The Fundamentals of Camera Trapping

Here's a list of Camera Trapping Fundamentals that I've been waiting to post for a while now.  I've learned these lessons recently and hope that they can be useful to others.

1.  Get Away From People-  Most people that see the camera just wave to it or ignore it.  Some choose to moon it, flick it off, or pee in front of it, and a select few will steal it.  Minimize your chances of these incidents by going off trail, putting your camera 8 feet up (or higher) in a tree, or by monitoring lands for a week or so before you even put a camera up.  Don't be naive to the fact that if you camera-trap for long enough, you will have at least one get stolen.  It happens.

2. Get Away From Dogs-  Dogs are naturally curious and will want to know exactly what your camera is doing on a tree.  They will sniff your footprints out and go right up to your camera when they are not on a leash.  If they sit at your camera for long enough, the dog owners may want to see what the dog is looking at, therefore leading another person figuring out where the camera is.  Minimize dog encounters by placing camera traps away from trails, and across small streams from trails.  Look for dog prints off-trail too.  If you see dog prints, keep moving.

3.  Find Dens-  Animal dens and holes have harbored in some of my favorite and unexpected pictures of animals. Find dens by walking around the woods, following animals tracks, and using your nose.  Dens reek of fresh kills, animal urine, and other scents.  It is time consuming, you will get muddy, but the chance to photograph newly born animal young should be worth the time.  All sorts of animals will come up to the den throughout the night as well, not just the animals that live in them.

Broke my own rules on this camera by using a dark colored strap that's easy to see.

4.  Don't Use Straps, Cables, Or Locks-  These devices are usually dark colored or shiny and are made to secure your camera.   They stick right out in the woods to even the most naive hikers, trappers, and hunters.  I find it much better to take the time to hide the cameras rather than to just lock them up on a tree.

Natural shapes in the woods are not usually 90 degree angles, perfectly horizontal, or at all uniform.  If you do choose to use straps, cables, or locks, you will get more people coming up to your cameras, but then they will be more secure.  I've had cameras "perfectly placed" with these, only to have people take saws to trees, just to get the cameras off, so I rarely use locking cables anymore.  If a person really wants the camera, they will take it no matter what kind of lock is on it.

5.  Go Where The Animals Are-  Deer trails and game trails are sure fire ways to see what's walking around.  Follow them far and deep into the woods.  Coyotes, bobcats, deer, and turkey all use deer trails.  Water sources are also good, especially from July-September.  Some great results that I have gotten have been on the banks of rivers and streams.  Animals frequently use them as highways and so should you.

Find scat and tracks at trail intersections and on scent marked trees.  Deer kills and roadkill are fantastic to put a camera near.  Where I live, it is illegal to move dead animals or to place animals in a way that will attract other animals, so I have to actively seek blood trails from deer that got hit by cars and find them the hard way.  Then I can place a camera in that general area.

6.  Know Your Camera-  Test your camera for a few minutes during the day, and even for one whole night.  Getting to know the trigger speed, flash, and depth of field are all key into figuring out how it will do when it is set up in the field.  Know how long batteries will last and get at least a 4 gig SD card so you have some idea of when you should check your camera again, whether it be days or even months.  Know how strong your LED or incandescent flash is for those night pictures.  Some flashes are very strong and if you place the camera in the wrong place, all you will get is washed out pictures from the flash.

7.  Don't Let The Sun Ruin Your Pictures-  The sun rises in the east and sets in the west (at least in a general way).  Do not point your camera in these directions or you will get a washed out or extremely bright picture of the sun during sunset or sunrise.  Instead, point your camera north, south, or in a very shady location.

8.  Work Quickly-  When checking SD cards, setting the camera, or replacing batteries, don't rush, but move quickly.  The less time spent at the site, the less of your scent will be spread.  Try not to touch branches of trees and don't break sticks when you step on them.  You are in the wild with wild animals, act like it.  Don't leave any trash behind and get out fast.

