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June 9th, 2011Benjamin Cutter
July 5th, 2010He was a private under the command of Benjamin Tupper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tupper and served for 4 or 5 years with the Massachusettes regiment. Somewhere in some of the geneology papers he is listed as a Captain but I would have to stay with private since the filed papers say so. I can’t read most of the papers they’re to dark and the writing is hard to dechipher. The company or regiment he was with was part of the Massachusettes Line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Line
Here’s his list of personal possesions before or after he died.
Hope you can view the file. Making out words is very difficult. I should probably bring it to someone that can clean it up and make sense of it. A couple of the things listed on there are 2 Swine top line $20.00 1 plow and 1 drag 2nd line $5.00 , 1 Draft ? Some dishes, down at the bottom it has a Wooden Wheel $2.50
The next one is a copy of his Certificate of Pension for service that his wife, my 10th Great Grandmother recieved after his death
If you can make any of this out she was paid a total of 196 dollars a year for his service. He died March 5, 1846 , he was 84 yrs old. Her name was Elizabeth. It looks like the first payment she was supposed to receive on September 30, 1868 and it was issued on the 4th day of December 1867. She died on June 9, 1871. I know where their original farm was and to a degree is still somewhat of a farm today. It’s called Cutter Hill in Fort Ann, New York.
The Best Animal Track Guide Available
June 10th, 2010The MyNature Animal Track app was just chosen to be 1 of 6 of the apps in featured on Apples home page in the category of “Apps for the Great Outdoors”
Raccoon Tracks
April 30th, 2010Identifying Raccoon Tracks www.mynaturesite.com
Animal Tracking Tips
April 24th, 2010One of the best places to spend some time outdoors looking for tracks is a Beaver pond. Actually an old beaver pond which the dam has broke and left a flow is even better. Dams represent the edge in the forest, an edge is where two different ecosystems meet. Wildlife are naturally drawn to the edge of an ecosystem and spend time feeding, bedding and hunting these areas. These edges are where the majority of animal sign can be found if you take the time to look. Elevated areas like rocks and logs in or near the waters edge are great places to find scat left by Mink, Muskrat and Otters.
This scat left by a Muskrat is a territorial marker. You can see that there is both new and old scat where he constanly freshens this scent post. You might also find a latrine area where there are piles of different aged scat, these are usually found near their core area where they spend the majority of their time.
Sign left on the trails leading to an Edge area like a Beaver Pond are also good indicators of what animals are using the area.
This Bobcat scat on the left was found just a few feet away from the dam itself. 
This scat on the right was left on one of the trails leading to the pond by a Black Bear.
One of the best spots to look for tracks on a active beaver pond is right on the dam itself. Dams serve as a kind of natural bridge for animals to cross on. Many times the top of the dam consists of mud placed there by beavers to reinforce the structure. Bears, Deer, Coyotes, Fox will all utilize the top of the dam to get from one side of the pond to the other and leave their tracks there for your identification.
Next time your on an outing try to find the Edge whether a beaver pond, mountain meadow, stream or agricultural field and you should have no problem finding animal sign.
Happy Tracking !!
Spring Tracks
April 9th, 2010
The last of the winter snows have disappeared and along with them went the perfect canvas for animal tracks. As I bummed as I am to lose the good tracking snow I’m very happy Spring has arrived. Along with Spring comes mud season which not as plentiful as snow still has the ability to capture a perfect crisp outline of the animal that passed through it. I recently scouted a farm field not far from here. The great thing about the agricultural fields south of here is that they consist primarily of clay and the next best thing to Spring mud is Spring clay. I’ll probably return there tomorrow if I get a chance and do a little plaster casting of some of the tracks if the rain holds off. The best way to approach finding tracks in farm fields is to just walk the edge, there really is no need to venture any further than 10 feet from the sides of the field to find tracks. In fact most animals will be doing the same thing, just cruising the edges. Any animal that ventures out of the bordering brush will definitely leave evidence of it’s passing as long as the clay or dirt is wet. Take for instance the Weasel Tracks I found, weighing in at just under a pound this one left a very distinct track. 
Weasels have a heel pad that is easy to recognize once you know what your looking for. The size of the track and placement of the feet also give it away.
Farm fields really offer one of the best places to find and identify tracks. Prey animals are attracted to the crops and the carnivorous animals follow the prey so there is an abundance of sign as long as you keep your eyes to the ground.
