April 12 - May 1

Two separate visits, two sites, but not much to report alas. After leaving the camera on the blowdown for just under two weeks, thinking it might catch some fisher pics, I returned a week ago to find nothing except for one picture of a squirrel which I didn't bother uploading. At that point, I moved the camera back to the old standby site by the stream. Went back to check yesterday and found nothing on the camera at all, despite abundant tracks nearby in the mud. A big rainy day last week left good conditions for tracks in the streambed after the waters receded a bit. Used my keys for scale as I forgot to bring the marker:

 dog prints

squirrel below the keys, raccoon above 

raccoon rear foot, I think

Certainly the camera still works fine, as it takes a picture of me when I stop by to check. Battery level still fine as well. I left it by the stream and lowered it slightly. My disappointment was mitigated somewhat by the discovery of a freshly dropped antler, which I saw from about 50 yards away as I walked down the trail

No gnaw marks on this one, always impressive to see in their pristine state. On the tick front, I picked up 8 when moving the camera from the blowdown to the stream last week, and 9 more today. Brings the YTD total to 78. 

On a completely unrelated note while out for a jog in the Assabet River NWR this morning I came across a scat unlike any I've seen in terms of size shape and composition. The main thing that jumped out were various porcupine quill pieces, along with teeth which I'm guessing come from the porcupine as well. If not, then from some other rodent. Also, a sticker which may have come from a banana, possibly the banana peel it was stuck to, and a chunk of hide with the fur still attached. Plenty of bones and vegetable matter too. I disaggregated it before coming back later in the day to take pictures, something I now regret:

quills and teeth above the marker

 sticker with a bit of a QR code still visible

The scat as a whole was big. I'm thinking coyote as the source after doing an online image search (always a good time looking at pictures of coyote scat). 

April 4-11, 2012

Checked in on the camera, back at its location next to the stream, to find pics and video of deer from sometime in the past week. Impossible to say exactly when as the time and date on the data strip are completely off, for reasons I don't understand.

 deer on the right

 mugging for the camera

not exactly sure what this is, possibly a fisher

the deer in the first two pics was also captured on video:

Speaking of deer, I saw one while I was there, not close enough to make out the size and gender and it moved away once it sensed my presence. Weather has been somewhat mild, mostly dry although there was rain and even a little hail earlier in the afternoon today which kept me from lingering too long. Rain also washed out any tracks from the mud in the streambed. After checking out the blowdown, I saw a fisher scat that looks recent enough that I decided to move the camerra back to that spot, another reliable source of pics from the past. Six ticks while moving the camera to the blowdown, brings the YTD total to 61.

March 16-April 4 2012

Slim pickings of late after moving the camera back to the stream, a site which has been productive in the past. I actually visited the site last weekend at the end of the month, there were no pictures on the camera and the batteries were just above the level of being ready for replacement. Not having spares with me I let it be, but in hindsight I should have swapped them out because when I came back this evening the battery level was too low to preserve images. The one and only wildlife picture from the last three weeks is this rather unimpressive shot of a deer at night, barely in range of the flash:

More interesting than that solitary image is the scat I discovered on the bridge over the stream. It appeared too large to be from a fox or fisher.

of course I forgot to bring the sharpie pen with me for scale but the main cord is a good 3 inches long. Dissassembled, a large chunk of bone and various berry skins are quite apparent:

Bone on the left (couldn't have been fun to pass that), berry skins above it, matted fur in the middle

No way this came from any domesticated dog. Quite tempting to think it came from a coyote, they have to be around. After discovering this scat in late March when I put the camera back by the stream I had hoped whatever left this would be photographed, but no such luck. Some other pictures from the point and shoot, taken in late March:

 deer tracks next to the stream

 raccoon tracks where it walked under a fallen tree - the camera is set up directly above this spot

 raccoon on the left, deer on the right

the largest of many skunk cabbages sprouting

The weather was unseasonably warm the week after St. Patrick's Day, then returned to more seasonable temps (and wind) after that. A few rainy days but no real gullywashers. As mentioned before I made more than one visit over the past three weeks, only one of them resulted in tick exposure but it was a doozy as I stepped in the wrong spot and came up with 8 of them crawling on the back of my leg. Brings the YTD total to 55. 

March 3-14 2012

Over 70 pictures taken by the camera over the past two weeks. Below are the pictures that included wildlife:

 bird perched on the branch, upper right

squirrel visiting a snag cavity, upper left

Alas, every other picture was either of people--adults walking their dogs or students from the nearby school--or of plants swaying in the wind. Plenty of windy days as the temperature swung back and forth between seasonable and near-tropical levels. Over time I'm sure this contributed to the coming apart of the suspect edifice of branches I had created to obscure the camera from passers-by. Only three wind-related shots taken at night, which was a disappointing surprise. 

