During the week before our visit to Mystic on vacation, I managed to meet these two pileated woodpeckers working on an old tree stump in the back yard.
This is a bucket list event: getting a picture of one of these woodpeckers has been a seemingly unattainable goal. Getting a picture of two has seemed impossible.
While taking this picture of a brown furry animal about 30 pounds and 3 feet or so long, I thought it might be a bear cub. It has a long tail. Murphy and I did not see a mother bear nearby. Is this a bear?
[Update] My research team has identified this creature as a young fisher cat. He made a curdling sound as he quickly climbed the tree along the trail, with Murphy pulling at his leash: Let me at ’em!