Wood Turtles

I was going to write up a detailed post about wood turtles a little bit ago from one of my little side adventures, but figured this even shorter post would be a lot better.

I'll post this link to Ed Felker's website called Dispatches from the Potomac.  It's a great blog, has phenomenal photos, and even better writing.  I could be biased though, as it's operated by my buddy and fellow conservationist, Ed Felker.  Either way,  I think his works and writings always are top of the line for what him and I do.   It really is great stuff!

Ed and I did some wood turtle finding this summer, read all about it and about wood turtles here: Virginia's Threatened Wood Turtle .

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.

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.

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.

Fishing While Waiting for the Cameras

With all of the cameras out in full force this past week, I've had none to check for a few days (for once).  I'm letting them all sit out there for at least a few days so that my human scent gets washed away from them after a few rains.  Also, an army of volunteers has been helping me check them, so I'm waiting on a few emails with some great results from the cameras.

In the meantime, I've been on the water fishing a lot for work and play purposes.  Here are some of my best fishing pictures from the past week.

19-20 inch smallmouth bass caught on a tube-lure.

Striped bass caught on live-lined spot on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Thanks For The Extra Help

This one goes out to the people who have helped me out the most with my outdoor and wildlife endeavors. This blog has so much more in store for you and for the rest of the world

Thanks to my parents for giving me advice on where to put cameres.  Through many walks in the same lands that I camera-trap in, they see things that I don't see.  They have also given me materials, helped with the building of things, given great advice, and even gave me my own camera-trap as a Christmas gift last Christmas.

Thanks to all the volunteers who regularly check cameras, record data, and give me company on hikes and walks to the cameras.  It's really nice getting out with everyone on the trails but also seeing the excitement through emails when we share photos and data.

Thanks to my fellow employees for telling me about every animal they see on a daily basis and for being interested in what I am doing.  Thanks to them for the great advice on where to put cameras, for helping me drag canoes and row-boats to good camera-trap areas, and for giving me even more connections to local public land managers where I am able to do this research in.

Thanks to some of my professors in college who have wildlife, biology, or anatomy backgrounds.  The experience that they bring to my research and hobby of camera-trapping is infectious and helps drastically.

Thanks to homeowners that border the areas where cameras are located.  These people live right there with the animals that I see.  Without their tips and stories, camera-trapping would be a little less interesting and more difficult.  The best stories come from  the people who have had their garbage cans raided by bears, trash thrown by raccoons, and driveways bombarded with scat of all types.

Thanks to the homeowners who let me put up cameras on their property.  Most of the work I do with the cameras is in local parks and public lands, but for my own cameras, I like to search around the area and ask people I know if I can put on up on their land just to see what's lurking where they live.

Thanks to the park managers who give me permission to use cameras on the properties they manage.  Going to all these parks is a thrilling experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.  Thanks to them for being so interested in what I'm doing, for the advice, the park stories that range from bear sightings to risque teenager encounters in the woods, and for the permissions to use vehicles to access the cameras easier.  It's a great experience to hike around to all the cameras so that I can see more things along the way, but in a time crunch or a day that takes me to 3 or more parks, a vehicle for trails is necessary.  I have checked cameras by means of kayaks, canoes, a powerboat, an atv, numerous golf carts, John Deere gators, trail vehicles, cars, vans, pickup trucks, and even a mountain bike that one of the parks owns.

Thanks to other camera-trappers and wildlife researchers who have brought a whole wealth of information regarding trail cameras, animals, lands, weather, terrain, and general research techniques.

Thanks to other bloggers in the wildlife and outdoors fields.  It's tough to keep up with so many different blogs but I have a select few that I read on an almost daily basis.  Also thanks to local bloggers, whether you write about wildlife or not, I have such an interest in what you have to say about the community that I live in.

Thanks to my grandparents and family who support the blog and are regular visitors.  Thanks to my friends as well, I hope you all have begun to catch some type of wildlife fever with me.

And thanks to you, the blog reader.  Without you, why would I even be writing all this?  Thanks for supporting the blog, for the comments, the advice, the arguments you bring to the table, the interest, and the views to this website.  Writing this blog for the past few months has been an incredible experience and I'm glad that I get to share it with you and the world.

I can't wait to see what the camera-traps and outdoors have in store next for the me.  Keep checking back and you will see what most people in the area don't get to see at all.

Switchback Turkeys

Raccoons will touch the camera, open the camera, and even try to take the camera home.

Foxes will bark at it and shy away from it.

Bears get curious around it and may even tear it down (going to do a post on the "Broken Camera" shortly).

Turkeys. . well . . turkeys are a whole lot different around the camera.  27 out of 31 turkeys that have shown up on my camera do the exact same thing.

They realize the camera is there from a distance of about 3 to 15 meters away and will creep up towards it. It's not a straight walk to the camera though, it's a time consuming trot that takes the turkey on a winding path to the front of camera until I get a picture like this, where the animal is comfortably close:

Winding back and forth from 2 to 6 times, the turkey makes a lot of switchbacks until it gets right up to the camera. It will go from left to right, onward past the camera, then back in front of the camera from right to left, over and over again.

