Bowmaker's Pond, just south of Sharon Springs, NY, on Rt. 10, a favorite twisting riding road for me, and entrance to the Catskill Mountains. I often stop to cool off and eat my sandwich here. It is a former marsh which was dredged to create a pond which is now heavily stocked with various fish, and a number of species of waterfowl hang out there. The public is allowed to fish and canoe there (for free, which is amazing).
Additionally, there are a couple spots where you can duck behind some thick bushes and respond to Nature's Call.
Last month, I drove by, instead of stopping, but looked over to appreciate the scenery, only to look back at the road and catch a glimpse of a very, very large cat running across the road, maybe 10 yards in front of me. It seemed to have come from those bushes that I've been watering.
A cougar, a mountain lion, I thought. Or maybe I should get back on my medication.........
So, I stopped at the Sharon Springs gas station and queried a local guy; "Oh, yeah, probably was a cougar, he said. The NYS DEC (Dept of Environmental Conservation) releases a few each year to control the varmints. People do report sightings." he said. Hmmmmm..... Do I now have to worry about both deer
and cougars in the road?.
When I got home, I went to the DEC website, where I found this:
Eastern Cougar Sightings
How Common Are Mountain Lions in New York?
Eastern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State. They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s; however, there have been a few isolated sightings. Each sighting involved cougars that are not native to New York. A couple of sightings involved captive mountain lions that escaped from licensed facilities in New York State. Another sighting involved a wild cougar that traveled through New York as it trekked nearly 1,800 miles east from its native population in South Dakota.
Internet/E-mail Rumors:
False Rumor: DEC Releasing Cougars to Control Deer
Rumors have been circulating for the past few years that the DEC has released cougars to control deer populations. Some of these rumors claim that Officer 'Jones' participated in the release, or that people have actually seen cougars with ear tags or neck collars, so they must have been released by the state. This is not true. The DEC has never released cougars, despite what you may hear to the contrary.
So, I'm uncertain as to exactly what I saw, but I'm probably
not going to water those bushes, anymore.