Winter 2016

Although the predictions of a mild el nino influenced winter were mostly true.  Looks plenty wintry up in Isabella, where the following two photos were taken.  

Things are quiet up there;  the snowshoe hare population seems to have crashed and with it the lynx.  Most of the camera trap action this winter was limited to martens and gray jays.

Further south, there are still some snowshoe hares.  

Finally, one of those pictures that make it all worthwhile.  I waited two months for this bobcat to show up.  The snow had recently crusted over, so the predators started moving again.  To attract the cat, I hung a  little electronic device that emits a series of random chirps above the camera. Curiousity killed the cat!

It wasn't around long.

Summer and fall 2015

Getting good wildlife photos with a camera trap might seem easy; just plunk a camera in the woods and come back in a few weeks and collect your images!  It's not quite that easy though.  Takes a lot of exploring,  experimentation, and just plain luck!  The following are the best of this spring, summer and fall.

The first four pictures are from the same set, up in the boreal forests of Isabella, MN.  Not much shows up, but what does is usually interesting.  This is a lynx after an early May snowfall.

This gray fox showed up at the same set.  Gray fox were usually thought of as a species of the hardwood forests, but seemingly not anymore.

A timber wolf came by.

Finally a red fox.

Was hoping for an owl, got a snowshoe hare.

Drumming grouse

Wood duck

Winter 2015; more owls, another lynx, and the usual cam trapping suspects..

It's about time for an update, as we transition into spring.  I did not have as many cameras out this winter as last, but I think I got some keepers.

This was probably my most exciting picture of the winter.  This lynx showed up the day after this set was made.

 

I spent a lot of time in the neighborhood woods, experimenting with new cameras. This is one of my favorite deer pictures. I wonder what they hear of in the distance?

This grey fox was captured with the same camera.

The snowshoe hare population is entering the downward phase of it's cycle, though they still are the most common subject in the winter.

I set up a camera on this cedar tree, which was occupied by a porcupine.  It took awhile, but it did come down eventually.  One wonders what they do about water when they are up there.

Owls were very cooperative.  First, a saw whet owl, which unfortunately was out of frame but I thought the eyes were very striking.

The following weekend I had a few images of this great horned owl.

 

And finally, a pine marten.

The last pics of 2014

I had a streak of owl visits.  I have a small digital "sqeaker" hidden under the undercut bank.  It fooled this barred owl for awhile.  In the last owl picture, you can see the caller in the plastic bag.  

During the big thaw, I found a beaver colony where the beavers decided to cut some more feed.  They came out in the daytime, which rarely happens.

I've been experimenting with a new flash system, to try to improve the lighting at night.  I think it's working pretty well.  Here are some neighborhood deer, taken in the woods just behind our house.  They are suckers for a few sunflower seeds.

The same set caught a grey fox.

Fall 2014

Never really get tired of pictures of beaver at work!

Otter

I love photos of moose walking in the water.  These are rutting bulls on the move.

Wolf checking out a beaver canal.

Lynx checking out a deer skull.  There is an electronic "squeaker" under the skull.

The squeaker also drew in a very cooperative great grey owl.

 
The final two pictures are of the same beaver canal as above, though now frozen and snow-covered.

 Finally, a three-legged wolf!

Some new pictures from the summer

Foraging woodcock

Wolf crossing a wetland on beaver dam.

Cinnamon bear.

Velvet antlered bull.

The bane of summer in the north land:  the deer fly!

Bat wing?

I think this moose must have been spooked by the sound of the camera powering up.

This is an odd picture.  I think that is a small rodent of some kind on the "lily pads".

Here's the same scene in the daylight.  That's an immature wood duck.

The next three photos were on a camera set on what I took to be a bird dusting spot.  Mostly what showed up were small rodents and this cutie.

Flicker

Commonly called the "kangaroo mouse", this is more properly called the woodland jumping mouse.

We've had a coyote visiting us all summer at our cabin.  We've never seen it, yet it shows up after dark even when we are there.