Paying attention to where I place my snowshoes as I trudged through the deep powder, I almost forgot to look up. Hemlock twigs are raining down and scat is everywhere on the snow surface. It's one of the colder days this winter and above me is the round body of a foraging porcupine, trying to fuel up and warm up! As I continue to blaze a trail, another porcupine scurries along a rock ridge to find its way to the warm den on the other side. These creatures are out here trying to keep eating and moving on this cold day so they can make it through to the long-anticipated spring thaw.

This picture was taken at Lampson Falls and is the second of three photos taken there. This photo is of a porcupine our class saw there while looking for animal tracks. When we found this porcupine he was making his way up this tree and continued to do so after stumbled upon him. He didn’t seem to be eating the bark of this tree, which is what I believe to be a hemlock, but was simply climbing the tree. As I stated, this photo was taken at Lampson Falls which is located on the Grasse River. Natural History: The Grasse River is a tributary of the St.

This was a fun trip to Lampson Falls. As part of our nature walk we spent a good amount of time looking for porcupines and their dens. We spotted a lone porcupine up about 35 feet in a hemlock tree, their favorite snack. Hemlock branches were scattered everywhere along the ground as well, good sign that porcupines were in the area. As I was looking for more I came across what appears to be an old den. There was nothing inside, but it was full of droppings from its previous occupant. A really nice shot of a winter hideout!

Lampson Falls New, York is the spot that many different species have enjoyed life in the North country. As i hiked the Lampson Falls trail something which really impressed me was how visible the different species were. If you look closely at this picture you can see a porcupine climbing up a large pine tree. Something that is very interesting about this picture is the route taken to find this porcupine. Our natural world history class followed the tracks of this porcupine. We then saw porcupine needles, looked up the tree and sure enough the animal was climbing higher and higher.

I had to ski into an easement to do some work today and I ran into this guy. He was chomping on a tasty white pine and was very content. We chatted for a while, as you know porcupines are not the most talkative creatures, but he was very thoughtful and thought it would be ok if I took his photo.

As I was biking around at Downerville State Forest I heard a loud rustling sound only to be met at eye level with this guy. Must've scared him a bit since he scurried all the way up the tree, about 50 ft. or so.

Porcupine season starts for me when I spot this distinctive profile against the sky. I've seen porcupines, at dawn and dusk, in various -always slender branched - trees - in this area, but never two in a tree.

This is a picture of squirrel tracks at Stone Valley in Colton, NY. There were a lot of squirrel as well as porcupine tracks while we were walking along the snowy trail. When squirrels are frightened they will run back and forth to confused predators. Based on the tracks in this picture it doesn't look like the squirrel was being threatened or was in any rush. I think this photo is interesting because of the way the thin branch highlights the squirrel's path.

Watchful Porcupine
taken January 22nd at approximately 1pm around the Wachmeister Field Station in Canton, NY

I took this picture in the last week of January during our first lab this semester, outside of the Wachmeister Field Station. This was in the middle of the cold winter when there was a lot of snow. We saw the porcupine perched on high up in this tree. We watched him for several minutes and it remained still. Because I don’t often see porcupines I think they are so fascinating. I like this picture because it shows high up in the tree the porcupine was sitting. At first glance, one might not even notice the porcupine, which demonstrates how good they are at hiding, even in plain sight.