Snowy Owling

The snowy owls are all over now.  They've come from Canada and other places in the extreme north to visit for the winter.

Photo credit:  Hayley Ake

This year, the owls have come more south than in the past few years.  It's all part of the Snowy Owl Irruption.

I've seen a few of these owls in the past few months, and have been on the hunt to view them with my girlfriend since we heard of the first sighting around here.

These beasts hang out at local airports because the mowed grass and vast fields of airport lands are VERY similar to the landscape of the tundra where these owls come from.

They are experts at living in this weather and above lands with short vegetation.

Springfield Mall, Fairfax County, Virginia was the most recent place where we went to go see a Snowy.  People were lined up with binoculars and scopes, trying to peer at the owl.  It made for a great experience, especially when mall shoppers, children, and joggers came by and asked about what everyone was looking at.  The expert birders told them, and everyone seemed to have an extreme interest in these birds

These owls should be around for another month or so before they venture back towards Canada.  I'll be looking for them during this whole time.

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.

Foxes During the Day

Even though this part of Virginia has been facing temperatures in the single digits lately, the red fox foxes are jumping in front of the cameras in the daytime more than ever before.

Why is this? Well, I think there are two reasons.  

Here's the first reason:

Foxes don't like to be around humans, at least for the most part.  They tend to shy away from us and that's the way it should be.  

Since there are less people walking around parks (or other places that I have cameras) during the winter, foxes may be more comfortable with coming out in the day.  

More foxes out during the day means more chances of camera-trap images of them in the day.

Here's the other reason:

Winter this year has been cold.  Very cold. For the past few days, temperatures have barely been able to make it higher than the 20 degree fahrenheit mark.  

These temperatures have been warmer than nighttime temperatures, which have gotten as low as 2 degrees. 

Foxes would prefer to be out in the warmer part of each day than out in the middle of the night.  This increases the chances of getting red foxes on camera in the daytime as well.

Do Hawks Scavenge In Winter?

The simple answer to the title question is: Yes, hawks scavenge in winter.  In fact, winter is the only time that I have gotten camera-trap images of hawks scavenging.

I'm not saying that hawks don't ever scavenge in other times of the year, but I find it really interesting how often they do in the winter months.

This red-shouldered hawk is just absolutely beautiful.  It came up to a deer carcass and didn't seem to mind the crows that were also there.   The crows didn't seem to mind the hawk there, and they all ate without fighting at all.

The above picture is another red-shouldered hawk at a different camera that I put out.  These cameras were about a quarter mile apart.  Could this be the same hawk?

Here are a few other pictures of it.  The pictures are a bit blurry due to condensation on the lense.

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 Real Stinker

Let's all take a minute to appreciate the skunks of Northern Virginia.

One of my biggest surprises so far in my experiences of camera-trapping has actually been a lack of skunks.  This is only my third event of getting a skunk on camera in all of northern Virginia, ever.

I know there are many of them around because I see them walking in the daytime, see them dead on the road, smell them in the air frequently, and see them at least once a week in my backyard in the summer,

So why are skunks so camera shy?   Well,  I don't really know.  I never thought it would be this hard to get a skunk on camera in the woods at night.

Arctic Camera Trapping in Virginia

It's cold out in Virginia (and will be for the next two days).  Tomorrow's wind-chill will make it feel somewhere around -16 degrees Fahrenheit.

What this means for camera-trapping is that the cameras might not even be working.  The components within the camera may freeze, electric circuits may short out, and the batteries may freeze up.  We'll see.  It's hit or miss when it comes to the batteries of trail cameras working in real cold.  Sometimes they work fine, sometimes not at all.

Recently, a lot of batteries have "frozen up", which is why there are no trail camera results pictures in this post.  So you'll have to manage with a picture of what a camera-trapper (or any sane person that spends a lot of time in the outdoors) will look like tomorrow.

Taking Chances in the Snow

Snow is on the ground and hope is in my mind for more "Fox in Snow" camera-trap images.  See a previous example of a "Fox in the Snow" image in White Snow for White Legs .

The better part of yesterday was spent hiking, birding, and camera-trapping around in the white stuff.  I was in search of more places to set up the cams.  The big problem with this though, is that I put up expensive equipment in the middle of the woods, out of view of anybody, with my footprints very well defined in the snow.

It's a risk, I know.

If somebody really wants to follow me off trail to see what I was doing, they can.  I tried to be good about it though.  When possible I rerouted myself, walked across logs, and walked on places of high grass so that my footprints would be harder to track.

In addition to this, windy conditions last night blew up the "dry" powdery snow and hopefully covered my tracks a little better. 

If I didn't risk these cameras often to poachers, off-trail walkers, teenagers, bears, rising waters, and the weather, then I probably would have very few pictures and this blog wouldn't exist.