It took a while for a spring cougar sighting in Colrain to reach this space, but here it is, brought to my attention a few weeks ago by longtime friend and Shelburne selectman Joe Judd, himself an outdoor writer. The date of the sighting isn’t clear and the woman who made it wasn’t real forthcoming […]

Another witness with no reason to lie or desire for publicity came forward to report a cougar sighting on Routes 5 & 10 in Deerfield. “What exactly are they, anyways?” asked Steve Nartowicz of Greenfield. “I call it a mountain lion. Is that right? Or is it a cougar?” Fact is it doesn’t matter. Cougar […]

Try telling Gary Cole of Athol that Eastern cougars are extinct. He saw one cross the road in front of him. So did his wife. In a neat, flawless, hand-written letter, Cole recounted his summer sighting that occurred around 7 p.m. as the couple crossed the Route 202 bridge crossing the Millers River. About 40 […]

The cat craze has moved to the front page. Iamagine that! Yes, there it was, front and center, in Wednesday’s Recorder. A sighting off Deerfield Street in Greenfield. At the condos across from the street from The Meadows Golf Course. Jumped up onto a shed roof. Long tail. We’ve heard it all before. Who knows […]

A few new developments on the cougar front that’s gaining momentum like a runaway locomotive on a steep descent since first mention of it here 15 months ago. Let me think … what came first? Oh yeah, the guy from Templeton. He’s been reading about cougars in this space and had something important to share; […]

Interesting observation from a recent coastal Maine transplant with Connecticut Valley roots — an upright lady and former Recorder scribe with no reason for or history of, um, lying. But what the new South Amherst resident witnessed definitely left an impression. She was stunned. The sighting occurred on a Sunday-afternoon drive with her 13-year-old son; […]

A local realtor chimed in on cougars after a recent report of a Colrain sighting. The man made his first Ashfield home in an area I’m quite familiar with after decades of hunting, hiking and four-wheeling through a forest wonderland where kindred spirits beckon. Apparently, he felt as though he’d bitten his tongue long enough. […]

Not wanting to “beat a dead horse,” I had stopped reporting about Pioneer Valley mountain lion, or cougar, sightings by the late 1980s. Well, that horse has sprung to life, so I think I’ll ride it and see where it takes me. Yeah, I’m fully prepared for accusations from wildlife officials that I’m being “irresponsible” […]

As wildlife officials steadfastly dismiss Northeastern cougar sightings as misidentifications and mirages, big-cat witnesses keep coming forward from the Carolinas to Canada’s Maritime Provinces. And despite what the experts say, accepted Eastern cougar evidence has been gathered in the region, some as close as the Quabbin Reservation and the Goshen State Forest. So, although any […]

Woodsman Peter M. Falandes, a self-described “old codger” from Charlemont, chimed in about wild cats and beyond. Saying he has a good knowledge of local wildlife after spending “a lot of his life in the woods,” his typed letter touched on mountain lions and Canada lynx. Falandes doesn’t know what the fuss is about mountain […]