Bats and Snakes and Moose, Oh My!

As seen in the last post, and as usual, Snug Harbor is overflowing with spring wildflowers. Beautiful, but no surprise there. But what we ALSO have are a great deal of fun critters running about in our midst (and no, I am not referring to the interp rangers.)

A moose or two have been consistently sighted at Hidden Lake over the past week and a half, as well as wandering along the shore of Tobin Harbor and even swimming across it. For awhile, we felt like geniuses leading the lodge's Sandy tours to Hidden Lake, because we were always able to produce a moose for people to view. Check THAT out, we said. We are moose whisperers. Sam saw a pair of yearlings, but a mom and her calf have also been seen in the area. It's been a couple days without a sighting now, but I'm confident that the mucky 'lake' remains a moose hotspot. Possibly Hidden Lake features a great underwater aquatic veg buffet; all-you-can-eat; free toothpicks.

Rather smaller than the moose, but equally fuzzy, adorable, and brown, was the little brown bat we found in Snug Harbor last Thursday (and yes, I mean his species was 'little brown bat', not just that he was of a small size and a brown color.) I found him lying on his back on the very beginning of the Rock Harbor trail, just east of the Ben East before you come to the paved trail, in a tiny, defeated-looking, blob of fur. A visitor alerted me to his presence by exclaiming, "Look! A mouse!" (You see what we are dealing with in the V.C.?) Afraid he'd be stepped on and crushed (he was doing a great job of totally blending into the dirt) I scooped him up into a little bug box with air holes and radioed Paul Brown, Chief of Natural Resources.


Turns out I should've left him on the trail, due to risk of disease contraction for me and risk of sudden death by shock for him, but at least he wasn't turned into mush on the bottom of someone's boot. Sadly, little brown bat did not make the night anyway, although Paul (who has had his rabies shots) gently hung his tiny, feeble self (the bat, not Paul) onto the trunk of a spruce. He wiggled his wings about for awhile, but he never moved from his clinging spot on the tree, and by that evening he was dead.
He brought us joy before he did, however - staff and visitors alike were delighted by seeing the fuzzy, goofy guy up close and personal, a rare opportunity in the wild. With luck we'll be turning his rescued and preserved body (in the least creepy way possible) into a neat-o artifact to share with visitors in the V.C.

(Paul [in Star Wars apparel - awesome] presents Mr. Little Brown Bat post-mortem.)

While not technically a Snug Harbor resident, the friendly local otter at Mott Island is too cute not to feature - he deserves fame and fortune, this guy. Just LOOK at him:

(You'd be surprised how long I can spend staring at otter photos going, "Awwwwwww." Or maybe you wouldn't be.)

Finally - the Snug is crawling with snakes. Natural Resources are still working on catching them and collecting samples this year for the genetics study on the amazing variety of colors found on the island, which gave Leah an opportunity to get over her dread of snakes last week. She'd always found them vaguely terrifying, but after a brief lesson in snake handling from none other than above mentioned Paul Brown, she became a right proper snake charmer.

Along with the mosquitos, which have blanketed Snug Harbor and can apparently grow as big as the moose, these critters have been keeping us in the Snug properly entertained.

Stay tuned for more posts, and enjoy the rain, everybody!

** Many thanks to Paul Brown for all the photos in today's post, except for the one of the moose in Hidden Lake, for which I thank Sam Case! **

(If anyone has any great or interesting photos of Snug Harbor or its vicinity, please feel welcome to email them to snugharborreporter@gmail.com. I'd love to include them in a future post.)