Best camera trap video of all time

Did I get your attention?

Yes folks, I'm loudly and PROUDLY making the statement that THIS video is the best you'll ever see. If you're a follower, you know I've been in the Florida Keys interning at the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key. In addition to Key deer, a smaller subspecies of white-tailed deer, we have a variety of other critters in the Lower Keys.

Watch this 30 second video (with sound!) as a domestic cat almost becomes a midnight snack for this American alligator. Yes, we have 'gators in the Keys. And this guy/gal is a regular visitor to our popular "Blue Hole", a freshwater pond with observation deck and informational panels.

Enjoy!

To join the fun on our Facebook page, "like" the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex! The comments are....::AHEM::....interesting.

Camera trap pics from Big Pine Key

All summer I’ve been camera-trapping here on Big Pine. Here are some cool images from the last round!

Key deer doe

Virginia opossum (considered invasive)



Keys raccoon

Key deer doe

Two mice or rats of unidentified species… hanging out together. I’m not sure what they are, but I do have an idea of what they’re doing!

Key deer buck

House cat

Keys raccoon



Green iguana



The bane of a camera trapper. Vegetation blowing in the breeze.

Key deer doe and fawn

Curious fawn

Keys raccoon

Green iguana

Lately lackadaisical

I've certainly been lackadaisical lately, and I'm sorry (especially to myself) for not keeping up with this blog. I'm 10 days from graduation, still unemployed, and trying to figure out my life...I've been very busy.

Throughout the semester, of course I've been camera trapping. I've kept the cams close, because I can't spend time wandering the woods looking for good "sets". This picture was taken within 25 yards of my backdoor. My landlord last summer was doing some drainage digging back there, which left some trenches. I found this board, and laid it across a trench. This is the most interesting picture I've gotten so far.

Please tell me what you think is going on, I have my own thoughts that I'll share later.

PS: It appears as though I've lost ALL my pictures on my blog. I don't know how or why, and I'm pretty upset about it. Any thoughts as to why?

Coyote steals the cat

My last blog entry included tons of pics of recent visitors to my camera trap site which was baited with the carcass of a Wild Turkey and a road-kill stray cat. They both were in frame, right next to each other, and many critters visited, primarily Virginia opossum(s). But all the attention was on the Turkey! There really wasn't much meat left on it either, since it had been harvested during NY's spring Turkey season, and my friend Tyler took the breast and legs. The cat appeared untouched, and I didn't really understand. KB (Romping and Rolling in the Rockies) left me a comment stating that she's seen bobcat carcasses where she lives (CO) untouched. Did other scavengers dislike cat meat?

Well, of course, no sooner did I post that, I returned to the site and immediately noticed both carcasses were gone. I knew the Turkey had been removed by a Coyote previously, but now the cat carcass was gone too. Whodunit? Well, duh my entry title tells you....I'm not good at the element of surprise...

Here's the series of photos that shows the thievery...

 

Below is the actual taking....too quick for the camera to get a crisp image.

 

The black spot on the ground appeared to be soil that had been disturbed by insects (Dermestids) underneath the cat's body.

Pawing the spot where the Turkey was. I don't think much was left though...

 

After a quick sniff to the air, when I was pulling the SD card, I was able to locate the remains of the cat about 15 feet into the brush just to the right of the frame. I think it just dissolved...it was REALLY gushy and we've had torrential rains lately that probably further softened it. I'm not sure if this 'yote ate any of it, but there wasn't much left but vertebrae and fur.

Well, so I had a Turkey leg in the freezer, from the Turkey that Tyler shot. He said it "didn't look right" when he cleaned the bird, so he gave it to me to use for my camera instead of for eating. I tied it up on a branch in the frame at this same spot with a thick electrical underground-type cable and Gorilla Tape. HOPEFULLY nothing steals it too easily!

I love camera-trapping!

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!

A short story about untimely demises

I'd rather not get into the "dos and don'ts" of pet ownership, specifically of whether or not the house cat should in fact be kept in the house. Growing up, our cats (always spayed/neutered and vaccinated) were indoor/outdoor pets. We always had this feeling that it would be "mean" to keep them cooped up in the house. In the winter when the snow got too deep to maneuver, they'd be stuck indoors and would whine, cry, and spontaneously take out their anger on us and eachother. So come spring melt, out they went!

I personally do not own a cat, but when I do, it will likely be a strictly indoor cat. I know the damage that house cats can do to small mammal and song bird populations. I know how QUICKLY cats can reproduce and also spread disease. But for now, my parents cats roam free outdoors.

The way I'm setting this story up, I'm leading you to believe that the cats are the evil do-ers of this tale. This is not the case.

Ziggy and Addie "helping" clear brush from the yard...

Last week, after I finished my semester, I traveled back across the state to visit my parent's home. They've lived there since 1992, and it's where I spent the majority of my childhood. 10 acres of lawn and horse pasture, lots of room for dogs to run, and quietness. I had some chores to do around the house, that I've been meaning to do, but couldn't since I was in school.

