Game Cam

Some recent game cam photos:


A sleek bobcat (Lynx rufus).


Murphy's law of game cameras:
You get mostly southern views of northbound animals. (Coyote, Canis latrans.)


Looks like she barely escaped that bicycle pump. (Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana.)


Finally, our first shot of a beaver in action. (Castor canadensis.) Click to embiggen!

We nearly ruined the game cam, trying to get a photo of a beaver. Positioned it too near the creek last spring. The heavy rains came, and... well, it's not meant to be an underwater camera. It still works, but not as well as it once did. The batteries used to last forever; now they need replacing every two weeks or so.

And this was the only beaver pic we got out of that sorry situation:



Smile!

If that's the miscreant who gnawed down the only white-blooming redbud in our woods, I wouldn't be too sad if that flash gave him a mild heart attack. I really miss that tree.

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Sirens from emergency vehicles screaming down the highway roused us in the wee hours last night. Jasmine howled, which she almost never does. It sounded so funny, I couldn't help but laugh, even as I was trying not to wake up too much. But then every coyote in the woods howled too. There are a lot more of them than I'd thought. I had imagined the population somewhat reduced, since our chicken flock has stayed intact for the past year. Now I'm worried.

The better to see you with

Here's a recent game camera shot of a reddish coyote. I still haven't managed to get a better photo of the suspected melanistic (black) coyote. I think this one may be his/her mate. I've gotten a couple of shots of them together, but Red here is always the one in the foreground.

After viewing our previous shots, the local Extension agent agreed that the black canid was most likely a coyote. He advised me to bait the area with meat for a better photo. I'm a little afraid that would attract the wrong element though... stray dogs. There have been a few more of those around lately.

Scritch scratch

Another recent game cam pic. After looking through some of the older game camera photos, I realized that we've had the camera in almost this exact location before.

I'm not sure why it surprised me, when I first realized it... Animals like to walk on clear, open paths just as much as people do.

I suppose I vaguely imagined some sort of I'm an animal! I walk in the woods! philosphy. But no. If we built an asphalt highway through those trees, the animals would be walking on it.

Melanistic coyote?

I'm fairly certain that this recent game gam photo is of a melanistic coyote.

You can see why we've been tempted to buy a new camera with a faster trigger. We get a fairly high percentage of this type of shot (only part of a moving animal).



Here he is going in the opposite direction.



Here's that same photo, lightened up a little.

Without seeing the face, I can't say for sure that it's not a coydog. I don't think those are very common here either, though.

Keep your fingers crossed that we'll get a better photo of this individual in the coming weeks.

Should have known better

"Look! Something caught a rabbit!"



While I was bent trying to focus on the fur (proud of myself for spotting something so well-camouflaged and so small), my husband got the bigger picture.

"The rest of him's over here."



OK, ew.

"Did he escape, but get mortally wounded? Did he just crawl over there to die?" (Latent detective tendencies in high gear!)

"Well, probably not. His head is missing."

Had we blundered up and scared a predator away in mid-snack? Hubby moved the carcass a little, and it was stiff. So, no.

Jasmine discovered some strewn rabbit guts, and happily gobbled up several bits before we noticed and tugged her away. Yuck, Jasmine.

On down the path, I had an idea. "Hey, let's get the game cam and put it there, to see if any critter comes back later to finish his dinner." (Latent detective tendencies on fire!)

I'd been moaning about moving the camera for some time now. We were not getting anything interesting where it had been stationed for the past several months.

While hubby was setting up the camera, I found more evidence.



"Maybe if I put this on the blog, a bird expert could tell me what type of bird this feather came from..."

OK, so a raptor (owl? buteo? accipiter?) was probably not going to come back to finish off the rabbit, but surely we'd get some cool wildlife shot of hungry scavengers.

But I really should have known better.

The only one who came back to finish anything was Jasmine.



Bad dog!

Oh, well.

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If you want to see the Cottontail in full headless gory glory, you can click here. He's missing a portion of his side too. It's bloody. It's not for everybody.

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On the feather, I was thinking "owl" but I really have no idea. (So if you do, please post a comment.) It seems similar to the photo on this page titled "Great Horned Owl feather". That would be cool, since we've never seen one here before.

Not meeting expectations

Beavers have dammed up the creek, so we moved the game camera to the path that had been worn between there and the pond. After a couple of weeks, I was sure we'd have lots of mug shots of the little orange-toothed destructivores.



But there were only masked bandits! Wet ones. Coming...



... and going.

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Raccoon, Procyon lotor.

For more on the game camera, click the "Game cam" label below.

A little behind

We found a burrow that looked lived-in, and set up the game camera to spy on the occupant. There were not as many photos as we'd expected though -- not enough to prove this an active burrow. It's possible these armadillo passers-by are just checking it out. (Who knows, maybe the previous resident left behind something tasty!)











I believe these pictures represent at least three different individuals. The last one looks like a mama about ready to pop. Which reminds me, Happy Mother's Day!

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Between various volunteer "jobs" and some large wholesale orders, I'm like that first armadillo above: a little behind. Got to make soap like a crazy woman next week!

Stupid cows

Stupid cows.


Stupid cows.


Stupid cows!

Ack! The neighbor's stupid cows are back! The game camera was full of pictures of cows.

Actually the cows aren't stupid. They're pretty smart -- they know their owner doesn't maintain his fences. I'm just saying "stupid" because I don't want to cuss on the blog.

