Watch Them Grow

Antlers are one of the most fascinating things to watch grow on camera traps.  Each week, the deciduous growths on white-tailed deer bucks get bigger and bigger, sometimes growing more points as the summer goes on.

My buddy Peter and I have been using camera traps recently to do a bit of a deer survey on his property in Loudoun County.  We'll be counting deer for at least the next few weeks, and hopefully we will capture a coyote or two on camera as well.

The antlers almost never look the same in spring as they do the following winter.  They just grow so fast, in all sorts of shapes and directions.  I'm fascinated by that.

Peter was really excited to get this buck on camera, as he is both an avid conservationist and a hunter.  If we keep recapturing the same individual, I hope to put a video compilation together of all the images, showing the growth of the antlers throughout the summer.

That's a bit far in advance though, and completely depends on this buck coming up at least once a week, but you never know what could happen.

We also captured a fawn (baby white-tailed deer) on camera a few times, though it has only been photogenic once or twice during the day.

Fooled and Fooled Again

While a lot of the camera traps that I use are for scientific surveys and owned by parks, nature preserves, and various parks/wildlife agencies, I tend keep a bunch for myself that are owned by me.

These ones are moved often, as they do not fit into a scientific proposal or specific project.  It's a sort of freedom that I really enjoy.  With these though, I like to challenge myself to get really cool stuff coming across the cameras.

This year, I've been all about the fox dens.  Last year's fox kit pictures and blog posts turned out phenomenal and I'm really hoping I can get something similar this year.  It takes a lot of work and time to search for fox dens, but it could prove to be really useful in the end.  Emails and messages have been flying around like crazy and many miles have been walked, in search for the holes made by these small canids.

There always seems to be a bit of a debate as to whether a hole or den site belongs to a fox or a groundhog, and while I've spent the past few years studying them, reading up on them, and tagging along with others in the field with various animal dens, I still have not perfected the art of determining what is a fox den and what is a groundhog den.

The phrase "Brian, you should know this stuff."  commonly pops up into my head, upon visiting each den site.  It's interesting though and makes this sort of fun.

Young groundhog in a "prairie dog" type of stance in Lovettsville, VA.

Don't worry though, I know the "textbook" definition of a fox den and a groundhog den, but that is just what it is.  Generally, groundhog dens are a bit differently shaped than fox dens and dirt may be thrown out of each hole in a different pattern with each species.  They both can be commonly built on berms or small hillsides either in the middle of the woods or in meadows.

To me, the easy way to tell if a fox has been in a den is to put my face near it and take a whiff of the air.  If it smells like fox urine (a pungent smell that is similar to skunk spray), a fox has usually been there.  To make this even more complicated though, is to add the fact that a fox could have been hunting a baby groundhog, co-habitating (living with) the groundhog, or just marking the territory nearby.

I've been fooled with this time after time.  This year has been the epitome of me getting fooled by foxes and groundhogs, and just when I think I've got an active den with fox kits, a groundhog will appear.

It's a bit discouraging, but it's all part of camera trapping.

Resident groundhog from Loudoun County, VA from this past March.

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!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Like two fat kids fighting over the last piece of pie, these two hawks were all about getting the last bite of a good meal.  This meal was that of a dead deer though, in Leesburg, VA.

The real point of putting the camera-trap over a deer body was to see if any coyotes were around.  They were not.

Black vultures, crows, ravens, and hawks filled up multiple SD cards here though with over 25,000 images taken over a period of three weeks.

Check out the hawk acrobatics below!

In usual "Brian Fashion" the time/date stamp was set incorrectly.

Alyssa's Alligator Video

Fellow wildlife blogger and camera-trap inspiration, Alyssa Johnson captured one amazing video a few days ago.

Whether it was being in the right place at the right time, her wildlife expertise, or just dumb luck, she captured a video of a domestic cat looking very curious towards a body of water.  An alligator jumps out of the water to attack the cat.

It's videos like this that inspired me to even getting into camera-trapping on a large-scale.

She calls it the "Best camera trap video of all time", and I can personally confirm that it is nothing less than that.

It's crazy.  Give her blog a view, give the video a view, and leave a comment.

See it here:   Alyssa's Alligator Video

All work, images, and video are of Alyssa Johnson.

"10 Point"

I commonly give nicknames to wildlife.  I've been told not to do this for the point of becoming attached to a specific individual and also because I'll most likely see their dead bodies splattered on the paved roads of Northern Virginia, but hey, nicknames make wildlife viewing a bit more exciting.

"White Legs", "Scarface",  and "1 Stripe" are just a few of the nicknames given to individual animals that either come up on trail cameras or are commonly seen by coworkers in my parks and wildlife jobs.

Here's another one for everyone that's been called  "10 Point".  10 Point is an impressive male, white-tailed deer.  It's easy to identify him because of his impressive rack that contains 10 tines.

Who knows whether or not he'll make it to the end of Northern Virginia's extensive hunting seasons.

Summer Fawn

Spring is done and summer is upon the people and wildlife of Virginia.  We've had a couple of really hot and humid days here already, and today wasn't much of an exception.

The heat has begun, and the white-tailed does are out in full force eating grasses in meadows and tomato plants in your suburban garden.  

That's alright though because the does are working hard to produce enough nourishment for the fawns that have recently been born.

Even though northern Virginia has a ridiculous amount of white-tailed deer, it still is always satisfying to see fawns growing up throughout the rest of the year.

No Surprise

Usually I have absolutely no idea what will be recorded on a camera-trap's SD card each time I check it, but sometimes I can tell exactly what will probably come up on some of the images.

This happens in the case of skunks.  Naturally, I have a very strong nose, which I consider to be a very good thing for working in parks and wildlife.  Skunks leave a trail of stink wherever they go and have gotten pretty darn good at tracking and trailing them.