Over half the pictures on the memory card were taken on Wednesday afternoon, when the camera was finally discovered by a couple of kids from the school. Friends were called, poses were struck, and finally a gum wrapper was placed over the sensor putting an end to the proceedings. Prior to this a dog walker also noticed the camera and took a close look. As a rule I don't post pictures of peoples' faces on this blog, particularly children, but here's a flavor of what went down Wednesday:

here comes trouble

that's a wrap

On the bright side, the camera wasn't damaged or stolen. I figured it would be discovered eventually, the snag seemed so perfect as a site it seemed worth the risk. The lack of wildlife photos and night time photos was a bummer. Moving the camera back into the deeper woods, away from prying eyes. Specifically where I haven't decided yet. 

February 26-29 2012

Very quick visit near dusk in a driving snowstorm to check on the camera in its new risky location. The good news is that the camera was still there and had 21 pictures on it. The bad news is that the subjects in the photos were almost all people and the camera lens was encrusted with snow. To top it off the batteries were depleted and I didn't have replacement batteries with me meaning I had to take the camera with me and will be putting it back tonight.

Given the proximity to the school and ball field I was fully expecting to get some people shots but given the scruffy appearance of the snag I had hoped there'd be some wildlife traffic as well. No such luck, at least so far.

 Did they notice the camera? Apparently not, or if they did they paid it little mind

 something casting a shadow on the right behind the pine needles

less shadow in this one

As mentioned earlier, the weather turned with a multi-part wintry mix extravaganza, such that by the time I got there there was a couple of inches on the ground. No tracks though, and the wind pushing snow around would have wiped out anything regardless. 

snow will likely be gone by Sunday morning with rain in the forecast

While I'm not doing this to get pictures of people walking through the woods, I'll leave the camera in this spot for a couple more weeks because the snag is so compelling. 

No ticks given the weather and quick hitter nature of the visit. YTD tick total remains 47.

February 26th 2012

Nothing from the scouting camera this week, much to my surprise after the multiple shots of raccoon and deer from the week before. Batteries hanging on at about 80%, so that wasn't the issue either. The past week has been mostly warm, with some heavy rains Friday night that left some soggy ground in places. Where I'm accustomed to seeing raccoon tracks along the stream I saw these, which could be raccoon but seem too small and missing the fifth digit:

Maybe from a fox? Who knows. My tracking ID skills are marginal at best. Whatever the case, the skunk cabbage is sprouting apace:

A year ago it would have had to melt its way through about 18 inches of snow at this time.

The big news is that after a lot of hemming and hawing I took the plunge and set the camera up near this magnificent snag:

I've walked by it dozens of times now, and noticed the many cavities and scrapes along the surface of the trunk:

Also found some evidence of rodent nesting material at the base, which hopefully would attract animals that hunt rodents:

So those are the good points. More problematic is the snag's location relative to the school's ballfield, which can be seen in the pictures. The most logical spot for the camera is barely off the main trail heading into the woods as well. The pine sapling that was best placed has no low branches or any other shrub cover nearby. Camouflaging the camera was a challenge and involved piling up oak and pine branches and hoping they don't get blown directly in front of the camera lens. I'm not even convinced the pile of branches is enough cover, although I suppose if you're not looking directly at the camera it will avoid detection.

No ticks today, I stayed out of the thicker undergrowth.

February 15th-19th, 2012

Plenty of pictures with the fresh batteries in the scouting camera. I also changed the capture settings, disabling video for the time being to go easy on battery life. From the tracks in the stream bed, I figured raccoons and deer would show up and I wasn't disappointed in that regard:

 peek-a-boo

 these two appear to have plenty of ticks on them

Poked around the area I had the camera set up last month, near the trees that raccoons have been using as toilets. Noticed a half-buried shoulder blade which I think might be from the deer carcass that was here a year ago:

I dug it up before taking the picture

also noticed a nearby tree with a couple of gouge marks:

I'm guessing those are from a deer

And some fresh raccoon scat:

Having visited what is most definitely a raccoon latrine area multiple times recently, it was quite disturbing to find out about raccoon roundworm which is just nasty. While I haven't been sniffing or certainly touching any raccoon scat, I'll be a little more careful about where I'm stepping back there. In fact I'll probably give the general area a pass for the time being.

Speaking of infection vectors, with warmer temperatures I picked up a grand total of 23 ticks on this visit. Most of them latched on in the denser undergrowth in the latrine area. YTD total almost doubles as a result, to 47.