I was gone all day, so the cows had plenty of time to do some real damage. Then they came back again overnight, and were in the garden before it was even light outside. (Nocturnal cows!)

I considered myself lucky not to have to wash the dog this time, though.

Game camera for late March

The last game camera location was a little far from most of the action, and resulted mainly in shots of poorly-lit mystery creatures. So we moved it a bit closer to the clearing.



Maybe a little too close. We'd have had a perfect bobcat photo if we hadn't moved the camera. Oh, well.



The little masked bandit showed up well, though.



As did the &$*#^@% stray dogs. We never see them in the daytime, but apparently they love to roam and bark all night.



No idea.



Sad looking coyote, huh? I'm tempted to say he's thin because we're no longer supplying the free chicken dinners*, but it's probably not that.

I'm not sure why the color is so odd. I tried photoshopping, but realized that I don't know how to reverse grass that looks brown, dirt that looks green, and a coyote that looks like he stepped out of a B&W movie.



That's more like it! The turkeys seem to wander much more on dreary, gray days.

I just knew we'd have a shot of a mink by now. But no. I have another idea about aiming the camera more towards the rocky edge of the creek bed.

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*We only have two chickens left. Coyotes and bobcats ate the others, and we haven't replaced them yet. Hubby says that the survivors should have names, and has dubbed them Chicken (the Easter-Egger) and Dumpling (the Marans). They flock together during the day, but sleep on opposite sides of the coop at night.

We'd like more chickens, but the minimum order from a hatchery is 25 -- more than we need. Local co-ops aren't bringing in chicks anymore. (Death of true rurality or rise of avian flu hysteria, take your pick.) We may try checking other counties' co-ops or the flea market this weekend.

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If this is your first visit:

These shots are from our game camera, a Cuddeback Expert 3.0. Click on the game camera label to read more about it and see more photos.

I crop the bottom info from the photos because
1) The Cuddeback logo is distracting, and
2) Hubby never remembers to reset the date/time stamp after changing batteries, so it's never right.

If Cuddeback wants to send me a free camera, I'll happily stop cropping their little logo out of the shots... but I figure I give them enough free publicity as it is.

By the way, I did finally remember the name of the top-of-the-line game camera that I'd been talking about before: Reconyx. Their photo quality does not appear to be any better than the Cuddeback, but the trigger times are lower: 1/10 to 1/5 second, depending on the model. And it can take up to 99 photos per trigger. But at around $1000, it's a little beyond my reach for now.

Easter Armadillo?

The game cam didn't capture the Easter Bunny this year...

All we got was an Easter Armadillo!

Turkey trot time-lapse

11:06 (advance scout)


11:08


11:09


11:10


11:16 (always a straggler)

Hubby moved the game camera a little closer to the watering-hole action. Unfortunately the sun from this angle is going to be a little harsh - sorry about that.

The Game cam is set to take a picture every minute when the IR is triggered. (Don't know why it didn't take one at 11:07.) I wish it would cycle faster than that, but it's primarily made for deer hunters and I suppose they aren't as interested in multiple pictures of the same animal as I am.

Wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo.

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For more wild critter action at our place, click on the game cam label just below.

And don't forget to visit the Friday Ark.

Mystery critters

Argh! The camera was so far away! What in the world are these creatures?!



Critter #1 was just crawling out of the creek bank, I think. The back legs are possibly still below, out of the picture.



I lightened it up a bit, but I'm not sure it helps. This is about the limit of the flash's range, unfortunately.



Critter #2 does us the favor of showing his tail.



Here's the picture lightened up a little.

Since there's no perspective for size in these pics, here are the larger uncropped shots. I'm including yesterday's deer and coyote for comparison. Ignore the times/dates - they got a little off, and haven't been reset.









I'm fairly certain that critter #2 is a muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus). We don't have nutria here, and I don't know what else would have a tail like that.



What is critter #1? I was really trying to make him into a mink, but the more I look, the more I think he's really an otter. Especially when I compare with these earlier game cam shots. But let me know what you think.

Here are more otter pictures, in daylight.

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Updated:
Here is a closer look at critter #2 (click to enlarge slightly):



This is where I am seeing his outline, and why I thought it was a chunky muskrat. This may not be right, however. Like I said, it's difficult to see where his back ends and the brush behind him begins.

Early spring game cam

My husband's last idea for a game cam location didn't work out like he anticipated. The high altitude game trail was apparently not a path in current use. No critter pics at all for 3 weeks.

On the way up to check the camera, we did get a live-action wildlife treat though: a huge flock of turkeys. At least two dozen of them strolled calmly across the hill, shuffling through the dry leaves and making quite a racket.

We finally moved the camera to the spot I'd been whining about for some time: a low-level easy creek access. I have been hankering for a mink shot and I know they like water, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



The Great Blue Heron was a surprise. They are frequently in the ponds, but I had no idea that they visited the creek too.



Isn't he pretty? Some turkeys were in the same spot just earlier, but they were moving too fast and were blurry.



There were four night shots, but at a distance. I am wondering, if we put the camera on a stake closer to the action, would the animals shy away from it? Or would they walk behind it, just to taunt us? I guess we'll try this spot a few more weeks and then see.



Coyote checking his smell-mail.

Coming up next: two mystery critters in the dark of the night.