"Bad Boys, Bad Boys" (or "Mikey Was Right!)

Recently I wrote about the suet cakes falling to the ground and disappearing overnight. In a comment, friend-of-the-blog Mikey speculated on what animals were likely eating the suet.

Couple days ago, I tried Round 2 of the suet experiment, only this time, I put the cake in a small metal hanging cage. (I didn't realize I was being filmed, but what the heck.)


Some nuthatches quickly found the suet, but you've seen them in action before. That night, however...well, let's just say that the guilty parties were caught on tape.



By the way, Mikey - I found and fed Ms. Hopper yesterday, but Luggage was with me, so I just tossed her some corn and skedaddled to the creek before my big game hunter cat sprung into action.

Back to the Creek

There's something about this first photo that I like a lot. It's not all that special viewed at regular size, but in full-screen mode (or used as your desktop background), it is an unusual picture.


Another deer crossing - though you can see the creek is no longer muddy.



Lastly, though I keep meaning to move the camera from Stumpy-Top, some new visitor seems to show up every day, causing me to keep the camera there one more day.

Odds and Ends

Just a few pics that I didn't post earlier in the week. First up, a deer crossing the creek muddied by this week's very welcome rain.




Next, a squirrel eyes a salad bar I left on the path (some expired lettuce).

And finally, two birds in flight over Stumpy Top.

Couple More Stumpy-Top Videos

A rainy day, so I skipped a couple of the cameras today. After finding and feeding Ms. Hopper, I checked the stump-cam. Turned out there were a couple of new visitors that were not around earlier in the week. The camera caught a few turkeys walking by.


An opossum stopped by to see if any feed was knocked to the ground.


Though we saw a squirrel at this stump before, we've never seen one do this!

Let's Play "Find the Chipmunk"

It may appear that I've posted the same photo 4 times, but somewhere in each pic there is a chipmunk. I doubt that you'll be able to find them all without enlarging the images...but I assure you there is a chipmunk in every picture.

Videos from Stumpy Top

You may have noticed a new pattern in my postings. When the Moultrie cams give me some good still shots for a location, I move the Stealth Prowler cam in to try some videos. You've seen this stump in stills before. First up, a deer gets spooked.


Next, a squirrel stops by.


The first after-dark visitor is a raccoon.


And finally, cleaning up whatever crumbs the others left behind, a tiny mouse. (I now know the Stealth cam is just as sensitive as the Moultries.)

The Disappearing Deer

No need to say much about this video. I know it's an optical illusion, but a real magician couldn't do any better.

Update from the Suet Spot

One day last week the suet cake broke in half, but surprisingly the remaining piece hung on the tree for over 24 hours - to the delight of the white-breasted nuthatches.

Eventually, though, the rest of the cake fell, but that didn't stop the woodpeckers from cleaning up the leftover suet bits on the bungee chord. (Reminds me of trying to get those last few pieces of chicken off your drumstick!)

There was no sign of either part of the suet cake on the ground; I wonder what other animals eat suet?

Tomorrow - a new tree, a new suet cake, and two videos that show me a very interesting difference between woodpeckers and nuthatches.

(everybody sing) Good Ole' Stumpy-Top. Stumpy-Top Tennessee!

Because there are so many pictures in this series, I'm posting them smaller than I usually do - but they're definitely worth clicking-on-a-pic to enlarge. To attract wildlife, I put one handful of a shelled corn/birdseed mix on top of the stump, and the first visitor was a woodpecker.

This picture gives you some perspective as to the stump's height.

Next, an optical illusion...as there's actually a rotted out gap in the side of the stump.

You gotta love the sensitivity of the Moultrie cams. I must have had 40 pictures of this mouse.

A curious raccoon decides to find out what all the fuss is about on top...

...and for a while, claims the spot as king of the hill.

By the time this squirrel arrived the next morning, I doubt there was much left to eat.

Coming up next week, an update from the suet spot and we play 'Find the Chipmunk'.

More Primping & Preening

Ms. Hopper decided to climb up on this old stump for some feather work. The series included 34 photos and spanned over 30 minutes.

Turns Out my Path of Least Resistance...

...isn't a great place to dig a burrow. This chipmunk recently dug a hole right in the middle of my walking path. (Ohio's Division of Wildlife A-Z Species Guide web page has convinced me these things are Eastern Chipmunks, not ground squirrels.) You'll meet Chipper in the first video - pay attention to where it's hole is located.

As you'll see in the videos that follow, I'm not the only creature that uses this path.
First, a dove does some digging, flinging dirt into the burrow.

A passing deer steps right on the burrow.

A bird I can't identify stakes claim on the spot and makes threatening moves as Chipper tries to return to the burrow.

Night time. Asleep in the den. A giant arm reaches into the den.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mikey! I hope your road to recovery continues to follow the path of least resistance.

What I Like about This Video...

....in that the cast of characters grows as the video proceeds.


I discovered today that I don't know the difference between a chipmunk and a ground squirrel. Do you? Are they just two terms for the same creature? In tomorrow's post, I'll try to resolve the matter...and show you the videos that caused my confusion.

Stirrings at the Suet Spot

No giant woodpecker yet, but some other birds are starting to discover the spot. (Click photos to enlarge)


Today I moved the suet about 6" to the left so that it won't be quite so hidden by the tree with the camera. My only concern is that with the very warm temperatures forecast for the next couple of days, the suet may melt.

No Luck with the Experiments

A week ago I was told that pileated woodpeckers love suet, so my idea was to head to the part of the woods where I frequently hear them and sometimes see them...with a bungee cord and a suet cake. I found two trees close together so I could get a good shot, strapped the camera to one tree and the suet to the other....only to discover Saturday morning that I'd forgotten to turn on the camera! Something had eaten some of the suet, but I didn't catch the image, as the camera was off. I turned it on, and when I checked yesterday, found that nothing had visited the suet, though Ms. Hopper had caused the camera to shoot one image.

The second part of this experiment involved an old timbered tree. The remaining stump is too tall for a turkey or deer to eat off the top, so I set up a camera and spread corn on the stump. My hope was that a pileated flying over the area might see the corn and land on the stump. Somebody found the corn - but not a woodpecker.

One Spot, 48 Hours, Lots of Visitors

There was a day early this week when I didn't check all cameras, so a couple of them, like this one, were undisturbed for 48 hours. In that time, visitors included crows, a turkey, a squirrel, possum, rabbit, doves, Ms. Hopper, deer, chipmunk and cardinal.









Have a great weekend! I've set up an experiment with one of my cameras, and with any luck may have a new (to my blog)species to show you Monday.

Though I've Never Had a Request for One...

...here's a crow video!

New Camera Angle; Under a Log

The camera that caught these turkeys is sitting under a dead pine tree that fell most of the way to the ground before hanging up on another tree.

In Spain They Have the Running of the Bulls...

...but around here, we settle for the running of the turkeys.

Hasty Generalization about an Unrepresentative Sample

It appears I committed two Logical Fallacies last week in my posting titled "The Chair Mystery." If you recall, I had eliminated deer as a possible suspect in the daily disappearance of the corn, as I had a couple of videos showing deer walking right by the chair.

To illustrate my error, say you went shopping at a large supermarket and saw 5 kids as you traveled the aisles--two with black hair, one with dark brown hair and two with red hair. You notice that the two red-headed kids are either grabbing things off the shelves, running around the store, or screaming in tears when denied a candy bar, while the other three kids are much better behaved, and you conclude that all red-headed kids have more behavior problems while shopping than do kids with other colors of hair.

I watched videos showing at least 5 deer walking past the chair and concluded that NO deer were eating the corn.


Yesterday's video showed a raccoon sniffing around the chair, but not eating off of it. What I intentionally didn't point out is that by the time the raccoon appeared at the chair, the corn had already been eaten by the deer. I'm guessing that again it would be a Hasty Generalization to assume raccoons won't eat off the chair; perhaps it's simply a case of the Early Bird Gets the Worm!

Finally, the recent ice and wind storms have made a real mess of the woods, but at the same time provided some new and interesting spots to place a camera. I set a cam on one such spot - and lo and behold, Ms. Hopper drops by to let us know she's still doing fine.

Your Homework Assignment for Tonite...

...is to get out your old Philosophy 101 textbook and brush up on the Inductive Logical Fallacies (or just Google it). By doing so, you'll be prepared for my posting scheduled for Tuesday.

I didn't make it to all the trail cams after returning to Athens Sunday afternoon, but here is something from each of the two cams I did visit. First up, the best daytime photo of an opossum that one of my cams has ever caught.

Up next, the camera at the chair. I mentioned Friday that I suspected raccoons were eating the corn off the chair. In this video, a raccoon approaches the chair, sniffs all around it, and then moves on, without standing up to eat off the seat. Another suspect eliminated?

Coming up tomorrow - we check on Ms. Hopper and then one of the creatures of the forest reminds me of something I should have remembered from my college days.

The Chair Mystery

Each day when I pass this spot, I place a handful of shelled corn on the chair, and when I return the next day, the corn is always gone. I decided to place a camera nearby to try to learn who eats the corn every day. After Day 1, I've eliminated the turkeys, and also deer...who showed up in two videos walking right by the chair without eating the corn.

I'm leaving town for the weekend, but have moved the camera a bit closer to the chair and freshened the corn. Maybe the mystery will be solved by the time I return. Turkeys had been my prime suspect; now I'm thinking raccoons.

The Usual Subjects

I moved a camera back to the bird feeder to see who was visiting..no real surprises. There was one of the last bucks to shed, half-way through the job.

A few turkeys, who seem to be showing up on every camera right now, whether near the creek or on top of the hill or in between.

Cardinals...

An unidentified bird in flight...

...and a couple of camera investigators.