Camtrapping

Porcupine Invasion!

2012-05-15T16:56:40Z

Well, this week brought about a new visitor to three of my camera locations. He waddled in to each location inspecting a mineral stump and two drumming logs. He had a special interest in the ruffed grouse turds deposited on the logs. (Taken with an S600.)

A first ever for me, in over six years of monitoring drumming logs! I actually had more than one ruffed grouse in a frame on a couple of different occasions! In this image, you can see a red-phase (likely a female) and a gray-phase (the male) on the same log. In another series of images another gray-phase visited the same log. I also included a rare picture of this drummer vocalizing. (Taken with an S600.)

Another drumming log, manned with a W200, produced some hi-res., 12mp images of a drummer in a unique pose.

The assigned, water-duty to my FS7s has continued, and has been producing amazing results. The goslings continue to visit the beaver landing and a great blue heron posed very nicely at the pond location.

And finally, after a year or more, I decided to place a camera at the swamp crossing. In years past, this location has produced with scores of calendar-quality images and it didn't disappoint this past week., turning out a fisher, pine marten and a young black bear. (Taken with an S600.)

An Unexpected Visitor

2012-05-07T14:01:32Z

The drumming logs are still going strong. I was set up on 5 different logs, but one didn't produce. I moved that camera to a more suitable location up on a high ridge along a trail. The drummer on log 2 attracted an unwelcome guest and my camera caught the brief meeting in one single still-shot.

Log 5 is manned by a W200 (12mp) along with a Viv. 2000 slave flash. A gray-phase drummer stood on the stage at this location and produced some very high-resolution results. A passing flying squirrel also stopped for a photo-op.

Log 4 was also active, I moved the camera last week from perpendicular to the log to at about a 30 degree angle to the log using one of my homemade stands. It produced some stunning profile shots. This one caught my eye with the colorful western sky in the background.

I've been monitoring my father's land with 4 cameras for turkeys. So far, just a hen or two has shown up and the late season hunt is looking grim. It looks even more grim when I keep getting these on camera. This shot is with a W7 IR.

One of my two commercial cameras (won one in a contest, other was given to me) caught this image of a buck with his progress in producing a rack.

Finally, the beaver landing manned with a FS7 is still a busy place. The beaver, of course, is a common subject, but the latest addition to the roster is the freshly hatched goslings.

Another Busy Week!

2012-05-01T15:26:18Z

My brother and I paid a visit to our adjoining properties. I toted along my Garmin Etrex Vista C (great little GPS unit) and marked all four of his corners. One of them was a nasty hike into a deep, thick swamp. Got a good workout and all four corners of his section are now marked within 3 feet of accuracy. As a return favor, he assisted me in raking my two woodland food plots. I then killed them off with Round Up, prepping them for planting with some Frigid Forage in the coming week or two.

Anyway, checked my cams and here are some of the latest images. The first is a perfect, crystal clear image of a Beaver out at the beaver landing. The second is a picture of the Otter family surfacing, both taken with a Panasonic FS7.

The drumming logs have been very busy as the males frantically try to attract the females for mating. I now am set up on 5 different drumming logs. I've set the cameras at various angles and the images have been incredible as you can see. Taken with Sony S600s.

In addition to the still images of the drumming Ruffed Grouse, I set a Sony W200 with an external P32 Microphone on Movie Mode with the Yeti board set to 20 sec. clips aimed at a fallen birch atop a high glacial ridge. I captured 53 video clips of the grouse doing his thing. Here is a 1 minute 14 second movie of some of the action.

Finally, I have another Sony W200 accompanied by a Vivitar 2600 slave flash monitoring one of the other drumming logs. I captured a few images of the Ruffy, but also caught this High Resolution image of the bird known for signaling when spring arrives, a Robin.

Finally a Drake Wood Duck!

2012-04-23T20:24:24Z

I'm set up on 3 different ponds and have been getting Mallards and Hooded Mergansers on camera, but the Wood Ducks had evaded me up until this past week. There's nothing like the color and contrast of a Drake Wood Duck's plumage.

I located a total of four drumming logs now and am set up on all of them as of yesterday. Here some of the better shots from three of them.

The beaver landing has been producing well, and this week was no exception. I caught close-ups of the beavers and a muskrat. This image really caught my eye with the low-setting sun and the amazing colors.

And finally, I relocated four of my cameras to do some scouting for turkeys out at my father's place. Season opens May 8th there and wanted to be sure they were still around. Caught some hens and a buck with his rack just beginning to develop.

Strutter, Otter Family, Hooded Merganser...

2012-04-16T14:55:43Z

Believe it or not, this was the very first picture on the Memory Stick off of the S600 monitoring a drumming log. I've caught a full strut like this on only one other occasion in the years I've been monitoring drumming logs. Needless to say, I was very excited when this image entered my view.

Caught this Fisher with my a W7 making his way up a deer trail.

