A Bluebird Saturday

A Bluebird Saturday walk with Addie

As of Friday, I began my spring break!

I’m not going anywhere totally glamorous with surf, sand, and cocktails, but I traveled back to the Finger Lakes to spend the week at my parents house. When I left Cobleskill, it was dumping snow. I think we had 6″ by 10am from overnight, which made for annoying packing and treacherous travel. I eventually drove out of it, and the further West I came, the nicer the weather.

Yesterday morning it was a balmy 45 degrees, and I took my pup for a walk. It was a truly Bluebird Day. Clear blue skies, and the sun felt like a spring sun.

I don’t want to quite divulge yet what kind of fun things I’m doing this week, and trust me- they are FUN!, so I’ll share yet another different camera trap setup I came up with for the week I’m out of town. I left a Cuddeback Attack camera set up in my yard in Schoharie, and I’ll be checking it when I come back next weekend.

My last creative setup yielded some great pictures of a fisher climbing a tree, although the set was short lived (Fisher destroyed it)! I wanted to come up with another “hanging” something or other to lure in the crittters. I don’t like throwing scraps on the ground for a few reasons: the Crows immediately come and steal them all, and then linger. My batteries get worn down, and I end up with hundreds of pictures of them. Also, sometimes the Crows carry off bits and pieces of whatever I throw down, and drop it elsewhere. I’ve pulled chunks of stuff out of my puppy’s mouth, and I don’t like that. My roommate also uses cameras, and threw down cooked chicken bones. I’ve always been cautioned to not let my dog have cooked bones (they can splinter) and that holds true for wild animals as well. Ok, so I didn’t have any scraps to put out, so instead I used just straight scent lure.

Fisher food lures

Scent lure is either is used to LURE in an animal, imagine that, but does not provide a reward, as bait does. Scent lures have different bases. They can be a food lure- something that a target animal would eat. For example, often bear lures are sweet in nature, or black licorice smelling. There are hormone driven lures, like deer urine used during the rut season. And then there’s another type: a curiosity lure. I guess the term “curiosity” lure can be applied to the first two I mentioned, but this one is usually REALLY stinky. It’s often ground up glands from certain animals. Like beaver castor, for example, are ground up beaver castor glands. Trappers will often use this to scent their traps and beavers will come in to check it out and defend their territory.

Ok so I used fisher food lure this time. They were from two different companies, but both local to New York. These lures smell DISGUSTING, as they’re made up of some kind of meat base. Fishers are carnivores, and they almost, if not completely, rely on meat as a food source.

Here’s how I set it up:

Supplies used for this set: aluminum wire, cotton pads, an old film canister.

I took about a 3 foot length of wire, and wound it around the cotton pads.

Then I threaded the wire through the film canister, so I could pull the cotton up into it. This will protect the cotton and scent from the weather.

Before I pulled the cotton into the canister, I slathered it with the scent lures.

Here's my 'scent capsule' hung up in a tree.

I'm hoping that the motion of this set and the smell of it will lure in fisher and MAYBE even a bobcat.

And that’s it! I hope that this works. I like the idea of hanging stuff up off the ground. The scent can carry further and like I said, animals can’t carry it off easily.

1,355 pictures of.....

...pretty much nothing! If you're new to this blog, I'm referring to the previous entry A new camera trap set! in which I wrote was bored with how I have been recently setting up my camera traps. I took a few extra steps to try and lure in the fisher (Martes pennanti).

Although 98% of my pictures were duds, Fisher DID stop by and check out my set for a little bit.

Before I share those pictures though, I wanted to share this little story. Last night (February 26, 2013), I got home from being in class all afternoon, and took my dog out for a walk around the backyard. I live on about 8 acres, but most of that is a very steep wooded hill. It was exactly 6pm (I checked), and it was still a bit light out, or maybe it seemed that way with all of the snow on the ground. Because of the white snow, I could see a ways up into the woods up the hill, almost to my camera trap set. As I'm standing there waiting for the dog to do her business, my camera flashed. It's way up the hill, and just over a small landing that I think used to be a logging road, so I can't directly see it. But the dim lighting in the woods allowed me to see that flash. I froze...and stared into the woods, hoping to see a deer, fisher, bobcat, bear SOMETHING bounding through the snow. Nothing. The flash went off 6 times in all before I went in. I'll admit it- I got spooked haha. SOMETHING had to be up there, right? SOMETHING was setting off my camera, right? I could hardly wait to trudge up the hill today and check. Here's the last picture that was recorded on my camera.