If you don’t personally know a farmer then just stop and ask for permission if you can walk the edges of their field to do some tracking, most won’t mind as long as your respectful of the property. It’s a great way to spend some time outdoors especially with the kids and what kid wouldn’t love traipsing through the mud? Happy Tracking !!
The last of the winter snows have disappeared and along with them went the perfect canvas for animal tracks. As I bummed as I am to lose the good tracking snow I’m very happy Spring has arrived. Along with Spring comes mud season which not as plentiful as snow still has the ability to capture a perfect crisp outline of the animal that passed through it. I recently scouted a farm field not far from here. The great thing about the agricultural fields south of here is that they consist primarily of clay and the next best thing to Spring mud is Spring clay. I’ll probably return there tomorrow if I get a chance and do a little plaster casting of some of the tracks if the rain holds off. The best way to approach finding tracks in farm fields is to just walk the edge, there really is no need to venture any further than 10 feet from the sides of the field to find tracks. In fact most animals will be doing the same thing, just cruising the edges. Any animal that ventures out of the bordering brush will definitely leave evidence of it’s passing as long as the clay or dirt is wet. Take for instance the Weasel Tracks I found, weighing in at just under a pound this one left a very distinct track. 
Weasels have a heel pad that is easy to recognize once you know what your looking for. The size of the track and placement of the feet also give it away.
Farm fields really offer one of the best places to find and identify tracks. Prey animals are attracted to the crops and the carnivorous animals follow the prey so there is an abundance of sign as long as you keep your eyes to the ground.
If you don’t personally know a farmer then just stop and ask for permission if you can walk the edges of their field to do some tracking, most won’t mind as long as your respectful of the property. It’s a great way to spend some time outdoors especially with the kids and what kid wouldn’t love traipsing through the mud? Happy Tracking !!
Custom Log Work!!
March 13th, 2010
Animal Tracks Upgrade
March 7th, 2010Were getting ready to update the MyNature Animal Track app in the next several weeks and we would like your input on what you would like to see this app do in the future. A few of the additions we’ll be making are;
- More gait pattern images for each animal.
- Additional individual track images
- Images for sign made by animals.
- A searchable database for animal scat.
- Digital images of scat.
- Social Network features so you can post directly to Face Book, Twitter or Flickr.
- A life list of animal tracks.
- An interactive web page for posting your track or scat finds to a database.
- A new layout to the Mynature Journal page which includes a basic information layout form for time, temperature, location and weather conditions. A feature to save your entries individually and the ability to go back and edit your entries.
- The ability to upload your own track or scat images directly into the app.
We invite you to leave your comments or suggestions on how to improve the the app and make your outdoor experience more rewarding. What would you like to see in future upgrades? Please let us know and we will take them into consideration. Together we can make this the best app on Animal Tracks out there. Happy tracking!!
Otter Tracks
December 29th, 2009Here’s a link to some great pics of Otter tracks.
Pine Cone Meals
December 13th, 2009
I spent a few hours yesterday looking for tracks. Although, I did find Bobcat tracks (a first for me), I spent a good deal of time looking for other animal signs. You may not see a lot of tracks or animals around this time of year but they do leave signs of their presence if you pay attention. The photo above really looks like nothing more than some debris covering the snow and in all actuallity that’s what it is, but what does it tell you?
What it’s telling me is that this tree is one of the favorite perches for a Red Squirrel. The sheer amount of scales located at the base means he frequents this tree on a regular basis to fill up on cones. It’s not just the tree itself he frequents it is one specific branch on that tree. We can tell that by the cone debris being localized to one spot at the base. You would think that the cones are from the same tree but actually they aren’t , this particular tree where he favors to have his meals is a Hemlock and the cones he has been enjoying are from a White Pine. Red Squirrels start in the late summer storing food in large caches for their winter supply of food. So why is he carrying cones from his cache to another tree? He does that because that one tree is a perfect vantage point for observing any danger while he’s feeding and he eats a lot. One Red Squirrel can consume the seeds of up to 40 cones or more per day! So there ya go, there are a lot more animal signs to discover other than just tracks and scat. Keep an eye out next time your cruising the woods for the more subtle signs of what animal are around.
Happy Hiking! www.mynaturesite.com