Winter camera-trapping

This is the camera I’m currently 

using: A Bushnell Trophy Cam HD.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I LOVE using camera traps, or game/trail cameras. I love sticking them out in the woods and seeing who comes when I’m not looking. This set of pictures doesn’t contain anything too exciting, all common critters, but I got some multi-species pictures. I love it when that happens, I feel like I’ve totally breached the code of wildlife and am a secret agent spy. “HA! I KNEW you all hung out like in Disney movies!” Well, in this case, several members from different species hung out together, because I sprinkled a handful of black oil sunflower seeds on my favorite camera-trapping log.

Enjoy!

(BTW, I had around 1,500 pictures from 3 days. Once the seed was discovered, critters descended and burned up all my battery by December 20th! The camera was set until January 5th, but due to lots of action and/or frigid temps, the camera died.)

The normally EXTREMELY territorial red squirrel is shown here sharing the log with another red. They are known for caching food in an accessible hiding spot, and then defending it. If you’ve walked in a conifer stand, and heard someone “yelling” at you from the trees, it was probably a red. I’m assuming because it’s winter, these 2 were able to put aside their differences and munch amicably on the seed within feet of each other.

400 pictures “later” than the duo of squirrels, I caught many pics of these 4 American Crows together. Crows are often seen in groups, but what interests me now, is that they appear to be eating the seed! Crows are opportunists, so they WILL eat anything, but are not typically seen at a bird feeder eating bird seed. Well, I suppose in the winter I’d eat bird seed too, if I had to.

A handsome Blue Jay makes a brief appearance!

Here are two species eating in harmony! The red squirrel and a Mourning Dove.

Another multi-species picture. I see the American Goldfinches and Dark-eyed Juncos.

Here’s Red, looking guilty? Did he just chase off the birds?

 

 

And the last picture I found to be of interest, has 3 different species in it! Can you find them all? From the bottom of the picture up: Dark-eyed Junco, red squirrel, and a Black-capped Chickadee.

Camera trap catch-up

The past 2 weeks have been so totally insane out-of-control hectic, it aint even funny. Work, a death in the family, a trip to Massachusetts for a black bear field study I’m involved with, and FINALLY getting to go back to my home in Cobleskill after weeks away…one good thing to come out of all of that, is that I’ve left my camera trap alone and unbothered…

Since I haven’t shared any camera trap images lately, I think I’ll share the best of the past 2 weeks, and let the photos speak for themselves.

A woodchuck "selfie" - Latham, NY

Striped skunk

Woodchuck cleaning out the barn?

 

Eastern cottontail "selfie" - Latham, NY



Red fox - Latham, NY

American Crow "selfie"...in flight?! - Latham, NY

Red fox bringing home a meal? - Latham, NY

Gray squirrel and an American Crow - Latham, NY

 

Fisher - Cobleskill, NY

Virginia opossum - Cobleskill, NY

Two gray squirrels - Cobleskill, NY

White-tailed deer...young buck! - Cobleskill, NY

Family of 4 raccoons - Cobleskill, NY

American Crows - Cobleskill, NY

 

Eastern cottontail - Cobleskill, NY

Camera trap visitors and a new job!

I haven’t posted any camera trap pics in awhile! The end of the semester kept me busy, and then the past couple of weeks seem to have been just as busy! I also started a new job this week, which I will share later in the post. Going back a month ago, my friend Tyler went out the first week of May to go Turkey hunting. The spring Turkey season opened on May 1st, and he was successful in getting a Jake (young male!). He was excited to bag a bird, but I was excited because I was going to get the carcass once he got the meat he wanted from it. I know, it’s a morbid thing to be excited about. But, if you’ve been following along with my blog, you know there’s no shortage of “gross” in my life :)

A few weeks before Tyler gave me his Turkey carcass, I had found a road-killed stray cat at the end of my driveway. I had seen this cat around, flea bitten with ticks. Sad, but it happens. So when I found the dead cat, I removed it from my driveway, and brought it into the woods. I didn’t have anything to bury it with, so I figured I’d just let nature take it’s course. And I set up my Bushnell Trophy Cam HD on the site. So when Turkey was ready, he joined Stray Cat. It’s been an active site, here are a few of the pictures!

A couple of scavengers: American Crows

A usual visitor, the Virginia opossum checking out the dead cat before Turkey came on the scene.

That’s Tyler! Setting out Mr. Turkey

A pair of raccoons stopped by the buffet…

Possum is back…he was definitely the most common visitor. I like this picture because I think he’s eating some of the Turkey carcass. Sitting up like a squirrel!

Stray cat #1.

 

Stray cat #2

And the first real predator! A coyote is checking the scene out.

Stray cat #3

Another predator: Red fox

A cottontail hops by in the background…

And FINALLY I get my porcupine! I know they’re around, I just have not yet seen one in my yard! I love them.

The Turkey Thief! I walked up the check the camera recently, and the Turkey was gone. Well, I have photographic evidence of the thief. COYOTE.

So I guess that was more photos than a few, but I’ve been getting some good stuff lately! I am wondering where the fisher and bobcat and bears are though. I’m hoping they show themselves sometime this summer!
I might mention also that the cat is pretty much untouched. Nothing seems to really be feeding on it, it’s just decomposing. I wonder why…?

 I’m spending the majority of my summer in the Capitol Region of NY, in Albany. I live in Cobleskill for school (I attend SUNY Cobleskill), but I got a great internship this summer at the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation main office on Broadway! It’s really a great opportunity for a budding biologist like myself, and I’m working under Jeremy Hurst, big game biologist. Big game in NY consists of white-tailed deer, black bears, and moose. Moose really aren’t on the radar much yet though, because they are so few. This position is an office position, no running around outside this summer. But I am going to be getting the chance to learn a lot about how black bears are managed for in NY. I’m hoping that my future career will include work with black bears. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been very interested in them. At first when I was a kid, they were “cute”. Now, they just mystify me with their incredibly adaptive habits and behaviors. They literally stop eating, drinking, and moving for 4-5 months, give birth, and then come out on the other side of winter a little lighter but generally ok! I wish I could do that!

Anyway, this position will be interesting and a great learning experience. I will be posting periodically about what I’m up to on the job. Stay tuned!

Check these videos out...

I have 3 weeks left in my semester (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) so time is short. But I got a few cool videos on my camera trap a few weeks ago, and I figured I'd share them!

The camera is a Bushnell Trophy Cam HD, and this was taken in Schoharie, NY.

I used the following scent lure to see who I could get to respond to it (really was hoping for a bobcat):

 

Fisher

 

 

American Crows (wait til the end...they almost take out my camera!)

 

 

The elusive gray fox...I love these small Canids, and I'm happy to have gotten one in my backyard!

 

 

 Camera-trapping is so addictive! I've said it before, and anyone else who's a 'trapper I'm sure will agree!



Going out on a limb

I have a tendancy to oversensationalize when I'm identifying critters. If I find a mink track, I want it to be a river otter so bad. If I get a blurry, grainy IR fox image...I really want it to be a gray not a red.

In this case, my gut reaction to this camera-trapped image below was that I caught the Common Raven (Corvus corax) perching on a log. Which would be a new species for me.

Then I talked myself out of it, and said "No, couldn't possibly be...it's just a [American] Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)".

I even blogged about it over at my Albany Times Union 'Discovering wildlife' blog...and called it a Crow.

But now looking at it, I'm not so sure.

Here's why I think it's a Raven:

-Size. That looks like a big bird. Granted it's fairly close to the camera, but upon reviewing pictures taken at this site of DEFINITE Crows, I feel like this is a bigger bird than those.

-Bill. Raven's are known for having a much heavier bill than the Crows. Also, there are some feathers on the dorsal (top) bill that extend down the culmen. Am I using that word correctly? The Crows don't seem to have this, as I look at drawings in my Sibley's and Nat Geo books.


I unfortunately don't have any GOOD Crow pictures taken from this same angle. Or at least that I saved. Crows are a dime a dozen, so I tend to delete those pictures, unless something is really cool. I do have this picture though that's at almost the same angle, but on a different brand of camera.

 

This seems to be a Crow. Although it's further away from the camera, it seems to definitely be of a slighter build. Also, it's bill seems a bit more slender and not as thick.

One feature of the Raven that is pointed out in both Sibley's and Nat Geo, is that the Raven has some shaggy /throat breast feathers. Unfortunately in neither of these pictures can you see those feathers. So, I can't use that as identification.

Alright, Bloggers. I fully expect to be supported or called out on my sensationalism. If I'm wrong, and this is just a plain old Crow....I'm ok with that. But if that's a Raven, then I have another bird to add to my camera-trapped list!

Help!

What's better than 12 pictures of fisher?

2 VIDEOS of fisher!

My last entry boasted of my camera-trapping success in which my Cuddeback Attack yielded 12 pictures of a fisher or two. I'm still not sure. And I didn't think I could've been happier, because catching a fisher on camera (especially one with a flash) seemed impossible! For me at least. I feel like I always have bad luck with camera trapping, although looking back I guess I've gotten some cool animals.

Bushnell Trophy Cam HD camera set - Schoharie, NY

Anyway, so I set my new Bushnell Trophy Cam HD up just uphill of the spot where I've gotten pictures of fisher. Looking downhill, if you notice in the picture, to the left of the camera there is an orange spot on the ground. Those are nasty, rotten trout eggs that I put out to lure in critters. So far all I've gotten are American Crows.

You can also see my house in the upper right corner, just to give you a frame of reference. THAT'S how close the fisher are coming to my house!

Behind where I'm standing, the hill continues to go up and get steeper, and getting more and more "wild". I live right on the edge of a good chunk of forested land, which is probably why I get a good assortment of wild critters.

American Crows visiting my camera set, and sampling some rancid caviar. Looking uphill behind the large tree to the left is the other camera on which I caught the video of the fisher.

 

A fisher (Martes pennanti) investigating the woods at night. Schoharie, NY

 

I still have a much larger fisher entry pending, but these little bits keep popping up making me want to share! I hope you enjoy the video. The fisher is not an easily observed animal.

 

I've since pulled my cameras in for a few days. With temps hovering around 0F (and actually -5F today at noon), it's not good to leave the cameras out. They are weather proof, but the frigid temps drain batteries, and I don't want to risk a crack from the extreme temperatures.

 

Until next time!

 

 

The Masked Bandit: A Robbery

For the story of this setup, check out the
 Backyard Camera Trapping entry I wrote last week...

I love camera trapping. I use these cameras in my backyard just to see who is moving around and when. It’s been a lot of fun, almost addicting. I get more and more creative when setting out my camera, to try and guarantee pictures, instead of capturing something just randomly walking by my camera.

Last week I set up a tree I’m calling the “fish tree”, for good reason. Several readers (on the Times Union "Discovering Wildlife" blog I write, commented that nailing the fish to the tree is dangerous for critters checking it out. I agree, and hadn’t really thought it through. I haven’t had time to fix it yet by rigging the fish up with a cable or wire, but when I checked my camera this morning, I realized I didn’t have to. I was thieved!!! My brilliant plan of NAILING the fish to the tree, so it couldn’t be stolen, was thwarted by the masked bandit.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Be sure to watch the time stamps!

Mr. or Mrs. Raccoon scoping the scene out...

Snarfle, snarfle (this is a term I came up for what my dog does in the leaves, I think it applies here too!)

Snarfle, snarfle.

 

 

Notice anything? Well, besides the gray squirrel and that it's now daytime...THE FISH IS GONE!

 

 

And he or she is back. Perhaps to clean up the scraps? To see if the tree grew another brook trout?



Sorry friend, no more treats for you.

I suppose I’m making a few assumptions here: that the raccoon stole the fish, and the camera just didn’t get the images (FRUSTRATING, this camera is a lemon, I swear), AND that the gray squirrel DIDN’T take the fish. But perhaps Ricky Raccoon didn’t take it, and something else (a fisher???) snuck in and swiped it. Or the squirrel did, but that’d be weird. Grays typically aren’t meat eaters, although FLYING squirrels are! Or perhaps these guys did it:




American Crows, back again.

I’ll never know. But when I reset this “set” up, I will be hanging the fish, so there won’t be opportunity for a raccoon or other small-medium animal to take it, but hopefully just be lured in by its *delicious* scent!