Maine Wildlife Park, Gray, ME

Day two of out trip and we had to change our plans due to weather. We planned to go to the Maine Wildlife Park on Wednesday but now the weather is calling for rain on that day. So since the park is outside it made sense to go today while it was nice.

Today was a nice day with great temperatures and clear skies. We arrived at the park around noon and started our journey.

Deer

The first enclosures we went to held some deer including one that had white hair. It was not a true albino but was cool either way. There were maybe three or four deer in the enclosure but they were in the shade and hard to see and get photos of.

Other Small Animals

The next few enclosures housed a few different animals. The consisted of a Skunk, Woodchuck, Fisher, Raccoons (normal and white), Beaver, and a Porcupine. Some of them were not out and active while others were very playful.

The Fisher, for example, would run around his enclosure and jump up on the fence and hang there for a bit before jumping back to the ground. The White Raccoon was moving around while the other raccoon just laid there. The Woodchuck and Bever were not in their pens at this time.

Moose

Next, we went to see the Moose that they have in the park. Over the last couple trips to Maine, we have tried to find a Moose in the wild with no luck. So for us just seeing some would be a cool thing.

When we got to the Moose pen we found that they had four Moose. Two Bulls and two females. Again we had the issue of the pens being in the shade and not only that the Moose were all laying against the fence in the dark.

We were able to get pretty close and could see them well but with the fencing and them laying down getting a good photo of them was impossible. Either way, we were able to finally see a live Moose and one of the females even sneezed wich was unexpected.

Lynx

When we got to the enclosures for the Lynx we saw two of them. As we noticed with any zoo the animals sleep a lot and these two were no exception. They were taking a cat nap in the sunlight making it had to get a photo of them that was not washed out.

Bobcat

The Bobcat on the other had was awake and sitting up. The problem with him was not the sun but the fencing that was around him. Again another shot that was hard to get.

Mountian Lion

I have never seen a Mountain Lion close up before just in museums stuffed. This one was pretty big and intimidating. Not something I would want to run into while out hiking.

Now it was sleeping but every time I got close to take a picture it would open its eyes and stare me down. Very pretty animal for sure.

Cougar

Out of all the animals, we saw at the Maine Wildlife Park the Cougar was the most active. He was walking his enclosure and taking a drink of water. Lucky for me I was right there when he did it.

The Cougar was very pretty and photogenic. It was basically posing for me.

Coyote

There was also a Coyote there too. When we went to see it they just finished feeding it. They let it out of the feeding enclosure and it ran into the bushes and out of sight. I checked back a few times and it never did come out of hiding.

Black Bears

The Black Bear enclosure was void of other people when we walked up. We noticed they had two Black Bears that looked a little different but were very active.

One of the bears was sitting staring up at us from his pen. Then we realized that there were two feeding machines that for a quarter you could feed the bears some pellets. We fed them a few times and I got some nice shots through the glass of them.

Bird Exhibit

The next stop was the bird exhibits. Now this was disappointing since many of the birds were not in their enclosures for one reason or another. Another disappointing thing was the sun shining into the chicken wire made it difficult to get any pictures and the birds moved to the back out of the sun.

There was a Bald and Golden Eagle also there but they had glass in front of their enclosure that reflected everything in the area.

Turtle Pond

Next stop was the turtle pond. I was surprised at how many turtles they had in the pond. Also, they must see many people due to when we walked up they did not jump into the water like the ones I have seen in the wild.

One thing I did notice were the leeches on the turtle shells. I have never seen that before and have no idea why they are on the shells and not the turtle themselves.

Another animal in the pond was a couple of frogs and a bunch of tadpoles. They also were not afraid of us and allowed us to get close for some nice images.

Dry Mills Fish Hatchery

Dry Mills Fish Hatchery was pretty neat to check out. You can see the fish in the building swimming down towards the exit. At the end, there is a big holding area that the fish are in till they are collected and moved to stock some lakes nearby.

In the holding area, they said were around 6000 fish.

Maine Warden Service Museum

The last place we checked out was the Maine Warden Service Museum. It is not a big building but has some neat old gear and information from years past and present.

Ok so I am sure a lot of you have seen video or heard of people getting attacked by wild Turkeys mainly due to them getting to close to the bird for some reason. Well yesterday I was hiking at the Rancocas Nature Center and I became one of the attacked. Here is the story.

I went for a hike to get back in shape since I have been out of commission due to a hernia surgery. While walking the yellow trail in the park I saw a wild turkey in the distance but it was going away from me and up a hill. I was worried that when I got to that spot it would come at me but by the time I got there is was no where to be seen. Finishing along the blue trail heading down to the visitor center and parking lot the trail breaks into a Y intersection. I decided to take the right trail to loop around a field heading to the parking lot. Thats when it got bad.

I didn't see the turkey laying in the tall grass and when I made the turn onto the trail I heard a weird sound then it came busting out of the grass at me on a full speed run with wings open. Not expecting that (yet not panicking) I screamed at it which stopped it for a second while I tried to back away. It charged me again and I threw my arms up and charged it a few steps, which made it back off and try to circle around me. I picked up a branch and threw it which did not hit it (wasn't trying to hurt it) but made it run off farther to give me more space. I hurried down the trail but the moment I turned my back it charged again, so I repeated what I did before. This time it backed off and circled me at a decent distance and I just stood there watching it. I guess it was tired of me so it went back to where I ran into it.

So if you see a wild turkey keep your distance the WILL attack they can be very aggressive. I didn't do anything to aggravate it, but it sure wanted to attack me. This is the first time I have EVER ran into a problem with wildlife while on a hike. That five minute fight just goes to show you NEVER know what you can run into while out in the woods. Always be on the look out and be prepared.

Picture of the turkey after the fight and it was going back to the spot I ran into it.