I knew exactly what I was going to find on the camera's SD card this time, because as soon as I got close to the camera, I could smell the skunk spray from the previous night.

Here's a photo of the mini stinker.

Deer Carcassing

Dedicated blog readers should know that I love a good deer carcass- for camera-trapping purposes of course.

The deer carcass in Leesburg, VA has been out for months and is STILL getting amazing results from scavenging critters.   Here's a few photos from the last batch that you should see.

Crows, ravens, vultures, and american kestrels are gorging on not only the remains, but also on the beetles that are feasting on the deer.

Red Fox Irony

Ironic how a day after I write a post titled "Where are the fox kits?", I check a camera and get some decent pictures of fox kits.

These were taken in Great Falls, Virginia and seem to be the first time the kits have ever ventured outside their den.  There has been a camera here for about 2 weeks, but yesterday, the babies came out to enjoy some good weather.

The date/time stamp was set wrong (my fault, sorry fellow blog readers), but I can assure you that these were taken yesterday, April 27th, 2014.

These kits are red foxes but they don't look resemble their parents completely.  Through the next weeks and months, their fur will become more orange, their bodies will fill out, and the entire animal will become an efficient machine that excels at catching mice and voles.

These ones are no bigger around the size of my shoe (size 10 in case you were wondering).

Another camera was put up in the opposing direction of the den to get more photos.

Cardinal on Camera

A few days ago, I had a special guest from WAMU 88.5 (Washington, D.C.'s NPR Station) come out and set cameras with me.  I've been out with a NPR reporter before doing a story, and I enjoying showing these representatives of the media what I do and what camera-trapping is all about.

Chris came to a local park and hiked around in the mud and trails while asking questions.  It was a good day to be out and about.  We set up 5 cameras along deer trails, near fox dens, and a few other places.

I had to take one of the cameras down right away because I was told that somebody already found it in the woods.  I didn't want it stolen, so it came down that day.  The other cameras though have been up for a few days and continue to be up.  I took one down today and checked the SD card.

Results were not phenomenal, but I was happy to see a Northern Cardinal fly down in front of the camera for a few seconds.

Cardinals are very common in Virginia and always seem to be the delight of nature watchers, families, and anyone who comes to local parks to hike or picnic.  They are a such a vibrant bird and the males are very hard to miss in any season.

These birds do not lose their summer feathers or molt into a completely different color when seasons change.  The males usually stay a bright red, while females almost always contain reds, grays, and browns.

The cardinal in the camera-trap video was not baited in or scented in at all.  It just happened by pure luck that a camera was there when the cardinal landed on the ground.

A Shenandoah Hike and a Fairfax County Camera Check

Today was a great day for hiking and camera checking.  The trails of Shenandoah National Park were calling my name and I had to get out there on this day off of work and school.  There was still some snow on the ground from previous storms but today was about 58 degrees and decently sunny.

It was a great hike that led us down the trail to a great basalt rock formation. . .

. . .and a large ice formation left over from this winter's coldest days.

It was a good day to just get out and enjoy the outdoors.

Another highlight of the day came from when checking a camera-trap in Chantilly after the hike.

Cats, dogs, coyotes, cardinals, humans, red foxes, and raccoons all came by the camera.

Here's the best picture of a Chantilly Coyote.

Wildlife Experiences

In the past two weeks I've been experiencing wildlife in incredible ways.  I've been trying to blog but have not had much time to check as many cameras as usual, but that short break of blogging ends now, and I'll be checking at least 12 cameras tomorrow.

During this little break, I've had some amazing wildlife experiences.  Here's a little list of what I've done and seen in the past 2 weeks.

• Saw a coyote on a deer kill in Reston, Virginia.
• Presented at the Virginia Chapter Meeting of The Wildlife Society.
• Compared data and conversed with the leading biologist of the Smithsonian about camera traps that he had in Virginia. 
• Camera-trapped some kind of weasel.  I am still in the process of identifying it but will post about it shortly.
• Talked with other camera-trappers of Virginia Tech, Ferrum College, and Radford University.
• Saw a bald eagle pick off a Canada goose on the Potomac River.  The fight only lasted a few seconds.
• Got a new camera-trap location in Falls Church, Virginia
• Supposedly had another bear attack a camera yesterday.  I'll be checking that camera tomorrow to see the damage.

It's crazy to think how all of these wildlife experiences all started with me putting up a single camera in a local park, just over a year ago.

Opossum Vs. Skunk

A skunk is not something most creatures would want to mess with.  It's an experience that could lead to scratches, bites, and of course, a smell like no other.

There's only one clear picture of the ordeal, but it shows the real attitude of these two animals.  This is one brave opossum, folks.

The skunk seemed to be the winner and continued eating for 34 minutes after this.

A Camera-Trapping Grinch

I'd love to have been able to share the most recent camera-trap photos but there are none to show  because of another missing camera.

It was placed in central New Jersey on Thanksgiving Day by myself and other family members.  The plan was to pick it up on Christmas Day.

Of course it wasn't there yesterday when we went to check it. 

It now probably lies in the hands of a criminal.

We walked around in both the daytime and once it got dark, to look for it in case somebody put it up somewhere different,  but we had no luck.

Thanks Camera-Trapping Grinches.

Deer Mingling

It's that time of year again in Virginia.  A time when the white-tailed bucks get curious.

For the past few months, big bucks have been seen hanging out with each other.  Soon, mating season will be upon them, and during that time, these bucks will be in strict competition with one another.

For now though, they still seem to be civil.

Mingling with the does has started though.  A  buck kissing (or possibly smelling) a doe was caught on my camera a few days ago.