Moose Surprise

Turn up the Volume for this video:

Moose Surprise from Peter Abdu on Vimeo.

A quick one minute clip of a bull moose checking out the set. Now that the bears are asleep I thought my cameras were safe...I Should've known better. Often the bull moose will do some serious damage during the rut but this young bull was relatively gentle with the camera set and thankfully left everything in working order. This set was not designed for filming moose, and hence the moose is mostly out of frame. I still enjoyed listening to him investigate the area.

Northern Bobcat

These are a few of my favorite shots from this summer in Northern N.H. A lot of activity at this set with plenty of black bears, porcupines, deer, and bobcat.  These pictures were taken at 10:11am and 8:21pm.

Young Beaver on the Dam

Beaver crossing from Peter Abdu on Vimeo.

Here's a quick video I shot last week while filming the north American Beaver (Castor canadensis). The more time I spend in the woods the more I've gravitated to beaver ponds. I've come to sincerely appreciate these ecosystem engineers and it's always easy to find a great set of tracks in the mud.

If you turn the volume up you will notice a chirp near the end of the clip (~14 seconds). Also note that at the end of the clip the beavers were trying to move the camera. I have 10 minutes worth of video in which multiple beavers try to work the camera free. Beavers certainly are determined and well adapted mammals, but ultimately it was the curiosity of a black bear cub that did this camera in.

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.