Mountain Lions sighted in Sherborn, MA IP: 97.95.177.186 Posted on August 28, 2014 at 00:34:50 AM by Robert Johnson
SHERBORN'S MOUNTAIN LIONS
by Betsy Johnson
written 8/26/2014
Betsy Johnson, Robert Johnson, and Dr. Leslie Harrington spent much of the mid-afternoon of Sunday, August 24, 2014, watching two mountain lions walking around the hayfield south of our house.
The field is several acres in size and is bordered on the south by Washington Street (Rt. 16) and on the east and west sides by what once was orchard but now is overgrown by thick brush (buckthorn, honeysuckle, bittersweet, etc.) and a few ash trees. That is where we often see deer either going in or out. All spring we have watched a doe and her fawn in the area (although not visiting us every day). We also frequently see turkeys (two hens with nine chicks at last count) and miscellaneous rabbits, woodchucks, as well as the mice and voles that our cat hunts. The eastern brushy edge is about 200 feet from the deck (I paced out the distance later).
About 3 p.m. I happened to look out the kitchen window (on the south side of our house) and saw a tan animal walking along the east edge of the south hayfield, right where the field meets thick brush. My first thought was, That is a very big and muscular-looking dog! I wonder if it is a Boxer or some kind of Bulldog? Then I thought, That doesn't walk like a dog. It walks like a cat. A BIG cat! So I watched it, as it ambled slowly along the edge of the field. I alerted my friend, grabbed my (weak) binoculars, and we quietly went out on the deck to watch.
The animal was colored a rich tan (much like the color the deer are at this season), had a long body, and had a tail with a white fur-blob at the end. At first I thought it was a bobbed-tail of some sort but later realized that it was at the end of a long tail, viewed end-on. I would guess that the animal was at least 3 feet long in body, with another 18 inches of tail (tail definitely round and about 2 inches in diameter). It stood perhaps 2 feet tall much too big to be a Bobcat and too long and the wrong color to be a Lynx. Although from that distance it was hard to see the ears, they didn't seem to be pointed. We decided it had to be a Mountain Lion. Wow!
I decided that nobody would believe us and that I'd better get some pictures to document it. (I was glad that I had another to witness the show.) So I went and grabbed my point-and-shoot camera and sneaked out the other side of the house and crept partway down the field, hiding behind some bushes to watch. Every so often the beast would disappear through an opening in the brush, and I would decide that it was gone for good; then several minutes later it would reappear and amble on. I wanted to know how long we were watching it so checked my watch: it read 3:05 p.m. I would say that I had watched it for about 5-10 minutes by then.
I went back into the house and out onto the deck to join my friend and began snapping photos. At one point the animal suddenly leaped straight up into the air, raised a paw, and twisted around as if catching something out of the air. I don't know if it was after an insect or had grabbed a vole and was flinging it up, but it was quite as graceful as a ballerina! (I would guess that it reached up about 5-6 feet.) It would have been a great photo but was one that got away!
Next the Mountain Lion began to cross the field. In spite of the tan color it was amazing how well camouflaged it was in amongst the thick Queen Anne's Lace; we could hardly make it out unless it moved or came to a place where the Queen Anne's Lace thinned out.
About that time I decided it was going to stick around, so it was worthwhile to wake up Robert from a nap to see it. He joined us and got his 7 x 50 binoculars. He definitely agreed that it was a big cat perhaps a Mountain Lion especially after we saw it side to, with its long body, long drooping tail with a light blob at the end (or was that a Queen Anne's Lace blossom?), and cat-like head. It crossed the field - about 150 feet - to the brushy edge at the west side and disappeared into the brush. Eventually it came back out, re-crossed the field, and disappeared into the other brush.
About that time my camera batteries died, and I scrambled to replace them. We continued to watch. Suddenly a smaller animal began approaching the lawn, walking in about 20 feet out from the western brushy side and up to about 50 feet from the deck. I thought, Oh my, the fox is back! (There has been a red fox that frequently walks up perhaps that very same track; he then goes across by the back of the house and across the front lawn, to go out the driveway and across the street.)
My friend said, No, it is the Lion but a smaller one!
I maintained that it was the fox until I looked through my binoculars; then I realized that it was bigger than a fox and definitely had a cat-like head, with rounded ears and big cat eyes. It just sat there and stared at us, as we stared at it. It was obviously very curious. Finally it turned west and disappeared into the brush. It was definitely smaller than the other Mountain Lion we had seen.
That seemed to be the end of the show, so my friend and I decided to dig some seedling asters from the lawn that she wanted for her garden. That involved going into the house to get trowels and a box, so probably took 5-10 minutes. We had just about finished digging when I looked south, down the shady, mowed path through the brush to my brush pile, and there the smaller Mountain Lion was again, just sitting and staring at us. It was sitting like a cat, on its haunches, with its front paws straight and together, and its ears straight up. We could see the rather mottled colors on its front. Its eyes looked very large. We stared at each other for several more minutes, and then it melted back into the shade and disappeared.
Nothing more appeared, and we went on to do other things. (It was by then about 5 p.m.)
Just before dusk I again looked out the kitchen window and saw the doe and her fawn entering the field from the western brushy edge. Again we went quietly out onto the deck to watch. The doe was intent on crossing the field, but the fawn wanted to eat the clover, so it lagged well behind the doe. To my surprise the doe seemed to follow almost exactly the same path that the larger Mountain Lion had followed, across the field, and then northeast along the eastern brushy edge, yet she didn't seem at all alarmed. Couldn't she smell the cat?
By the time the doe reached the eastern edge of the field the fawn hadn't progressed very far from the opposite side, so the doe walked back. The fawn then retreated into the western brush side and disappeared (probably going along the usual track northwest and off our property to another woody area).
All of a sudden we realized that the doe had turned and was looking at the smaller Mountain Lion, which had appeared in the field about 25 feet away from her. A real confrontation! The doe raised the flag of her tail, spread out and stiffened her legs to make herself look larger, pointed her nose, and had her ears out straight, sideways. She stared down the cat for what seemed like a long time (but probably was only several minutes) then she turned and bounded west into the bushes and disappeared. (She seemed businesslike but not afraid; I've had deer run away from me faster when they are in the field and I am just walking down the street.) I suppose she had been giving the fawn ample time to get out of possible danger. The smaller lion also melted away, and that was the end of it all. Quite a show! (And of course my camera had been put away, so no photo.)
When we looked up Mountain Lions in Wikipedia we saw pictures that looked very much like what we had seen, so feel convinced that we saw them. I know that there aren't supposed to be any in Massachusetts, yet we know of several people who also believe they have seen Mountain Lions occasionally in Sherborn.
I may be wrong, but I am convinced that we saw Mountain Lions. Although we never saw the two together there were definitely two of different sizes probably a female and her half-grown cub. Whatever they are, we also think, sadly, that they probably made a meal of our missing cat Mountain Lion Lunch. Replies: