The Three Rs

Rabbit

Raccoon

Rack

Squirrel?

I'm not sure what this is - squirrel?

He Came Back!

Need I say more?

Cam Heating Up as the Air Cools Down

Nice 8-pointer dropped by last night - much closer to the camera. Notice the thick neck - breeding season can't be too far away.

Variety Pack

None of these are great - but I have to post SOMETHING. First up, a raccoon.

Next, a buck that's too far from the camera. It's a shame, because when I enlarge the photo and then zoom in, he has one HECK of a rack!

Finally, a you-tell-me shot. Could be a puppy's body parts.

Sure Hope This is a Camera Fluke

Otherwise, I'd have to call this deer 'Tripod'.

Not a Great Picture...Not a Great Buck

But it IS the first blog appearance of this spike buck.

Tree Huggers

Click on these pics to see a large woodpecker and a bluejay. I promise you - this blog will get much more interesting when cold weather and snow arrive.

Same Buck as Yesterday?

Visited all 3 cameras today. One had dead batteries, one showed a photo of me walking away yesterday and another of me approaching today, and the third had this photo of a buck (and one of a raccoon's butt):

In the Foggy Rain

Fortunately this buck walked very close to the camera; at any more of a distance he would have been a blur in the foggy rain.

Flashback Buck

Nothing but a few squirrels on the cams today, so here's a look back at one of the nicer bucks my cams have caught.

Wind Gusting to 40mph...

...moves leaves and trees, and movement causes the trail cams to take photos. This camera, set up on one of the highest spots on the farm, snapped over 200 photos in the last 24 hours. Here are the only interesting pics that actually include wildlife...but you'll have to click on the pics for a better look.

At Last...A Buck!

Finally this morning a buck showed up at the mineral lick. From what I can tell, it's an 8-pointer.

The only other visitor - a stray cat.

Special Edition: Hocking College Freshwater Shrimp Harvest

I've completed several aquaculture & fish management classes through Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, and one of my favorite days is helping out during the annual Fall harvest of the freshwater shrimp (Giant Malaysian Prawns) from a pond at Hocking's hatchery near Lake Snowden. Here's a look back at the 2009 harvest. (Special thanks to my friend John Chang for taking these great photos!)

The pond is first slowly drained, and most of the shrimp follow the falling water line into a catch basin called the kettle.

There are always some stragglers - shrimp that get trapped in the mud.

Some of the students and volunteers (that's me in the middle) locate the stragglers and move them to the basin.

Once the pond is drained, the shrimp must be captured with seines and transported to large aerated holding tanks in one of the hatchery's buildings.

Transporting the shrimp is done in these baskets.

Here's a good look at some of the prawns.

Finally, some years you find some uninvited guests in the nets.

Waterhole 002

Nothing whatsoever on the cams today, so here's a randomly-selected oldie featuring three deer

. Don't know what happened to the photo titled Waterhole 001.

Trail Cam Bird of the Day

I know it must seem like I should rename this blog, but lately the cams have provided nothing but a steady diet of chipmunks and birds. The deer have shown no interest in either the corn or mineral block yet, so here's yet another bird photo. Click on the pic to see a nice shot of a dove in flight.

The Stare Down

Here's the first photo of a red-bellied woodpecker of the new season - and it seems there is a bit of a dispute over who is king of the board.

Another Flashback Friday

No interesting new photos to share today, so here's another randomly-selected catch from the past.

Anyone Know This Bird?

My bird identification skills are not what they should be. This could be a common bird for Ohio, but I don't recognize it.

Here are a couple more for the birds-in-flight series:

Mama Feeding Her Young 'Un

Here is an interesting series of photos of a female cardinal and one (or more?) of her offspring.

A chipmunk found the feeder as well, and the camera even caught it leaping to a limb.

In the middle of the night, some sort of field mouse got into the feeder.

OK - one more from this morning. This is not a bird-in-flight, but bird-in-jump instead.

Something Big Flew By in the Rain

...and I'll never know what it was, though I'd sure like to. I've added the 2nd photo (without the bird) just for comparison; you'll definitely have to click on the first photo to get a better look at the mystery bird.

Since a raccoon was emptying the bird feeder last week, I moved it up much higher yesterday and pointed the other camera toward it. Today I found the camera had snapped 360 photos in 24 hours, mostly because the wind came up and the bird feeder was swaying in the wind triggering the camera. I don't have time to go through all the photos today, but here are the first two I found that actually include wildlife.