9.  Have A Checklist Ready When Checking Cams-  It's important.  Do it.  On my checklist is changing batteries, making sure SD card is not full, make sure the SD card is set and in the camera, make sure camera is turned on, make sure nothing is obstructing the camera's lens, take a test picture, listen to the camera click to see if it is working, make sure nothing is left behind, and before leaving, make sure the camera is turned on again.

10.  Know Who Owns the Land-  Don't go on federal property to place a camera without permission.  Know where you are and who holds the rights to the land you are on.  While it is tempting to place a camera in National Parks to photograph that prize bobcat or bear that you saw while hiking, don't do it.  There are steep fines and punishments for doing anything like this on government land.  Don't be that guy in the woods that ruins "it" for everyone.

Camera-Trapped Owl and Others

Here's a lucky picture that I recently got.

I had absolutely no idea that an owl would come near this camera.  It's probably dumb luck that it just happened to sit on that small log in front of the camera.  The date stamp on this camera should once again be ignored since it is wrong.

Other visitors included a night-time turkey and a daytime raccoon.

This week, I'm fairly busy with work, but am planning on making it out to Lucketts, Va to put up a camera on a new piece of property.  There are also plans to do another trip out to Leesburg, Va to check cameras and deploy 4 more cameras, fix the otter den camera in Great Falls, Va, and possibly (if there is any time at all left), head back out to Bluemont, Va to check the bear camera once again.

Sterling, Va cameras will be checked next week along with 2 more Great Falls cameras in a meadow.  The latter part of next week will be spent working and checking 2 cameras that I set out in Arlington, Va.

 

Bear Claw Markings

I'll make this blog posting a short one about a tree that I know of.  Thanks to Mike and Ron for telling me about this tree and for giving me trail directions to it!


Who:  A black bear
Where:  Western Loudoun County, Virginia
What:  Beech tree marked by a black bear
Why:  To claim a territory or sharpen claws.
When:  Possibly 2-3 years ago.

Weasel or Squirrel?

I'm going through a few received pictures from my trail cams and I get to these two images of a small mammal in the small beech tree on the right. My first thought is that it is just another squirrel, but then I realized the bright patch of white, the tail, and the posture of a weasel.

These images aren't at all fantastic, I know, but  this camera is set again at the same spot and another is now placed near it.  Hopefully more (and clearer) results will come in next week when the cameras are checked again.  The date-stamp on these pictures is not correct, but the time is.

Here's a cropped version:  It still seems kind of squirrel like, but that white patch all the way up to its chin tells me it is not a squirrel.  Squirrels do have a whitish color on their bellies and necks, but the color on this animal is bright white and goes the whole way along the underside of the animal. The tail hanging down is a bit bushy for a weasel, but long and thin for an eastern gray squirrel.

What do you think?  Is it a squirrel? Am I completely missing something?  Email me or comment below.

In Search of the Piebalds

Two piebald deer live within a very short range of where some of my cameras are placed and where I work.  

They are masters at avoiding the cameras though.

When I first saw them last year, I thought the two white-colored mammals were goats, but you better believe they were piebald deer.  Today, they were both together on the side of the road near an entrance to my place of work, working their tongues and teeth on a tasty patch of grass.  I halted the car and did a weird little jig to get my cell phone out of my pocket for a picture.  In that time, the deer had put their heads up and trotted off into the green curtain of the forest.

I assume they are not big fans of the local paparazzi, especially that of the camera-trapper kind.

They are actually white-tailed deer but with a coat of white, brown, and tan patches.  A genetic variation causes this coloring and is quite rare in deer.  In fact, these are the only piebald deer that I have ever seen.  

I have learned the term "piebald" for this color variation, but have also heard to them referred to as pinto and calico patterned.

It's time to rethink the location of a trail-cam, place it closer to where I have seen these deer multiple times, and actually get them on camera now.

Great Falls Camera Check

There's multiple cameras working for me right now in Great Falls, Virginia.  I switch these ones around a lot to try to get different animals in different settings.  I recently moved some of them off an otter den to put in other parts of the woods.