 

Notice anything? No. Neither do I...except that the timestamp is over an HOUR before I noticed the flashes. This was the last picture recorded. Sigh. Cuddeback, you've done it again. I will say that when I checked the camera today, the battery level was at 10%. That's low. But what I don't understand is that the camera was still flashing, but not recording images. From what I understand, the flash mechanism is the more "costly" feature of the camera. It burns a lot of battery.

 

Anyway, I did get a few nice images of a fisher and an Eastern cottontail...just moments apart too.

 

The bag that held the delicious treats of raw chicken scraps and that was doused in Kishel's Weasel Food Scent Lure was tattered and empty.

There were no visible tracks (except red squirrel) because we got 3-4" of heavy, dense snow overnight.

The culprits could have been:

-Raccoon
-Opossum
-Gray fox
-Fisher

I of course was hoping for fisher, although pictures of a gray fox climbing a tree would have been pretty cool too!

 

 

Do you see the culprit up there?

 

That's the fisher-cat alright! Something was waving over the lens of this camera, although I don't know what. I didn't notice anything...and it's in the "perfect" spot, right over the spot where the fisher hung out.

 

 

The bag is not yet pulled up over the branch...seems the fisher was checking the situation out. And this fisher, or maybe I have more than one visiting, does NOT seem to be deterred by the flash whatsoever!

 

 

Here he is, going in for the "kill".

 

And now the bag is out of sight...and so is Fisher. And look who shows up: the Eastern cottontail. Perfect fisher food.

 

Peter Cottontail does not seem concerned that a blood thirsty, voracious carnivore is on the prowl...

 

Literally ONE minute later....Peter is gone (where??) and Fisher is back.

 

And this is my last picture of the fisher. No wonder these guys are considered "fur-bearing" animals. That coat looks so soft and warm. I would LOVE to handle one.

 

So, that's all for now! When I reset this set up, I will reposition my camera a bit so we're looking more directly at the tree. But, I think my effort was not wasted, even though I got 1,347 pictures of "nothing".

 

A new camera trap set!

Things have been slow for me lately. Stressful too. We’re at the 6 week mark of the semester. The newness of it is gone, and we’re having exams, projects are underway, and reading is piled up nightly. That’s why I’m blogging on a Friday night! Crazy college girl here!

It’s been so cold out lately too, that I had pulled my cameras in. It’s not good for the batteries when it’s below freezing. I think they really have to work to push out the flash and capture the images, so the batteries wear down more quickly.

This is the scent lure I used:

Kishel's Weasel Lure

Today though, the temps were above freezing, and seem to be predicted to stay in the mid-high 30′s for the next few days. It’s been awhile since my cameras have stunned me with anything fantastic, so I put a little work into setting up my Cuddeback, instead of just strapping it to a tree.

This set includes 3 pieces: the camera, the bait, and the lure.

The camera is a Cuddeback Attack flash camera. I’ve set it to take an image once disturbed by heat/motion every 5 seconds. I’m not always confident that this camera performs exactly how I want it to, but that’s another story.

The bait is a netted bag full of raw chicken scraps. Last week I bought boneless chicken breasts, and while I was packing them up to freeze, I trimmed off bits of fat and a few gristly bits. Nothing like that goes to waste in THIS house, so they went into the freezer until (today) I could figure out how to use them.

Bag of chicken scraps ready to be hung from a tree branch.

And to be clear about the difference of bait vs. a lure: a bait gives the animal a reward and will encourage it to return to the spot. For example, a pile of cracked corn for deer or turkeys. Scent lure is just an enticing smell of food OR of the species you’re trying to lure in. Often anal or scent glands are harvested from traditionally trapped animals, ground up, and then used for the next round. Beaver castor can sell for more than the actual pelt, FYI.

The lure in this case is the weasel food lure that is seen above. This Kishel’s scent boasts “Not only does our Weasel Lure capture the weasel’s most intense instinct, it actually creates the illusion of a fresh kill!” I can’t really describe what it smells like, other than gross. Weasels will actively hunt for fresh meat, but will scavenge carrion too.

