Friday, February 6, 2009

I Have No Explanation - Do You?

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't think I've ever been this baffled by something that showed up on a trail cam memory card. Bear with me here...

Nothing baffling about the first photo. I'm including it just to show you the location of this camera, which is a path I opened last winter along and above the creek.

Now a bit of tekkie-talk: My trail cams are normally set to take one photo when they detect motion, but the cams also have a multi-shot mode. In multi-shot, you can have the cam snap 2 or 3 pictures when motion is detected. I rarely use the multi-shot mode, but did yesterday. From what I can tell, the images in multi-shot mode are snapped less than 5 seconds apart. In this case, I set the cam to take 2 photos when motion was detected.

The next photo is strange enough as it is - a night scene filled with orbs. I've seen them before - they look a lot different from the flash reflecting off snow. Some claim they are caused by light reflecting off dust particles in the air. In any case, here is the first picture (click on photo to enlarge):




Below is the second photo taken in multi-shot mode - snapped just a couple of seconds later. Now tell me - whatever the heck the orbs are - where did they go? How could they disappear so quickly? Not only do I not have an explanation, I don't even have a guess!


And if that's not enough, as I was putting together today's blog posting, it dawned in me: What could have possibly triggered the camera to fire off the two photos in the first place? There is no deer, no raccoon - NOTHING that I can see in either photo that would have caused the camera to activate in the first place -- certainly not some tiny dust particles.

If you have an explanation, or even a theory, please post it in the comments section. Also, if you can think of anyone who might be able to explain these two photos, please feel free to forward a link to the blog. I am simply mystified.

5 comments:

  1. Hmmmm...After studying the two bottom photos I see a very small change between them. If you look just left of the date stamp where the ground drops off toward the creek there is some twigs missing in the last photo, It's a small change but it could indicate that something went through that small area that could have triggered the camera. I have no idea what might have caused the orbs unless maybe a squirrel was perched above the camera on a tree and loosened either bark chips or ice as it scrambled down the tree. 5 seconds would have given it plenty of time to dart from the base of a tree to the small area that was disturded in the second photo?? I guess we will have to chaulk it up as "One Of Lifes Little Mysteries". lol

    Mikey

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  2. I also notice that the snow at the bottom left on both pics have been diturbed a little too, Something must have caused that and the missing twigs...just an observation.

    Mikey

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  3. Your attention to detail is better than mine, Mikey. You are right - something changed a few things on the ground between the snapping of the two pictures. I had also not considered the possibility of something being ABOVE the camera's field of vision. You might be on to something - certainly better guesses than I had!

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  4. I'm using the same camera and the trigger speed is not all that fast. I keep mine set for 3 shots and get blanks like this or just the tail end of a fast moving deer walking across the path. I believe the spots you are seeing are light frost/moisture spots on the lens or flash. I have gotten the same thing a few times.
    Steve
    Ohio Outdoorsman

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  5. I think they're fairies.
    -Donna

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