A Real Trail Mix of Critters

In frustration of not being able to capture some wildlife photos due to the company I keep on my walks, I turned to automatic trail cameras. My devices are placed along the paths we use and it is interesting to see who or what uses the paths when we are not around.
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The motion sensitive cameras also help solve the quintessential question of "Who is pooping on the path?" When I see these wild calling cards, I often try to scoot them off the trail so that nosy noses don't find them. This hopefully eliminates the eating of the poo or the rolling in the poo. One leads to several baths. The other leads to vet visits and antibiotics.

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​So far the cameras have helped me view many deer, turkeys, wood ducks, geese, foxes, coyotes, birds, squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, a fisher and the occasional bear.
The cameras can take many, many photos depending on what triggers them. They freeze specific moments in time.
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Sometimes the lighting on these photos is just right to create the perfect serene scene. Since I have traveled these trails, the pictures often create a feeling of peacefulness for me as I can imagine being there in person. I can almost feel the cool autumn morning as a buck passes through the dark forest canopy and enters the pond area.

In the spring, I move one camera down to the pond's edge to catch waterfowl pictures. I get jealous as the trail camera can get much closer shots of wood ducks than I ever could. The camera also picks up geese and a heron that once spent enough time in front of one camera to be in several shots. ​
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The one camera at the pond is set to a high sensitivity. It can't seem to capture a good photo of the neighborhood fox at night, but in the daytime, it will trip hundreds of time to catch the ripples on the pond water.

​That's just the nature of things 'round here, I guess.
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The devices also capture instances that I may not of have been able to view during the time I spend outdoors.

I appear to have a nursing buck. He seems to be hanging out with a doe and her fawn. I asked a fellow coworker and outdoorsman about it. He said the buck must be low on the pecking order to be hanging out with the doe and fawn instead of other young bucks in what are dubbed bachelor groups. He also added the doe probably had lost a fawn or else she wouldn't let him nurse like that. It is a little something out of the ordinary that I probably wouldn't have seen if it weren't for my spying.

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​I thought maybe I could be lazy and set a trail camera up by the bird feeder for some good birding shots. In less than three days, I had over 3,000 captures to weed through. Sadly, most were dark as the older camera doesn't have a very high resolution and my feeders are in the shade. However, I was able to see both red and gray squirrels decimating the bird seed and getting in at least 50 percent of the shots.
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I placed a camera in the back yard as I noted the absent of fallen apples under a tree with loaded branches. Sure enough, some deer visitors showed up. This most likely explains the late night barkfests at the Applegate house.

There are also those critters who like messing with the cameras. For whatever reason unknown to me, the goats seem to enjoy trying to eat or move the camera. If I don't catch them doing this, I usually end up with a goat's eye as the first photo and then a series of shots where everything is crooked. However, the goats' wild counterparts, the deer, have also been known to get up close and person with the cameras.

The dogs leave the cameras alone, but Sherman has this uncanny ability to take really good selfies no matter which camera he's on. The camera usually catches Clem as he does his zoomies around the pond. Poor Sadie, being all black, doesn't usually turn out too well on camera and she's too busy for selfies anyway.

As the cameras capture instances in time, some those moments can be very precious. Last year the cameras recorded a few shots of our 9-year-old bloodhound Buford's last walk. In the afternoon he was enjoying his walk and by late evening he had passed away in his sleep.

It is not just me who enjoys the natural surveillance that these cameras can provide.
The whole trail camera movement has changed how people view wildlife as they can now monitor areas 24/7 without being there.

There are numerous Facebook sites set up for enthusiasts to share.
Pennsylvania Wildlife Trailcams is an awesome Facebook group. However, you have to watch cause sometimes folks can share fake photos -- gasp, not on the internet.

The industry has also spawned a little bit of jargon. When someone mentions pulling some cards, everyone knows that that means they pulled the memory cards out of their devices to view the photos on them. So posts usually contain the phrase "pulled some cards today."

While a bunch of the posts are hunting related, there are those who are just posting their views of the natural world.
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One post on the site brought a smile to my face.  A mother posted that she had recently purchased her toddler a game camera and was now going through several hundred pictures of trees, grass and sky. A comment on the post said that it is wonderful to view the world through a child's perspective.
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It is wonderful to view the natural world through a device that lets us be in nature 24/7 without being there. I check my cards once a week and am often excited for what I might see. Sometimes there is nothing and I am disappointed. Sometimes I forget to reset a camera and there are no pictures for the week. ​

However, sometimes there is a scene that is just beautiful and serene. That's just the nature of thing 'round here. ​​​​​