My target critters that I hope to see are generally: carnivores. I wouldn’t mind getting pictures of red and gray foxes, coyote, any weasels, bobcat, or even black bear.     A fisher caught on camera trap in my backyard Schoharie, NY What I’m really specifically targeting though are fishers and bobcats.   There are specific ways to set a trap (whether it be a foot-hold or camera), to lure in specific animals.   Fishers are voracious eaters. They have a very high metabolism, so they must consume frequently, or at least large, high protein meals. So in the winter, when a meal is worth more to a wild animal, a food lure will hopefully work well to bring them in. Although, apparently I’ve had NO issues getting the fisher to visit my backyard!   Bobcats, or cats in general seem to respond to movement lures. I’ve read blogs and trapping forums that suggest hanging a big turkey feather or even a CD from a tree branch to lure the ‘cat in. If you’re a cat owner, you’ve probably played with them by dangling something in front of them, and they respond well. I don’t know why it is, but cats like things like that. So this bag of chicken bits is hung about 4-5 feet off the ground from a branch extending out about 3 feet from the trunk. So hopefully nothing will have the intuition to climb up the tree, reach over, and snag the bad. As a black bear would do if you hung your camp bag up. Notice the yellowish bait bag hanging from the tree. I found this nice little nook to tuck my camera away, I think it camouflages really well!   So I dribbled a little bit of the weasel lure on the bag, dipped a stick into the bottle and stuck that in the snow, and I was on my way. I’m going to try and avoid the area as much as possible, since each time I go up the hill, I’m depositing my scent, and likely my dog’s too. This MAY deter wildlife.   Cross your fingers for me!

Love & Spring is in the Air! Camera Trapping Heaven.

Hello, hello!

Since my last blog posting, literally minutes after I hit "Publish",...my computer became horribly infected with a wormy virus. All files (school documents and pictures primarily) appeared to have disappeared forever. To my chagrin, tech support of the company I purchased the laptop was NOT helpful in anyway...but a friend sent me a lovely link that walked me step-by-step through rediscovering my hidden files, backing them up externally, and then removing the virus. I was able to do steps 1 and 2, but 3 had me bringing my computer to Staples yesterday morning to leave it to get reformatted and fixed. Because of this, I am without my photo editing software for a few days...and I have the last day of my NC Spring Break vacation that I wanted to share...including a large and awesome mega-fauna that I saw the last night. For now, I'm blogging from school :)

But, for now, I'll share some awesome camera trap photos that I've been neglectful on sharing. Just too much going on!

These pics will be from both the tail end of my Outer Banks trip, and then weeks 5 & 6 from my field study at the Muller Field Station.

Domestic cat

Domestic cat #2

Virginia opossum

And my favorite friend of the week, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, the gray fox.

And here he/she is again! After having never gotten a gray fox on cameras that I personally set, I was so excited to have visits from this one night after night. I baited at first with Kishel's 'Crossbreed' a carnivore/predator food call lure. Stink-y. Then I poured some bacon grease, and threw a couple chunks of rotten coconut out. This kept the critters coming back :)

Last camera-trapped picture of the week, an opossum.

I did move this camera to the Nags Head Woods Nature Preserve a few miles away, where I saw the nutria...hoping for THAT new species. I realize to the locals, nutria are nasty, invasive pests. To me though, lover of (almost) all wildlife, this critter was on my bucket list. I was so excited to have observed them here, and baited my camera with apples and pears. I have pictures of the set up, on my external hard drive, at home. I always like to take a 'before' and 'after' shot of my sites so that I can remember what the setup looked like and if it worked.

Well, the next day when Mady and I went back to the secret spot to retrieve the camera and pics...all fruit was gone. We were ECSTATIC. What else could've eaten all that fruit? No 'chucks in the area, or beaver (surprisingly)...so it had to be nutria. And then the ol' camera malfunction occured. One picture. Of me retrieving it. I don't understand! It was at the correct height and distance from the bait...and no pictures. Stupid nutria probably covered the lens with a paw. Next time nutria, next time.

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Moving on...

I came back to check my cameras on this GORGEOUS March Monday the 19th. The last time I was at the Muller Field Station was March 5th. Two weeks ago today, the temperature was 16*F. Today was 65*F. WHAT a difference, I was actually breaking a sweat while resetting my cameras! No complaints here though.

Red fox

White-tailed deer

White-tailed deer

Can you believe this? MARCH and a buck with antlers?! I hope he drops them nearby so I can find them!

Mystery critter?