The Drake Mallard was busy chasing the Hen around this pond when they were rudely interrupted by a Hooded Merganser. Taken with a FS7.

The Beaver landing was a busy location as always. I caught the back-end of a Timber Wolf, some mediocre Beaver shots, a Raccoon and this Black Bear trolling the crest of the dam.

And finally, when I went to check the FS7 aimed at the Beaver Landing I was greeted with huffs and hisses coming from a family of Otters who occasionally popped their heads up out of the water to get a better look at the intruder, me. Luckily they also made an appearance directly in front of the camera.

The Ruffed Grouse Drum

2012-04-10T13:54:27Z

I anticipated the Grouse would begin their mating ritual early this year due to the early spring, so I placed an S600 aimed at one of my old drumming logs from last year and low and behold, one began doing its thing.

My FS7s have become my new favorite camera, at 10.1 mp and a high-quality Leica lens, the pictures are S600 caliber...possibly better. I placed this FS7 on a stake pounded into a pond bed, approximately 1 foot above the water level and canted downward slightly. My target was waterfowl, which I caught some great stills of; but also got lucky when an Otter decided to surface directly in front of my camera.

This Fisher decided to prowl around searching for a meal in the daylight and I was fortunate when he walked in front of one of my W200s.

Finally, I set up a W7 on a deer trail leading to a mineral site. I teamed it up with a Vivitar 2600 slave flash unit and lit up this Snowshoe Hare changing into its spring coat.

Archery Turkey - Kansas 2012

2012-04-05T19:16:03Z

Myself and 3 other guys did an annual hunt this past week and had some success. This past winter was mild, so the population is up, but spring came very early. The large flocks were already broken up and the toms were mostly henned up. Temperatures soared over 90 degrees and winds were humping pretty good at times. We did some scouting the day before opener and were able to put a few gobblers to roost. We hit them in the morning and after fly-down, they were just not interested in coming in with the two live hens in front of them about 70 yards away. After a couple of hours, they finally circled around the back side of the blind and the hens lead them right in to our dekes. I was hoping for a double, but my hunting partner couldn't get a shot at the 2nd tom. I hit mine and he couldn't fly, but ran into the woods. I had set up a W200 with external microphone on video mode, aimed directly behind my Killer B decoy and just barely caught the shot...they came in so fast. Several arrows flew by the other members of our hunting party and one hit its target for a second Tom kill. Even with the tough conditions, we saw lots of action and filled a couple of tags as a bonus.

Ice Out on the Beaver Ponds & the Bears Awake

2012-03-25T04:39:38Z

When I placed one of my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7 builds on the Beaver landing last weekend, they were covered with ice. After a week of more unseasonably warm temperatures the ice went out and traffic picked up.

Again with the warm temperatures over the past few weeks, the Bears have risen from hibernation more than a month earlier than they normally do. Luckily I had anticipated it and ran Pythons through all of my cameras last week.

The Snowshoe Hares are changing colors, but are still primarily white and easily seen by predators.

The Eagle Has Landed

2012-03-19T15:49:42Z

Well, the carcass finally paid off with what I had been looking for all along when I made this set at the beginning of our short and mild Minnesota winter. Two different adult Bald Eagles swooped in for an afternoon meal. They kicked the Ravens aside while they tugged on the doe carcass. A Golden Eagle stopped in too, but by that time all of the snow had melted beneath the log I had set there and it sagged a bit, thereby chopping off the head of the target. I sure hope he returns (taken with a Sony DSC S600 run with an XLP Controller Board.)

This set is an old plot, I replant every year. The Snowshoe Hare sticks out like a sore thumb with its winter coat still intact. Our winter has been so mild, there is little if any snow remaining, when normally our Hares would still be camoflauge. The Bobcat is probably well fed as a result (taken with a Sony DSC-S600 run with an XLP Controller Board.)

Lastly, the Badger continues to feed on the scraps of a carcass approximately 50-60 yards away from its den. So far, it has evaded Coyotes and Wolves checking out its den site. This curious Coyote was taking a good long look (Taken with a Panasonic DMC-FS7 run with a Simple Sniper Controller Board accompanied by a Vivitar 2600 Remote Slave Flash run with a Bigfoot Slave Master Controller Board.)

Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil

2012-03-13T20:52:15Z

The snow has been melting quickly with highs in the 40s and 50s and I was able to use the 4-wheeler to get back in to my more remote locations instead of hoofing it.

The application of Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil to a fallen Aspen branch stuck into the snow produced images of Fisher, Snowshoe Hare and Pine Marten. The images were captured with a Sony DSC-S600 run with an XLP Controller Board.

I also captured this curious Badger leaving its den. The image was captured with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7 run with a Simple Sniper Controller Board.

Lastly, this Ermine (Short-tailed Weasel) still sporting its winter-white coat was caught at another den location. The image was captured with a Sony DSC-S600 run with an XLP Controller Board.