Some critters sound similar

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Melting snow reveals tunnels voles have dug. The tunnel ends at the upper right, where it goes underground. (Janine Sullivan-Wiley photo)

By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY

You probably recognize by sound or sight many animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that live around our part of Connecticut. Or do you? What you thought was one kind of wildlife might very well have been something else.

Two examples of easily mistaken identity in birds are the calls of mourning doves and red-shouldered hawks. The sad “coo-woo coo coo coo” call of the mourning dove is frequently mistaken for that of an owl, and the red-shouldered hawk sounds a bit like a seagull. Another audio sound-alike is the wood frog, whose mating calls (heard around this time of year) could be mistaken for ducks in the distance.

In the world of strange sounds at night, some people here in Middlebury have heard chilling, screaming cries in the darkness. Surely those sounds must come from a strange, mysterious creature!

They often are mistakenly attributed to fishers. Sometimes called fisher cats, they are not cats at all, but a type of weasel. Fishers are not a widely known animal. They were eradicated from Connecticut by the 1900s, then reintroduced into northwestern Connecticut in 1988. Primarily nocturnal, and rarely seen, fishers actually are very quiet. That fearful sound in the night most likely is coming from a red fox; some of the noises they make are quite freaky.

The tiny vole, shown eating vegetation, is often mistaken for a mouse. (Photo courtesy Garry Kessler)

Many rodents make their homes here, including the well-known mice, rats, woodchucks, beavers and porcupines, squirrels, chipmunks and moles. Then there are voles, a small but common rodent many folks have never even heard of. When people do see them, which is not often, they often mistake them for mice.

You probably have seen their tunnels, running along the surface of the grass or as channels in turf or earth revealed as the snow melts. They make their nests underground or on the surface under the cover of vegetation. In addition to the tunnels they dig themselves, they also may use tunnels left by moles.

Voles look like mice, but with short tails, rather chubbier faces and smaller ears than our common white-footed mouse. In addition to their outsize ears, mice also have white bellies. Unlike omnivorous mice, voles are strictly herbivorous (plant-eating) and can be quite a problem with their fondness for the roots of garden plants and bark of fruit trees.

One small animal not often mistaken for something else (except maybe a bat or optical illusion) is largely unknown despite being fairly common: the flying squirrel. They are small, nocturnal, have large dark eyes and are well-camouflaged, colored grayish brown above with white bellies. I have seen them in the wild only once and that was accidentally, the white underbelly illuminated by my flashlight as the little creature glided between trees. I looked closely at the tree where it landed, but it was still hard to see. The movement as it scurried around the trunk and up a branch was like a movie special effect, like the bark itself was squirming.

Flying squirrels can be active all year, but when it is very cold, they may hole up in a nest, often in a tree cavity, sometimes communally with many individuals. If you have great patience, purportedly they can be attracted if you stand very still, scratch the bark of a tree and wait. Their great curiosity can lead them to investigate. Hope you enjoy investigating some of the creatures with which we share this land.

You can contact this writer at jswspotlight@gmail.com. Visit the Middlebury Land Trust on Facebook or the website at middleburylandtrust.org.