboro center and Marlboro Junction.
 #659930  by ewh
 
And speaking of blacksnakes....I remember reading an article in the B&MRRHS bulletin over thirty years ago about the junction in southwestern New Hampshire where the line from Keene to Nashua crossed the line from Winchendon to Concord. Seems trains going west and then north from Nashua had to cross the wye and then back down to the north/south line by throwing a couple of switches before heading north. The location was described as a blacksnake heaven and a lot of crew members didn't want to set foot on the ground because of all the snakes. Maybe we should send Jeff Corwin to investigate.
 #660028  by Cosmo
 
Remember the old story about the camp councilor who asks a kid why he's running?
Kid: "I saw a snake, but it turned out to be a stick."
Councilor: "So why are you still running?"
Kid: "Because the stick I picked up to defennd myself turned out to be a SNAKE!"

That was me a few years back on the old HP&F (now a rail trail) near Providence!
 #1466357  by B&Mguy
 
I'm resurrecting this dormant conversation since it was so interesting to read all of these stories years back, and it seems like wildlife populations are getting more and more prominent in populated areas for New England. It seems like the black bear especially, once limited to areas west of the Connecticut River or north of Concord, NH, can now be seen almost anywhere outside the 128 belt. I have also noticed moose crossing sign on Route 2 just East of Wachusett Station, which makes me think it would be quite possible to see one while train watching there.

In western MA, black bears have become a fairly common sight along the rail trail that follows the old line between New Haven and Northampton, and my father-in-law recently saw one. There was also the story about the black bear along the commuter rail tracks in West Newton a few years back.

Anyone have any other encounters while railfanning?
 #1466449  by Plate C
 
Happens enough for me. Deer are a pretty common occurrence. I seem to come across a lot of vultures too. In the past year a friend and I ventured out a ways on an abanadoned rail bridge and there were some sizeable, but young/naive/curious cormorants that allowed us to get pretty close and take pictures. One location I go has a fox that shows itself regularly enough. Beavers. Herons. Recently saw some river otters for the first time heading back from railfanning. Probably in the past year on the way to railfan I saw the largest black bear, had to tip the scales at 500lbs+.
 #1466468  by Cosmo
 
Since moving back to Eastern Mass I've had at least two encounters with coyotes,
both times well inside the Greater Boston area!
 #1466490  by BandA
 
That black bear on the Framingham-Worcester line in West Newton was murdered by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. It was terrible. Spectators got to see a bear shot out of a tree in cold blood. All because they were too lazy to hold the bear in custody for a couple of months.

Moose in Massachusetts are at the southern extreme of their range. In the summer they do what they can to get out of the heat, such as climbing to higher elevation. There are a lot near the Quabbin Reservoir and in the Berkshires. There is a problem with brainworm where moose & deer populations overlap.