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!

Backyard Camera Trapping

Almost week ago, my friend Adam came over and set up his Bushnell camera in my backyard, see my Cleaning Skulls and Setting Cameras entry for the set up.

He came over yesterday to check on his camera, because he had apparently moved it up the hill, further from the house and put it near a tree stand, not belonging to anyone we knew. He was nervous, thinking that someone was going to take this camera.

Also, he found out that I had access to these:

Fresh, dead brook trout. I work in a fish hatchery (I should write an entry about that sometime...), and have access to dead fish. I asked if I could have some, and my boss shook his head and laughed, and said yes, but didn't want to know why. Well, I'll get to that shortly :)

So he came over to move his camera, and I baited my camera. He actually ended up pulling down his camera I guess, so I don't have pictures of his reset, but I have pictures of how I reset mine.

The only pictures that I have worth sharing from the past 6 days of camera trapping are both Adam's.

The first:




Photo credit: Adam Rogers

Can you tell what it is? Unfortunately infrared cameras don't yield the best pictures, BUT at the same time, they don't spook animals away either (no visible flash). So this critter is a fisher (Martes pennanti), a medium sized member of the weasel family, Mustelidae. They tend to be a bit larger than a mink, but small than the river otter (both cousins of the fisher). Below is a cool picture, and I hope it's accurate (which I think it is...). I typed into Google "river otter vs fisher vs mink" and got this link to Tumblr. I actually don't really know what Tumblr is, and I don't care to. Another time waster to take up my time already spread-thin-with-random-internet-surfing.

Anway, from left to right: weasel sp, mink, pine marten, fisher, river otter. Excuse the drawings on the fisher skull, BUT this is a cool size comparison image.

Photo credit: Tumblr

The fisher like upland wooded areas, which this site obviously is! They are a personal trophy animal for me, meaning I'm dying to get one on my camera, or to see one even in the flesh! But, I'll take Adam's picture for now. At least we know they're around.

For more info on the fisher, check out the USFWS's page: Fisher.

So fishers are attracted to STINK. Adam pulled out all the stops, smearing all the scent lures he had on every surface in this site. In the middle of the picture you can see a bit of something white, this is a cotton pad that he put some of the scent on to help hold the scent up in the air.

And the second:

Our neighbor...checking out the property line apparently.

When I discovered that my boss at the hatchery had no qualms about giving me dead brookies, I of course snatched up a few of the larger fish, and took them home.

 

This seems weird, I know. I'm sorry if it's gross. BUT these fish were already dead! And they were just going to be ground up into little bits and used as fertilizer. It's a bit culty and sadistic looking I guess, if you were to stumble across this in the woods, not knowing what was going on. Well, hopefully I have some KICK ASS photos to share as a result!

 

I have nothing to share from the past 6 days of trapping. There is apparently something wrong with the SD card. It shows up as an external source, but when I click on it to open, I get nothing. Which is a bummer! Hopefully NEXT time I'll have something good to share!