Virginia is For Fox Lovers

Nothing strikes the hearts of Northern Virginia's suburbanites more than baby red foxes.  It's incredible how much interest there is in these animals.

Foxes are cool, and lots of people are enthusiastic about seeing red foxes in their neighborhood, but when the bright eyed, curious babies come out in late April, people go absolutely wild for these things like you wouldn't believe.

It was a bit of a goal of mine to capture some of them of, at least one of my camera traps this year, as I did fairly well with footage last year (The Best Fox Kit Pictures So Far- 2014 ).  Emails have been pouring in with unconfirmed leads of the whereabouts of fox dens, and I have worked so hard with landowners, parks staff, and other naturalists to try to provide everyone with some interesting photos (and video!).  One lead from Northern Virginia was clearly the best one that I have ever had.  It's amazing, it's a secret location, and I can't thank the colleague and friend of mine who led me down the right path to this one, enough.

As previously stated in an earlier blog post (Fooled and Fooled Again), the amount of groundhog dens that were fooling me and my colleagues was getting high.

Discouraging, might be the best word to describe this whole situation of not finding any fox dens.

Amazed, would be the word to describe my thoughts when first seeing this footage.

It's only fitting that I release these now on the blog.

These were posted on Facebook, and one specific video almost went viral, being shared many times, and generating a huge interest in camera trapping and wildlife.

I have seen both the mother and father on camera and in person.  4 individual kits (fox babies) have been identified, so in total, they are a family of 6.  Each kit has a different personality, and it is quite an experience watching the videos of all of them nursing, playing, fighting, and yelling.

As you can see in the second picture above, the kits are only eating the milk provided by their mother.  This will last for a little while, until eventually they ween themselves onto a diet of rodents, birds, snakes, berries, carrion, and much, much more.

Pictures like these are ones that a Northern Virginia naturalist and camera trapper dreams of, and I thank you for visiting this site to enjoy them as well.

Where the Bear Was

Ed Felker joined me on a short hike to track a bear through the woods yesterday.  Ed is another outdoor blogger with a great site at http://dispatchesfromthepotomac.com/ .  He's got some amazing pictures and a fantastic way of writing about what he sees. We've been conversing about hunting stories, coyote sightings, and hikes lately, so it was only fitting that we'd get the chance to meet up on the trail. We pussyfooted around logs and dense brush, while throwing in all sorts of outdoorsmen lingo to make it a great day.

I took him directly to where a nice black bear was frequenting in Loudoun County, Virginia.  In some spots, 4-6 inches of snow was still on the ground.  With the extremely cold temps that we've been experiencing lately, the fresh tracks barely melted away at all.  The definitions of toe pads, palm pads, and even claws were incredibly preserved.

Pictures and measurements were taken.

I'll share this one, but if you want to see more, check out Ed's blog post about it here: Bear Tracks.

Black bear tracks in Sterling, Virginia.

Camera-Trapping Program

I'll make this one short and sweet!

In March of this year, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy will be hosting program titled "Wildlife Camera-Trapping Program and Field Trip".

Location:  Morven Park,  Leesburg, Virginia
Date:  March 7, 2015
Time:  2 P.M.
What to bring:  Hiking boots or shoes that can get muddy.

You are all invited come to this FREE program where I will be speaking about local camera-trapping projects, ecology, citizen science, and northern Virginia's natural world.

There will of course be an outdoor field portion of this program.

Did I mention it's FREE?!

You can sign up here :  Wildlife Camera-Trapping Program .

Hope to see you there!

Bear Broken Camera

It's always a fight against the black bears when you've got cameras in the woods.

They get a lot more curious then some other animals, and their natural curiosity can be a problem.

This camera was torn down and ripped apart by a black bear.  Its casing was broken, the screen cracked, and batteries torn out.

All that was left at the scene was a single, decent bear print, and leaves thrown all over where the bear sat around or dug up something to eat.

The Ants Go Marching

A coworker helped me with some cameras today and found one completely covered in ants.

Upon closer inspection, ants had completely invaded the entire interior of the camera-trap.  We spent a good hour opening up the camera, unscrewing screws, cleaning it out, and putting it back together.

We completed our "Camera-Trap Surgery" in the field as we swatted away maybe 25 mosquitoes and picked off ticks of our legs.  The ants had made an entire food storage type of room in the camera along with an egg holding cell.  It was rough, but we managed to save the camera and found that no electrical components had been badly damaged.

We checked the SD card on a laptop in the field as well, but only found a few pictures of a red fox and raccoons.

But hey, you can't win with bears, coyotes, and other "crowd pleasers" every day.  It was still a good day out on the trails, and I thank him greatly for helping me today.

Denning Season

It's denning season for the canids of Virginia.  That means that I'll be spending some time tracking fox, coyote, and other footprints through the mud and snow to help me find these dens.  When I find one, a camera will be going up.

Here's a good one that I found yesterday.  You can tell by the amount of footprints and kicked dirt around it that it is very active.

I used extreme care and caution not to get too close or disturb the animals that may be living in there.

Here's to hoping for pups or kits of fox or coyote this spring!

Beavers on the Goose

"The Goose".  It's how a few of us who camera-trap refer to Goose Creek.

Goose Creek is a state scenic  river that runs through Leesburg, Va and flows into the Potomac River.

I put a few cameras up last week right near the banks of Goose Creek near beaver chewed trees.

The results are great.

