Cautious Doe

      This whitetail doe showed a bit of caution when approaching the camera. In my experience, wildlife showing caution can depend on a number of factors. To name just a few: season, number of animals present, time of day, size and health of the animal, and status within the species. Some species such as black bears and moose always examine the camera. Often the bears force the camera off the tree while the moose being less dexterous leave me dozens of foggy pictures with the whiskers pressed up against the lens.
        In some of my remote camera sets located within heavily hunted areas during the hunting season, wildlife will not tolerate a camera flash,. In the same locations out of hunting season the same animals will remain relaxed in front of the camera. Video units can be particularly helpful in providing insight into behavior....and, with a little luck, I should be able to provide some footage to show exactly that for the next post.

Bears and more Bears

I've been experimenting with a new IR camera I recently built. Since the camera is viewing the full spectrum of light, the colors are slightly off as there is no longer an IR filter on the glass inside the camera. Thus far I haven't noticed any difference in wildlife behavior compared to the white flash units I normally use. These are a few pictures from one spot in northern N.H. It was close to a bog and the black bear traffic was incredible to watch. At least 6 different bears visited this location in a 19 day period. Some spent time feeding in the blueberry patch directly in front of the camera or trying get pry the camera off the tree.

Bobcat Marking

     The camera was placed with the hopes of capturing a Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis) , but it's close cousin the bobcat (Lynx rufus) was the only feline that showed up during the 35 days this camera was set. This picture leads me to believe this cat is marking the trial over other feline scent. This photograph is a great example of why  its important to catalog and record all procedures and variables for each camera set-something that will enable the photographer to better understand a vast amount of biological information such as what animals visit each area, why certain species are more abundant in specific locations, and how animals react to outside stimuli such as scents, visual attracters, audio calls, etc .

The Fox Den

        A couple posts ago I talked about my attempts to find a fox den. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but after many many more woodchuck dens I finally found what I was looking for. This wouldn't have been possible without the generous help of a landowner who allowed me to place cameras on his property.

Fisher in the Log

Fisher cat in Log from Peter Abdu on Vimeo.

I was expecting some activity further down the log (which I did get later on), and thus had directed my lighting to this area. This Fisher decided to change it up and I got a few shots of him zipping around and into the log but Would have liked to focused the light on the log opening next time.

Woodchucked out

      I was hoping for a fox in this den but I'm quickly finding out just how many woodchucks have "taken over" the local area. Red fox often inhabit old woodchuck dens on slopes, which provide good drainage. The fox often enlarge the opening of the hole to get a quick start if they need one. The red fox dens I have found in the past usually have a strong skunk smell-something this den was missing-but I hope to have some fox pictures in the next week with my efforts directed at new potential fox dens nearby. 

Toad Close Up

Took this photo today and couldn't help but enjoy the eyes on this toad. Even something as simple as a toad can be interesting if viewed through the right perspective (Click on the picture to enlarge).