A pair of 'coons! First time I've ever gotten more than one raccoon at a time. Joe at Massanutten Game Trails has awesome pics of herds of 'coon. I'll settle for two :)

Another NEW species for me: muskrat! Can you pick him out?

A red fox with dinner for the family? It's got to be about that time when females are ready to pop, and looking for a good den...

Another gorgeous red fox pic, in the daylight! What a gorgeous coat...

Eastern coyote (this guy seems bigger and burlier to me than the red wolves I saw last week...)

White-tailed deer in motion...anyone else get a blur with fast motion in front of your cams?

Wild turkey! Another newbie! Please watch the following video, and watch til the end :)

Another pair!

Canada Geese...and yet ANOTHER pair! Is Spring in the air or WHAT? Makes me think of my beloved childhood movie, Bambi.

Raccoon

NAUGHTY opossum chewing in the scent pad again...I wonder if this is a repeat offender?

Another critter picking dinner on the way home from work. Gray squirrel

And THAT is that. Alot of pictures, and I didn't even share HALF of them! I need to spend mucho time going through all that video- never skip out on video, and always watch til the end! Thank goodness they're only 30 second clips at a time.

Until the next time!

A *NEW* Camera Trapped Species, Roanoke Island Aquarium & a Sunset Wildlife Drive

Before I share what I did today in the Outer Banks, I want to share a few pictures I got on my camera trap last night. I went outside around 9:45pm to set it up. The back yard is very small, a postage stamp yard, closed in on all 4 sides by houses with a little bit of brush separating the yards. So it was obviously dark out, and I was unfamiliar with the yard and the property boundaries so I decided to just set the camera on the ground in the back corner and hope for a bird or maybe a squirrel.

To maximize my chances of catching something, I used my no-fail scent lure 'Crossbreed' by Kishels Scents. By no-fail, I mean I've ALWAYS gotten something to come in to it...albeit rarely carnivores, but deer/birds/squirrels seem to be interested in it. I brought with me a Cuddeback Attack Flash, and set it on 15 seconds. As I was shuffling around in the dark, trying to set the scent, and the camera, I heard a rustling of leaves. I looked up, and shined the flashlight in the direction of the noise. Eyeballs. There were some nice, shiny little eyeballs looking at me through the brush trying to figure me out. I thought at first it was a pet cat, but as the critter moved around me, never coming closer than 10 feet, I had a feeling it was something else. I REALLY wanted it to be a wild animal, even though I am staying in the heart of vacaction homes and development...I had hope. Here are my results:

A gray fox! This is a first of this species for me, and I literally had the animal come to me as I was setting the camera!

I apologize for the overexposure, but this little guy came very close to the camera, and the flash is VERY bright so it's washed out. I reset the camera, and hung it a foot off the ground, so hopefully he'll come back :)

Gray fox again?

Domestic cat

American Robin- another new species!

Ok, onto what I did today.

I slept in, and it was wonderful. Still feeling the effects of driving 10.5 hours, getting up early yesterday, and just generally loving being on vacation. Once we got moving, and out of the house we headed for Roanoke Island to check out the aquarium. This aquarium had very neat exhibits focusing on all of the diverse types of wetlands found in and around the 'banks.

River otter sunbathing in their exhibit

Turtles basking

American alligator

Red snapper (I think)

Pufferfish

Mady at the touch tanks with rays in it! Very strange feeling, slimy...but kind of rough like sand paper.

Shark tank...floor to ceiling and wall to wall...VERY COOL!

After the aquarium, we spent our afternoon shopping and sightseeing along the Croatan Highway. We stopped back at the house briefly to grab sweatshirts and grab all of our "gear" and headed back out to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge for a crepuscular drive all the Wildlife Drive. It was a BEAUTIFUL, cloudless, sunny day with the makings for a gorgeous sunset.

I counted 14 Turkey Vultures!

Myself and Mady @ ARNWR 3/11/2012, 6:35pm

We got back in the car....only to drive a quarter mile and SLAM on the breaks and jump out of the car because we found...

A BLACK BEAR!

TB, I have to thank you for sending us good BEAR JU-JU last night in your comment on yesterday's entry!

After watching her for awhile, we decided to move on a look for more critters. We made a left and found this National Geographic moment...the black bear grazing in the light from the sunset. A truly awe-inspiring moment for us both. And this was Mady' 1st wild BB!

Another awesome day on the Outer Banks! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.