As you can see, the beavers are hard at work. 

For now, the cameras have been taken down.  They were just to0 visible to have there for too long.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's no way this blog is having a Thanksgiving themed post without a picture of a camera-trapped, wild turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

Surveying Places for Surveying Owls

Small mammal skulls found in Silo #1.

I'm on a mission to photograph and survey all owls in one specific area in Loudoun County, Virginia.  To do this, I am in the process right now of finding places where owls live and are seen most often.  This means a bit of dirty work with other wildlife professionals.

The dirty work comes from dangers of being in old barns and silos.  Steel-toed boots, masks, rubber gloves, and hardhats were put on, and we headed to work today in Leesburg, Virginia.

The first site we hit is a place that I am now calling Silo #1.  Silo #1 is full of owl pellets and the remains of thousands of shrews, moles, mice, and voles.  The bottom of it really is a place of death for small mammals.

Barn owl feathers also blanketed the lowest parts of the inside of the silo.


Barn owl feather found in Silo #1.

A camera-trap was placed at the bottom of the silo to photograph owls (and other animals) that may be coming in or out.  As the camera was being placed, a pair of barn owls flew in from the top of the silo.  The camera is way out of the way of any nesting site used by the owls so as to not disturb them, but I am hoping I get at least a few shots of them flying by or perching somewhere.

The next destination was a small shed where owls had been seen perching in the past few months.  There were no visible signs of owls there now though.

After the small shed, we decided that we would head to was a barn that I am calling on this blog, The Widow-Maker Barn.  The Widow-Maker Barn gave me the uncomfortable feel of being way to dangerous to get near.  Some parts of it had collapsed, and swarms of bees were entering through a small opening at the bottom.  You won't find me inside of this barn anytime soon.  A camera-trap was placed outside of the barn, about 12 feet up in a tree that faces a large hole at the top of the barn.  Any owls that go in or out should still be camera-trapped.

So there you have it, the first two owl survey areas are Silo #1 and The Widow-Maker Barn.

Bear Blogging

Black bears are roaming around all the time.  It's hard for me to tell exactly where they'll be since they move so quickly and can cover a huge area of land in just a day.

Today, it was obvious that a bear had been around one of my cameras.  There were scratches and paw prints all over the area.  Walnuts from a nearby tree were smashed open and I could just tell the area was messed with by something big.

Of course the time stamp is wrong.  Even if I switch the camera to the correct date, it still seems to go wrong when the camera enters "sleep" mode.

Landscapes of Leesburg, Moving Cameras, and Bear Claw Marks

The pictures below show some of the landscapes and habitats that make up the wildest parts of Leesburg, Virginia located in Loudoun County.

One area in particular (which I will keep somewhat a secret for now) offers grasslands full of shrubs, deep forests, and meadows that contain beautiful goldenrod flowers.

It really is a cam-trappers and wildlife enthusiast's heaven.  There are bears that filter in an out, coyotes screaming across the meadows, and hawks that patrol the skies.

I've got a lot of cameras in these areas and have had a few there for some time now.  Hopefully more animals will get a photo or two taken of them.

The cameras that were up here were taken to different spots today to see if that makes any difference in the results.  While placing the cameras in their newest spots, I found myself staring at this beech tree.

Yeah, those are bear claw markings!  Although it is the same species of tree and in the same general area as a tree that I posted about months ago (see: Bear Claw Markings ), it is definitely a different tree with a different set of black bear marks on it.

Results from the cameras that I put all over Leesburg should pour in shortly, but for now, it's time for me to get some rest for tomorrow when I do it all over again in a different place.

7 Raccoons

Usually I don't enjoy raccoon images that come up after every time camera-traps are checked since I get so many of them, but these images are unusual.  There are 7 raccoons in the pictures.  I've never seen this many on camera before.  

They're all hanging out and feasting on the remains of a deer that I found at that exact spot.  They could also be eating the massive amount of insects that are feasting on the deer remains.  Either way, it's interesting to see so many raccoons.

These pictures are only 2 of the 9,800 that I have to check soon.

Camera-Trapping in a Tick Safari

Ticks are somewhere on the very top of my list of the most annoying animals on the planet.  Those blood suckers are crawling all over the woods around Virginia this time of year.  They're out in the millions.  It's incredibly annoying to get to some of my camera-trap sites now because when I come back from them, I know a good chunk of time will be spent checking my body for ticks.

Half of the time, I just feel them crawling on me, but the other half can be anywhere on my skin.  It really is bad around here this time of year.  The woodiest and most natural areas turn into something that I have been known to call "Tick Safaris".

Even with the ticks attacking, cameras still need to be checked.

A few days ago, I went out with one of the volunteers and did some good wildlife research by camera-trap. She didn't seem to be too bothered by the crazy number of ticks around us.  I admit though, I was a bit bothered.

We moved into some swarming patches of Japanese stiltgrass and got to work.   The typical acts of checking and changing things in the camera were done.  Results were checked on the computer.  One of my favorites came from one that we placed near a stream where rocks had been place to dampen the effects of faster water.  Red foxes seemed to like this spot, and of course, had built a den near it a few months ago.

In other news, I saw a black bear today in Fairfax County.  I'll do a blog post on that shortly but I'm first waiting for cameras in that area to be checked to see if it came up on any of them.  Also today, I saw 3 fox kits playing on a baseball field and a pair of pileated woodpeckers bolting from tree to tree in Sterling, Virginia.