Something to keep in mind if you're camping

[RossL]

See picture...

I wasn't aware there were Lynx in the flowage area. My two daughters and I saw this one swimming across a channel on the west side Saturday evening. Something to think about if you are taking a small dog with you camping. I was surprised by how big it was when it came out of the water and by how fast it scaled the steep 8 foot sand bank once it hit the shoreline.

[revmike]

Can you be more specific on the channel?

[Mark Benson]

Ross:

That is a beautiful picture and one that is quite rare as well!!!

I am not 100% sure on this, so maybe I shouldn't speak, but are you sure it wasn't a bobcat... While lynx are likely to travel here from Canada, that usually happens in the winter.

As for small dogs or even big dogs, in the wrong places they are vulnerable to the creatures of our wild!!! I have friends who watched in horror as their small dog was snatched away by a bald eagle and even large dogs may have a difficult time once entangled with fishers and even raccoons, both of which are not as big as mid to large sized dogs. And none of that is say that domestic animals in the wrong place around coyotes or wolves probably aren't coming safely home.

The wild is the wild and wild animals are kings in their environ.

Mark

[RossL]

RevMike,
We saw it in Crane Creek on the way to Crane Lake.


Mark B.,
I am no wildlife expert but when we got back to the cabin later we looked up both Bobcats and Lynx. Based on the pictures and the view I got, it sure resembled the Lynx more. It was more tan than orange and didn't have many black spots. Its body was underwater most of the time because it was swimming and once it hit the shore it was gone in a flash so I could be wrong. I did get a very good look at its face since I had my boat between it and shore for a short time. It was probably about 8-10 feet away swimming towards me at the beginning but it took a few minutes to dig the camera out and by the time we started taking pictures it was already by the front of the boat. BTW - they can really swim fast too! Here are a couple more pictures. It was not very bright out and it was moving fast so they are pretty blurry.

[Mark Benson]

Ross,

I only brought the point as a matter of fact... You were in a great position to see one of God's great creatures, be it a Lynx or a bobcat... All of those moments that close and to be able to get pictures are an experience of a lifetime, one I can't say I have despite lots of time in the woods since I moved up in '94.. I hadn't seen a cat until three years ago and I saw three bobcats in three months!!! They were great visuals, though all were from my car.

On my way back from officiating a varsity basketball game last winter, we saw a large animal with what appeared to be a long tail... Did I(we) see a cougar... they don't exist here either... or another animal... We weren't close enough to know exactly for sure

My apologies if any offense was taken, again thanks for sharing the great closeup pics!!!

Mark

[Downsouth]

Ross...that's awesome. We've seen deer and black bear in the Crane Creek area on occasions. Would have never guessed there were Lynx. Nice photos.

[lil man tait]

Saw one jump out after the weasel/mink that lives by Golden Fawn in early Aug.. I was casting on the north dock and the lynx/bobcat jumped out just to the north. I saw it cross a path and got a great look at it from 30 yards away. Still the two are so closely related I will call it a Lyncat.

It was cool!!!
Tait

[Ty Sennett]

That is so rare. I have only seen one in all the years on the Chip. That one swam across Tyner. Pretty cool.

[Mark Benson]

I got this two years ago on my trail cam while baiting for my brother's bear and only got my first trail cam wolf this year baiting for my other brother and father... Thought I would throw up a couple of bears that are visiting as well.

Mark

[Mark Benson]

The bobcat story (chasing the weasel) reminded me of this story I saw over the weekend about some guy prefishing a tourney on the Miss R. catching a coyote...

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_9b8d7648-ac12-11df-85e7-001cc4c03286.html

Mark

[JohnMG]

Ross, the pictures capture an exciting moment for all of us that love beautiful, wild things. Thanks for sharing them. I was interested to hear how the guys who have been around a long time say how rare a sighting like that is. On the topic of flowage wild life, I have a question. Are the dark eagles seen immature bald eagles or golden eagles? I thought they were immature bald eagles but the ones I saw seemed larger than the mature ones, making me question what they were.

[Ty Sennett]

Those are immature bald eagles. I don't believe we have any golden eagles around here. The young bald eagles take I believe two to three years to turn white and black. I may be wrong there also. So, in other words I do not have my facts straight. Maybe someone else can clarify better.

[blarney]

Bald eagles take about 5 years to get the white plumage. The immature eagles actually appear bigger than they are because their feathers are longer early in their life to assist them with learning to fly. If you have ever seen a young one perfecting their flight skills you can understand that they need all the help they can get.

[JohnMG]

Thanks Blarney, that explains it! I learned something.

[Louis]

I was told by a wildlife biologist last year that there are no golden eagles anywhere in Wisconsin. He said what we saw were immature bald eagles, which means you were correct Ty. You win a prize!

p.s. Ty, check your private messages.

[Ty Sennett]

What's a private massage? I haven't ever checked one of those. I'll get on it.

[Mark Benson]

Ty:

Check for private messages in the upper right corner, just under the Welcome, Ty Sennett.

Louis:

I am not big on disagreeing, but like to make sure people know what the facts are... I have been wrong in my life but that does not stop me from trying and even being wrong in public forums...

Golden eagles, just like Canadian Lynx are travelers to our state at certain times of the year. Reference a piece done by Dave Carlson at Northland Adventures this spring:

http://www.wqow.com/Global/category.asp?C=183584&nav=menu1364_8_1. look down in the story pieces for outdoor news go to the third page and it is entitled "Golden Freedom" 4-19-10.

There is one key identifying feature and that is the entire leg is feathered to the foot top unlike that of the Bald eagle which has that yellow scaled leg just above the foot.

We had at least one if not two during one summer in the mid '90's over here in Minocqua... It was truly something amazing and of course most didn't believe us!!!

While I provide this info, I would certainly say that in almost every instance that you see a bird like that in our area, it would be an immature Bald.

Mark

[esoxhtr]

Ty,
You have the funniest typos. I think he means private message, not massage
very funny

[downbar]

While fishing in the Winter area last week i was driving down the road, went past a open field by a house that was nicely mowed. Saw something in the field, drove 50 yards down the road and decided i had to back up and thank god i did. I saw my first badger in the wild, seen them in the zoo before but never in the wild. Just wondering if anyone else has ever seen one in the wild?

[Ty Sennett]

Nope. Not me.

[RobertTB]

At Daggetts this year, a full sized black Bear ambled right through the middle of the resort between the lodge and the cabins then into the woods. We figured it musta' swam south bay and come ashore near the boat launch. This was in the middle of the day. The bear wasn't really hauling the mail, but it wasn't dilly dallying either, just went about it's travels. It was a trip.

[Cold Front]

I've seen a bear, a few deer, osprey, bald eagles and golden eagles on the chip. I saw a cat I believed to be a bobcat and several coyotes while driving CC after dark. I know that the golden eagles weren't immature bald eagles because there were several eagles using a bog as a base for some fine fishing in a big wind, when you see golden eagles in close proximity to bald eagles it's easy to tell that they aren't immature bald eagles, golden eagles are huge compared to bald eagles. I'd love to get that kind of film you got on the cat. I did some research on lynx (lynx lynx) and bobcats (lynx rufus or lynx felis) and they are so comparable, with so many subspecies and color phases you would have to be pretty well versed to make a definite determination of species. By accepted range and population bobcat would be more likely at the chip but lynx wouldn't be totally unrealistic.

[Dan Peters]

We saw a badger one afternoon about 10 years ago when we were heading to a wedding reception at Telemark. We also saw two others while fishing Caldron Falls near Crivitz. It is pretty funny watching them waddle along.