Birds in Flight

Rarely do the trail cams catch a bird in flight, but it seems I picked a new location for a camera yesterday that was right in their landing zone. I was VERY surprised to get 4 of these photos on one day! (They're all good ones to enlarge - just click on the pic.)

Slim Pickin's

I had only one camera out last night, and didn't get much to share with you. I did not know what the animal was in this photo until I enlarged it. My first thought was an owl, but once I figured out what it was, I couldn't imagine how I saw it as anything else.

The only other visitor last night - a deer that once again was conveniently just out of range of the flash.

Finally, one more close-my-eyes-and-pick-one oldie. (I don't think this particular photo has appeared on the blog before.)

I...I Who Have Nothing...

...to share with you today decided to open my file of old trail cam photos and close my eyes and randomly pick one. Here's your flashback for today:

Your Guess is as Good as Mine

Looks like something with stringy white hair stopped by one of the trail cams last night. What it is - I have no idea.

A bit later it may have walked by again. Click on the photo below and look at the upper half, extreme left.

Here's one more oddity from the same camera, which has snapped hundreds of photos before but never produced anything vaguely like this red one.

A second image, snapped 2 seconds later, is completely normal.

You Take A Chance...

...when you set a camera on the ground. Let's say an animal walks by and knocks the camera over. You might just end up with 160 photos like this one if the camera ends up pointed toward a thin branch that blows in the breeze.

(My high-speed connection is down; I'm posting this with dial-up, so I'm afraid that's all you get today.)

Sunday Flashback: Ms. Hopper

With little to post today, I thought it might be a good time to remember Ms. Hopper, a turkey with a permanently-disabled leg. She came to trust me enough that she would come to my call and let me feed her every day one cold winter. She disappeared in the Spring, so I can only assume she's Hoppin' around Heaven these days.

To see more photos and learn more about Ms. Hopper, click on her label in the list on the right side of this page.

Is It "Morning" or "Mourning"?

Even if you have never seen a mourning dove before, there is a good chance you have heard one.

To learn more about this bird and hear it's familiar call, stop by one of my favorite sites - All About Birds.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/id

Lucky Rabbit's Foot

The belief that a rabbit's foot will bring good luck is one of the oldest superstitions related to animals, going back to 600 BC. In doing some quick web research, I found that there are many different variations to the story, especially in terms of how, when, and by whom the rabbit foot is obtained. (One version says it must be taken by a cross-eyed hunter during a full moon.) In all cases, the lucky foot is a back foot.

Click on the photo to get a pretty good look at a rabbit's back feet:

Here's a link to more information:

http://www.getanswer.org/why-is-a-rabbits-foot-considered-lucky/

I wonder what a rabbit carries for good luck? (I know, it's an old joke!)

Caught in the Act

Sometimes trail cameras solve mysteries and catch criminals. I now know how one of my bird feeders has been completely emptied every day this week.

It's 3 AM - Do You Know Where YOUR Cat Is?

I thought I did - but it seems that Luggage was not asleep on the floor all night. (You can tell I'm really having a hard time finding interesting new photos right now!)

Heads or Tails

Two cameras caught two different ends of two different raccoons last night.

Leaves & Logs, Light and Dirt

Here is a series of photos that shows how much the look of a spot in the woods changes throughout the day. (Truth be told, it's just another series of mostly chipmunk photos that I'm trying to make more interesting.) Some of the critters blend in better than others, but you'll find them if you enlarge the photos. We start with 2 Birds

1 Bird, 1 Chipmunk

2 Chipmunks (next 3 photos)

1 Chipmunk (last 2 photos)

If You Click on the Photos...

...and look at the lower right corner of each, you'll see faint pictures of the first buck of the season. Unfortunately the cam lens is fogged from rain and the basket-racked buck is just out of range of the infra-red lighting, but he's there nonetheless. (Besides, I have nothing else to share right now.)

Something Other Than a Chipmunk

Still no deer, and again over a hundred chipmunk photos, but finally something else stopped by briefly.

One for Mr. Daniels Across the Pond...

...and the other viewers of my blog who know Buddy. (No deer showed up at this camera last night as I'd hoped. From the other spot there were 100+ more chipmunk photos...so it's a dog day afternoon on the blog.)

The next photo isn't from a trail camera, but one I snapped while standing on my porch a couple of years ago.

Cheeks Empty, Cheeks Full

For Chipmunk Day, part 2, I switched to my oldest trail cam, a Moultrie that has easily spent over a thousand days in the woods and still takes sharp photos. Here are some grounds-eye-view looks at the chipmunks.

I moved the other camera to where I saw a large buck yesterday and hope it catches a good look at him by tomorrow.

Chipmunk Day

I give up. Every day the camera pointed to the platform snaps photo after photo of chipmunks until the feed is gone. For these photos I moved the feeder 5' off the ground, but the results are the same.

Mom Said to Keep Our Elbows off the Table

The platform feeder is now suspended off the ground, hanging on the rotting remains of a stump. A couple of late-night visitors showed really bad manners by eating with their FEET on the table.

A Kid Would Get in Trouble for This

The trail cam has had about 60 pictures of chipmunks in the last 2 days. They're in 'take the seed and corn and store it for the winter' mode, and the photos have been rather boring.

Until something interesting shows up, here's a look back to three years ago this week when some deer thought it would be funny to stick their tongues out at the camera.

Trail Cameras Have A Laser Pointer...

...that assists you in setting up a camera so that you know exactly where it is pointing. If you forget to use the pointer, you can get 28 worthless photos like I did today. The feed platform is below the camera's field of view, and with the wind blowing the trees, the cam snapped random photos all day. (If you look close enough, there IS a chipmunk just to the left of the base of the tree.)

On the other hand, trail cams handle motion surprisingly well at times.