Suprise in the muskrat hole

The last couple months I've been building wildlife camera systems like it's going out of style. This has left little time for filming but I finally managed to get a video set out last week. This is a combination of five clips from an HD system I built. The plan was to film muskrats coming out of the ice(based on tracks). As usual...there's always a surprise when dealing with wildlife and I'll have to adjust my video set accordingly. It's worth changing the settings to view in HD (1080p) and volume on high:

Black Bear Marking

I made the set in late fall and this video was taken just before the first snowfall. This back bear stopped by to leave his scent on this marking tree in norther N.H. Encounters between black bears and my remote cameras like this one have become all too familiar. Now that the bears are sleeping for the winter I'm enjoying a grace period of filming without my cameras being eaten or tipped over..but it's shots like this that makes me miss them.

Black bear climbing a pine from Peter Abdu on Vimeo.

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.