I've been storing all of my camping gear in the garage, and since I'm staying in NY this summer, I wanted to take it back to my house with me to make sure all was in working order for a trip this summer! As I'm puttering around in the garage and walking to and from the car, the dogs were loose in the yard. I have an almost 8 month old golden retriever (Addie), and my parents have 2 dogs: 16 year old border collie Hannah, and 3 year old black lab Ziggy. Ziggy and Addie are the best of friends. Ziggy is (and probably forever will be) a puppy in his mind. Loyal and sweet, he just wants to please. Addie on the other hand, is going through "a stage". She is sweet, obedient (most of the time...), and mild-mannered. But when she gets something PARTICULARLY disgusting like horse crap, Goose crap, deer crap, any crap will do- she plays keep away from me. Bounding, frolicking, tossing the poop high in the air and catching it- she is anything but obedient. I try to remain calm while I firmly instruct "Drop it! Leave it!" and then try and lure her to me with sweetness and compliments "Pretty Addie...come here baby...want a cookie? Ride? Walk? ADDIE!!!!!!" ...meanwhile she's scarfing the poop down.

So while I was  in the driveway, I noticed Addie just off the side of the driveway in the brush snarfling around. Ziggy was in attendance too, but as soon as he saw me watching them, he was guilty and slunk over to me. Good boy. I slowly walked over, at a diagonal (never approach straight on, she knows), without making eye contact, to see what was going on. One of the cats had a mouse. And Addie, I don't think knew of the mouse's existence at that point, she was just trying to love on the cat. I scared the cat away, and scooped up the mouse.

Poor mouse. He was alive, and seemed well...except for being tossed like a hacky-sack by the cat. This was my favorite species of mouse too- a woodland jumping mouse (Napaeozapus insignis). Not many people have a favorite species of what some consider "vermin". But these guys are very cool. Their pelage is beautiful- a ruddy/reddish color, buff on the stomach. Long, long tails, and HUGE back feet similar to kangaroos!

Woodland jumping mouse rescued from one of our pet cats.

I only held him for a few moments to look at his external anatomy, and to allow him to catch his breath. The cat, p-o'ed by my nerve of interrupting his game, was gone. Ziggy was hiding in his dog house, but Addie...Addie was just waiting. It did not cross my mind that I would have to protect this poor mouse from my DOG...but within moments of setting him down in the bushed. Addie pounced. And peeked out of the bushes at me as she scarfed the mouse down. Alive.

What? What is this? My precious, pampered, princess dog...eating LIVE rodents? I was disgusted with her. I screamed at her immediately, and that just set her off running like a crazed animal through the understory, crashing around, fueled by mouse blood. Not a proud moment.

At least I got a few pictures of him, so that his untimely demise was not in vain. Right?
I returned to doing whatever I was doing in the garage. Ziggy was still hiding. And Addie, once I started ignoring her, was back between my feet. I couldn't be mad at her, she didn't know any better- but my God, gross!

Hannah, by the way, this whole time was lazing in the grass like a good geriatric dog. Staying out of trouble and out of the way. GOOD dog!

A short while later, I hear another commotion in the bushes again. This time, Addie wise to my game, beat me to the cat. THIS time the cat (a different one from before) had a young Eastern cottontail rabbit! Probably just born within the week. And it was alive. And Addie pounced...and what I will forever remember of this moment, was watching big rabbit feet disappear down her throat. No chewing. No shredding. No messing around. The Small Mammal Glutton struck again! I didn't get pictures this time, it all happened so fast.

The cat came up empty-pawed, and Addie? Well, she did not get her dinner that night. But nor did she go to bed hungry!

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!

Infrared camera trap pictures

A week ago I posted a blog entry about infrared or IR camera traps. 90% of my personal camera-trapping pictures are from a typical “flash” camera which yields typically crisp and in color images. I left my Cuddeback Attack flash camera set up back at my house in Schoharie for the time that I would be away for the holidays, but while I’m in Western, NY for these few weeks, I am borrowing the same exact brand and model camera, just the IR version.

Well, when I set the camera a week ago, and the picture I shared of it’s “view” has nothing to show for the 4-5 days it was up. User error. I took so much time prepping the area, clearing weeds and sticks, and making sure the camera was hanging nicely, that I forgot to turn the camera on! What a rookie mistake.

When I went back to the spot a few days ago to check it, there was actually someone walking in the woods right by the camera. I had it set on my parents property, but still…there was someone wandering through the woods. They weren’t out hunting either, I assumed by the football jersey I saw him wearing. I had the dogs with me, so luckily I saw him before they did, and I turned back and left the area until I saw him leave. I really didn’t want to chase them around! I wasn’t comfortable with that whole situation, so I grabbed the camera and left. Because I’m borrowing it, I would be really really bummed out if someone stole it from me.

My parents have 10 acres of rural land, so there are plenty of spots to put the camera. This time I moved it to a little creek running through the woods on the opposite side of the property.



IR camera in it's new location

 

I chose a tree that was growing right smack dab in the middle of the creek, and I pointed it down a tree that had fallen across the creek. The creek at it’s deepest is 8″, and is only about 4 feet wide. So it’s not hard to cross, but animals like little bridges that they can use. My goal for this location is sort of weasely critter. There are short-tails, long-tails, and minks that live around me for sure. Doubtful that river otter or fishers do, but the littler weasels do. All of those animals, by the way, are in the same family (Mustelidae) and are all cousins!

In front of the camera you can see the bait I left- I took the handful of dog food that one of the dogs left in her bowl, a combination of wet/dry food, and smeared it on the trunk of that downed tree. I thought that fishy smell of the canned dog food would draw in a weasel. Nope.

First, my naughty puppy snuck into the woods at some point and raided the camera trap site.

 

Next, this feral cat made several appearances Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Apparently my parents have seen it on the second floor of their deck off the back of the house recently. Lovely!

 

Ok Blackie, I’ve had enough of you! If I have a cat repeatedly showing up to this area, few other WILD animals will. I left the camera where it was, because I like the spot, and the next time I check it will dictate whether it stays there or not. Ugh!