One of these cameras, I decided, would be placed along a small stream in a forested area of hickories, oaks, and beech trees.

I had some help placing this camera with friend, and local blogger, Nick.  He's got a great blog that covers his views and opinions on sports.  It was good catching up with him and I thank him for coming along and helping me out. See the sports action that he covers here:  http://nickdemottsports.wordpress.com/.

We talked blogging, sports, and wildlife while wading through some ferns off-trail.  Eventually, we got to a decent spot for a camera.  Batteries were checked, an SD card was slipped in, and the camera was propped up on a tree.

It sat there for a week and got a few videos of deer walking by, and that's it.  I was really surprised to see only deer videos, since the small stream a few yards away was pocked with tracks of raccoons, muskrats, and squirrels.

I'm better off putting this camera back at the otter den again.

Kayak Camera: Trip 1

I was not alone on my solo kayaking excursion today.  You're never alone in the outdoors around here.  Mosquitoes and flies are constantly battling your swatting arms, birds are whizzing by, and snakes are hiding among the thousands of species of flora and fauna that may be within a few hundred yards of you.

To get away from the fast water, I hit this calm stretch of a creek for a few minutes.

Today's kayaking was to relax and to get some pictures of, well, basically anything I could find, including animals and the scene.

A kayak is not the best place to have electronics, so I left my camera at home. If kayaking has taught me one thing, it is limit the amount of items on board, because I will spill from time to time.  If being in the outdoors has taught me one thing, it is that a camera is almost a necessity.  I have had so many missed opportunities while being outside without a camera, so I bought a waterproof plastic case last year that houses my cell phone (and of course, its built in camera) while on a boat.  The goals here are to protect my camera from the water, to capture as many great shots as possible with it, and to not miss anything.

I missed a lot today though with it.  It's tough to whip out a phone in a case, that is in your pocket, while you are sitting in the tiny cockpit of a kayak, while your body struggles to keep balance in the dips the ripples that make up the Potomac River.  It's a hard task

I heard a great blue heron's mad call from about 30 yards ahead.  It flew away quickly without giving me a chance to fish my pockets for the phone's case for a photo opportunity.  I paddled upstream farther, seeing a large cormorant on a rock.  I got close to it, really close.  There was time to get the phone out of the case that was now sitting in between my knees in the cockpit.

The kayak moved downstream about 5 feet in the time it took me to balance my body, balance the paddle, get in my pocket, grab the case, open the case, and turn the phone's camera setting to the "on" position.  I put the camera down, now exposing it to the air (and possibly water, if I capsized), grabbed the paddles again, and worked fast to gain the 5 feet that I lost when the kayak became a subject of the swift current a few seconds earlier.

I couldn't believe how close to this bird I was, and just as soon as I thought that, it flew away.  I was maybe 2 seconds away from taking its picture, and it was gone.  On to the next subjects!

By this time, a friend of mine was on the water as well.  He came up to me and we shared stories of the river, work, and animals.   We came up to a large slab of stone.  It was composed mostly of metagraywacke (if you even care to know about that sort of thing).  A large northern water snake was basking the stone's silvery surface.  We saw one more on it, then another, then another!  There were 4 snakes on it in total, 1 moved off and glided into the water.  Another snake got spooked as well, and moved towards our kayaks that were now touching the rock.  The beast went right on my friend's kayak, but didn't go near the cockpit or his body, and eventually went into the water when the kayak made menacingly wicked turns and clunked along another rock.

Northern water snake on the top, left of this rock.

Another snake on the rock heard the commotion and slid into the water as well.  I took a few pictures of the remaining water snake, and it too, slid off the rock and into the quick waters of the Potomac.



We passed by turtles, more cormorants, and about a half-dozen or so squawking, great blue herons. The biggest disappointment of the day came from missing a picture of a bald eagle that flew right above us.

If that is the biggest disappointment of the day, then I still call the day a success.  It was a nice day kayaking with the thousands of species of animals that call this area home.

A small, serene tributary of the Potomac River.