<html><body><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div>This is not a bird sighting, but may be of interest to birders, especially those who reside in or near Minnetonka.</div><div>After the Tuesday snow, I went outside to clear some ground under my feeders. I noticed unusual animal tracks in my back yard and the neighbor's. When I was younger I spent several years trapping animals for their fur. I know many might disapprove of this, but I learned a lot about wildlife habits and tracks.</div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>The tracks I saw looked like mink tracks. But they were larger, and the stride was longer than a mink. It was much too long a stride to be a weasel .And the feet were too big. I was not sure about opossums, since they did not live in Minnesota during my trapping days. So I contacted a younger neighbor and discussed it.</div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>Certainly not "possum tracks, as verified by a quick Google search. And if a mink, it would have been the largest ever seen. However...</div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>He told me that a couple of days previously he had seen what he thought was a fisher in the rear of his yard. He has seen fisher in Wisconsin, and I have seen them in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I studied fisher tracks on line, and I am certain the tracks indicated that a fisher has been present in Minnetonka for a few days. I have never seen a mink or a bobcat or bear in my yard, though nearly every other Minnesota mammal. And apparently a fisher stopped by and may be living around here some place, or just passing through. Quite unusual.</div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>Don Grussing</div><div>Minnetonka</div></div></body></html>