Monday, February 18, 2019

Trail cam provides unexpected wildlife insights

            Few of us probably spend as much time as we would like enjoying the outdoors. We just have too many other responsibilities – work, chores, meal prep, family time – to make extra time for relaxing and observing the natural world around us.
I likely spend more time than most staring out the back window at the trees and lawn and bird feeders – more time than I care to admit – and still I wish I could do it more. Because for every minute I’m not watching, there is probably an animal doing something interesting that I’m missing.
That’s why I was especially excited to receive a motion-activated trail camera for Christmas a couple years ago. It allows me to document the comings and goings of wildlife when I’m not paying attention to those activities myself. And the images the camera provides are insightful.
            For instance, deer are much more abundant in my area than I ever imagined. I typically see a deer or two wandering the woods and fields along my road about every other month, and
yet my camera detects deer strolling through the forest behind my house almost daily. And it’s not always the same animal, either. I’ve had pictures of six-point bucks, speckled fawns, groups of three and four antlerless deer, and one unique individual with a distinctive mark on its rump.
            The photos aren’t exactly magazine quality images, however. More often than not they just show a deer’s backside as it walks away from the camera, or a close-up of an ear or nose as the animal investigates the camera. Once, though, it captured a late-night shot of a deer on its hind legs, apparently trying to nibble on some leaves over its head.
            The camera often captures images of other forest dwellers as well. Fishers are apparently regular visitors to my yard, as are coyotes, raccoons and red and gray foxes. I almost never see those animals except as images on the trail cam.  
Most often, the pictures show one of these creatures dashing across the path where I’ve set up the camera, but sometimes they’re doing something more interesting. They occasionally seem to pause and stare right into the camera, as if they’re posing. Or they’re sitting down and scratching an itch or chewing on a morsel they’ve just discovered.
The most fun images are those that I can’t quite figure out at first glance. They test my identification skills when all that’s visible is a distant furry blob or a tail just disappearing from view.
Fast moving animals are especially challenging, because they often just look like a digital blur. Is that night-time image – showing a long streak that appears to be well-above ground level – an owl or a flying squirrel? Or maybe it’s just a falling branch. Is that hazy long-tailed thing a fox or coyote? I enjoy sharing those images with friends on Facebook to help ID the animals.
And then there are the pictures that seem to show nothing at all. Maybe the movement of a leaf or branch triggered the camera. Or maybe some creature is there after all but it’s too well camouflaged for me to see it.
As fun as it is to watch backyard wildlife remotely via a trail cam, the best picture it captured was of an abominable snowman. At least that’s what I call the winter shot of my wife strolling through the woods trying to avoid the camera.

This article first appeared in the Newport Daily News on February 16, 2019.

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