fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Split Rock

by Rich Parisio
April 14, 2016
in Columns, Explore
0

To enter the woods after the season’s first snowstorm is to meet winter on its own terms and to glimpse the world of austere beauty that awaits us, literally at our doorstep. Such was my experience on a recent walk along the Coxing Kill below Split Rock at Mohonk Preserve.

I decided to use snowshoes for this excursion. I could have gotten by with winter boots, but my snowshoes allowed me to almost “float” atop the icy snow crust. It was not long before I encountered the tracks of other snow-walkers. Deer tracks were tunnels struck deep into the snow, in contrast to those of cottontail rabbits, squirrels and deer mice. All of the latter, in sets of four, were lightly printed on the surface of the snow, a natural snowshoe effect shown by all quadrupeds whose toe spread is large relative to their body weight. Upon reaching the bridge that spans the Coxing Kill at Split Rock, I found tracks that were distinct from the familiar ones I had just seen. Though the prints were roughly the size of a medium-sized dog’s (and there were plenty of dog tracks nearby), they were rounder, and some appeared, on close inspection, to have five, rather than four toes, though the fifth toe was not always visible in the print. These prints were arranged in widely spaced pairs, each pair diagonal to the direction they were heading. This track pattern is characteristic of all members of the weasel family. Since skunks are deeply asleep in their dens right now, and the prints were too large for mink or weasel, and too small for otter, they could only be those of a rarely seen predator, the fisher.

Fishers are one of those animals whose presence signifies wilderness. Despite their name, these large weasels prey on animals like squirrels and mice. They can out climb a squirrel and specialize in killing porcupines, avoiding the quills by attacking the animal’s face, then flipping it over to feed on its soft belly. For me, the discovery of this fierce predator’s tracks conjures the forest primeval, even here at Split Rock, the site of much human use for centuries. Fieldstone foundations of a house and barn, and other outbuildings, tell of the Enderly family farm, which occupied this place in the 19th century, and there was also a sawmill here, turning in the rushing waters that were sluiced through the stone cleft. Interpretive panels put up by Mohonk Preserve tell this story well, a tale of forests cleared to make way for European-style settlement and industry, leaving little room for deep forest dwellers like the fisher. But the forest has returned and the fisher was reintroduced here at Mohonk Preserve in 1976 by Daniel Smiley and the DEC. From the ten animals they released at that time, a population of these reclusive creatures has now reestablished itself at the Preserve. A couple of days and nights with snow on the ground has given one of these animals the chance to write its signature here for all to read.

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Tags: Coxing Killexplore hudson valleyMohonk Preserveoutdoors
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Rich Parisio

Related Posts

What the newspapers said 100 years ago
Columns

What the newspapers said 100 years ago

June 2, 2025
The no-death cosmic model
Columns

The no-death cosmic model

May 27, 2025
Susan Slotnick: Try the latest anti-trauma exercise
Columns

Useful information

May 19, 2025
Kingston’s evolving Midtown Linear Park: An unfiltered tour
Explore

Kingston’s evolving Midtown Linear Park: An unfiltered tour

May 15, 2025
Daniel Smiley, Thomas H. Elliott, Judge Sharpe and more from the headlines 100 years ago
Columns

Daniel Smiley, Thomas H. Elliott, Judge Sharpe and more from the headlines 100 years ago

May 12, 2025
Are we destined to be forever stuck on planet Earth?
Columns

Are we destined to be forever stuck on planet Earth?

May 12, 2025
Next Post

Fat chance, or run for your life

Weather

Kingston, NY
55°
Clear
5:20 am8:27 pm EDT
Feels like: 55°F
Wind: 2mph S
Humidity: 66%
Pressure: 30.01"Hg
UV index: 0
TueWedThu
81°F / 55°F
88°F / 63°F
90°F / 64°F
powered by Weather Atlas

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing