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.

5 different critters on camera

I yet again couldn’t wait to check my new camera trap (Bushnell Trophy Cam HD)!

As a previously wrote about, this camera is proving to be a major step up from the other brand that I own. It seems to reliably take pictures! Which is always a nice feature to have in a camera.
The first 2 times I checked it, the camera was set on the video setting. I got a few nice clips of a raccoon scoping out the area, which you can view here.

Can you see the camera in the picture at above? It’s mounted on the second tree from the left.

I just went out and grabbed to SD card out of the camera again, and was rewarded with 4 species of animals. All of them are common, but their presence allowed my new camera to do some work. I’m pleased with the quality spread out over 250 images. This time I had the camera set to take still images, 3 at a time. With a trigger speed of 0.594 second trigger speed, the images pile up quickly.

2 Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) fighting perhaps? If I had to describe their actions in one word, it would be sparring. What do you think?

Remember Blackie? He/she is a feral cat (Felis catus), and back at this location.

Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)

The ‘possum looks so washed out because he’s close to the camera. I was struggling with a definition or explanation of how infrared cameras work. I knew how, but was unable to articulate it, so after a quick internet search, I came across the site: Teachers Guide to Infrared, which had a section titled “How do infrared cameras work?”….perfect!

How do infrared cameras work? 

Thermal infrared imagers are detector and lens combinations that give a visual representation of infrared energy emitted by objects. Thermal infrared images let you see heat and how it is distributed. A thermal infrared camera detects infrared energy and converts it into an electronic signal, which is then processed to produce a thermal image and perform temperature calculations. Thermal imaging cameras have lenses, just like visible light cameras. But in this case the lens focuses waves from infrared energy onto an infrared sensor array. Thousands of sensors on the array convert the infrared energy into electrical signals, which are then converted into an image.
So I think when a WARM item, like this live opossum is too close to the camera, there’s too much “bounce back”, similar to a regular flash. There is a setting where I can turn on all 36 LEDs (high), 24 LEDs (medium), or 12 LEDs (low) based on the distance I’m trying to reach with the camera’s scope. I have the camera set on medium right now, which seems ok for most of the pictures. The opossum has a lighter pelage too, which doesn’t help.

Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)

And Blackie's back!

A red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)! I love these little guys, very fiesty and cute!

My pet cat, Sassy.

And finally, Addie. Bad puppy!

I’m quite pleased with how this camera is performing. It’s a nice change from what I’ve been using!

New Camera-trapped Species!

 I've been in my new house now for about 4 weeks, and have had 2 camera traps (Cuddeback Attack Flash, Moultrie Game Spy D-50) set up on the property. We were lucky enough to find a house with 7+ acres for us to play on. It's been great actually, I forgot how much I missed it when I was living in an apartment complex last year.



 Anyway, I checked my Cuddeback camera the other day and was rewarded with a bunch of nice pictures.

This camera has been plaguing me since I got it, but it has been taking pictures lately like it's supposed to. Still no video, I don't get it, but I'm too aggravated to send it back to Cuddeback AGAIN and be without a camera for 3 weeks. The
Moultrie is bad too. That's another story.

So I checked the camera, and here are my best shots:

A nice action shot!

I think this is a Black-capped Chickadee because I think I can make out that black cap and white chin.

SOMEONE got a eyefull.

This is a racoon, I got a picture right before this of the 'coon, it just didn't make the cut for this entry.

A fawn with her spots still...when do they lose them?

Mystery object.

 I have no idea what this is, Mady and I were both away from the house at this time. It's a mystery...

My landlord's dog, Pumpkin, who took himself on a walk the other night.

A family of 3 'coons!

And finally, my GRAND FINALE!

A bobcat (Lynx rufus)!!!

 

I literally could not believe my eyes, when I saw this picture show up on the viewer I use in the field. The camera said 2 images had been recorded since I last checked it. That usually means it's of me setting it or checking it. Not this time! One was me, and one was this bobcat! Where I'm from, in Western NY, bobcats are quite rare. The closer to the PA border you get, the more chance you have of spotting one.

 

 

 

This bobcat below had it's picture taken at the Muller Field Station (Canadice, NY) this summer. That's as far North as I've heard of one being in that region, and a lucky facutly member was able to get this picture of one!

 

Photo credit: John Van Niel, Canadice, NY

 

 

 I've not been so lucky, UNTIL this weekend. I'm still in shock! I hope he or she comes back so that I can keep writing about NY's only wild cat.

 

 

 



Wildlife Wednesday - Passerine bird banding

Today was our 2nd Wildlife Wednesday of the semester, and today's theme was mist netting and bird banding any of the Passerine's that came our way.

What does Passerine refer to? Perching birds, and commonly referred to as our song birds.

Several students, myself, and Professor John, and Conservation Dept Tech Sasha all met up at our East Hill Campus in Naples this morning. Last week John and Sasha went to the EHC to scope out a place to mount the mist net, so today all we had to do was set up the rebar and netting and walk away.

In my opinion, we were wildly successful, meaning many birds were caught, and there were a variety of birds!

Sasha, John and Adam setting the rebar.

We set the net between the woods/shrubby area, and the bird feeder :) , and walked away for 10 minutes to set up the banding station inside the house (doesn't everyone get to experience field work and animal processing in the comforts of indoor plumbing and heat???).

Sasha pulling the mist net across.

After 10 minutes had passed, we went out to check the net: 3 Black-capped Chickadees! Never have I personally been so excited to see such a common animal. I find myself realizing this time and time again recently- some of the most common animals are still REALLY cool! I see them often, yet at a distance, I just take them for granted. Up close though, those BCCs have beautiful plumage and such bright little eyes!

Here's the net completely set up.

The net is so fine and light, that the birds don't even see it, and easily get VERY tangled in it.

See below.

Black-capped Chickadee thoroughly tangled in the mist net, but comfortably being untangled while in the banding grip!

Before I continue on with the cool bird pictures, I want to show the "tools" of the trade.

John's banding tackle box with all of the essentials such as: different sized bands, special pliers meant for banding, cloth bags to store the birds during processing, and hand sanitizer.

Two different sized bands. On the left, probably appropriate for woodpeckers, and on the right, appropriate for BCCs.

Here are the pliers and the size bands we used for most of the birds.

This card is used to determine band size, if you are unsure. Just slip the bird's leg into a slot until you find one that's not too big, not too small...but just right!

John has one freed BCC and Sasha works on another, while students watch...

Inside now, John has the BCC in a 'photographer's grip', commonly used for getting good pics of the birds! About to clamp the first band on!

Because birds are migratory, and can be relatively long-lived...bands are managed on the state and federal level. Age, sex, location of banding, species, and band # all have to be recorded on a data sheet and submitted. I don't BELIEVE there are 2 numbers the same (someone correct me if I'm wrong?), kind of like a license plate. So, the theory is...if one of the birds we banded today, migrated to Tenessee, and caught there...it could be traced back to NY with all it's information in tow. With mammal tags, they are not as closely regulated because, and especially small mammals, they have VERY short life spans. Like, less than a year. And, they don't mass migrate over long distances like many birds do. In the picture to the left, it may look like John is nipping that little BCC's leg off, but no fear- he's not! The pliers have a hole in the nose that fits the specific band sizes and NO SMALLER. So, you can only clamp it as small as the band, which is just larger than the diameter of that birds leg. I'm sure accidents do happen where the ends of the band don't line up as they should, or it over-pinches/crimps, but that happens less than when all goes the way it should.

I was given a bird to release! I think I stated this in an earlier blog...but it's QUITE the rush to release a wild animal from your hands! I try not to think of it as a terrified little creature trying to escape, but as an amazing tiny organism full of energy and life returning to the wild!

The NEXT capture, was very exciting! A lively, vivacious, "bitey"...

Blue Jay! By the way, all of those above adjectives are all good things for a wild animal to be while handling them.

Sasha struggled a bit getting this guy/gal out of the net because of the height of it...and because he was clenching his feet around the net in a death grip! ...(perching bird)...

Inside, we got to check out the beautiful plumage.

My dear friend, and NON Conservation student, Julie tagged along for the morning. She had never experienced bird banding before, and was a little nervous to tag a little guy. So, with some gentle encouragement, she agreed to band the Blue Jay!

She just sent me a text message, and she had a great time!

Looking forward to having her along for the ride again...

We also caught many Dark-eyed Juncos, but my phone died (and that's what I was taking pictures with...I know, get a real camera!). If I can beg, borrow, or steal some pictures from someone else who was there, I will add Junco pics below! They are a pretty, slate-colored little bird...

Thanks to John and Sasha for facilitating and thanks to the birds for flying into our net!