January 23rd and 29th 2012

Another week of mild temperatures and rains wiped out the snow that fell last weekend, with barely a trace of it left. Only one picture and accompanying video from the scouting camera, deer of course. The video is a good one as the deer chews on a branch while standing directly in front of the camera:

a little blurry

Plenty of other evidence of deer as well. It's becoming clear to me the degree to which they own the place. 

 scat piles with hoof print next to the sharpie marker

this is the site of one of the deer beds from last week, tough to tell from this pic but the leaves and needles do look a bit compressed still.

I also found what looks like it could be a buck scrape, right on the main walking trail. Seems far too late in the season for this, and there was no overhanging broken branches nearby, but who knows:

about 3 feet or so above the ground

This isn't the first time I've come across something that looks like a scrape right on the trail. Speaking of trails, here's another deer trail I followed up the rise:

Took some non-deer related pictures as well:

 not sure what left this but it doesn't look to be from a raccoon

 fallen nest

 skunk cabbage

 Standing water in late January in a shady spot. Sums up this winter, or lack thereof.

new camera site with woodchips scattered nearby

As the picture above shows, the camera is in a slightly different spot. Facing east again. I came across wood chips scattered near the base of this tree, no idea how they got there. Hoping to find out. 

No ticks again, I was worried they might return with the snow melting away. YTD total remains 19.