The beast then stares the camera-trap right in the eye (lens), and then goes off to something else.

It's weird.   Is the turkey scared of the shiny object in the woods?  Is this what turkeys always do with predators, other turkeys, or metal boxes?  Is this what they always do when curious?  So many questions.

This camera has been set to its video mode so it can better record this behavior.  More results should pour in, in about 2 weeks.

Another camera about 30 miles from this one may be checked tomorrow.  The heat and humidity of Virginia this week has not stopped checking camera-traps yet.

Fields of Gold

This blog is not about to turn into a daily outdoors journal for the D.C. area, even though I do record some photos and happenings of my experiences outside in this blog.  With this post (and the kayak ones), it would be a shame not to share some of these pictures.

Many of the trail cameras are still working hard getting me those pictures that I always post on here, but I have taken a few days off of checking the images.

During this lull of camera-trap images, I've gone kayaking, hiking, and touring the area with friends and family.  My most recent excursion led me north into Maryland to see large sunflower fields planted in McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area.

It was a long drive (about 50 minutes) for the amount of time spent there, but seeing fields bursting with color to this extent is something I had to do at least once.  It also gave me an excuse to do something interesting on my day off of work and camera checking.

Tomorrow, I'm back at work, back at camera-trapping, and back to the daily grind.  I can hardly wait to see what results the camera-traps will bring next.

Kayak Camera: Trip 3

I scouted out some new camera-trap locations along the river today and found myself getting lost in this sunset while out on a kayak.

Few words are really necessary for this post.  Enjoy the pictures, folks.

Bluemont Camera Gets Taken Down

The camera that was in Bluemont is now sitting on my counter at home.  It needs new batteries, a few tests, and a new location.

It did well in the mountains, enduring all of the spring's heavy winds and rains. 

There's nothing wrong with it though.  It's just time for a move.

This is the camera that provided me with a few bear pictures (see More Bears), and many pictures of raccoons.

The woods around are now full of fruits, especially raspberries and wineberries.  The main mission was to take down this camera, but a pit stop into the berry bushes seemed also necessary.

I gorged and had more than my fair share.  A bag was also needed to take more home.

It was a game of duck and dodge as I was working carefully to avoid thorns, flies, and poison ivy while picking.  The big scare though came when the bushes started rumbling about 15 yards away from me.

Just being in these bushes full of food puts me a little on edge in bear territory.

A deer huffed and darted towards an even lower thicket.  I'm glad it wasn't a bear that close to me.  Berry picking resumed, and after a fair amount were in my stomach and bag, I scrambled out of the thorny bushes and headed up a rocky slope to get to where the car was parked.

"How do you keep track of all the cameras?"

It's one of the most commonly asked questions I get regarding the cameras besides the usual, "Where are the bears?" and "Ever get anyone doing anything their not supposed to be doing on camera?".  

I'd figure maybe a few blog readers would be wondering the same thing.

The answer is a mix of a lot of methods. It does get tricky trying to remember where all the cameras are at all times since they get moved a lot.

The first thing I always do is write it down with a pen or pencil.  Trail names, trail features, and landmarks are important here.  I also look at my GPS and write down the coordinates.

I also have an app. on my Android called "GPS Share" that allows me to access the phone's GPS, extract a coordinate, and text message it to anyone.  For a few places I camera-trap at, I send these via email to managers and people who need to know where my cameras are.  A backup email is also sent to my email address.

The GPS Share app. is a free one that works well.  It's quick, easy, and is basically all I need for what I'm doing.

Another method used to keep track of the cameras is logging and flagging a waypoint on my phone's GPS.  Basically, what this means is that I am able to save each camera's location on my GPS map.  I get a phone ringtone when I walk within 20 yards of the camera-trap and a different ringtone noise when I walk within 10 yards of the camera-trap.  This way, if I really forget where a camera is, I can always pull out my phone and have a good idea of the range that it is in.

Do you use any of these methods in the woods with camera-traps?  Are there any better Android apps that I should use instead?

Fawns!

The fawns are out in full swing now.  Born fairly recently in this area, they are still dependent on their mother for food and protection.

These pictures come from Lucketts, Virginia where I put up a camera a few weeks ago.  Many thanks to the landowners who agreed to have a camera placed on their property.

In about another week or so, the raspberries will be out and animals should be all over these bushes.  Perfect for camera-trapping!

As usual, the batteries were checked, the SD card put back in, and the camera turned on.  I'll check this one again in about 3 weeks or so.

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

An Unusual Fox Tail

Fox tails are usually bushy masses of white, black, gray, and orange fur.  Not this fox's tail though.  This one looks like it could belong to a rat.

I'm unsure as to what the cause of this odd looking tail is, but I have a few ideas in mind.

It could be malnutrition, mange, disease, hormone imbalances, or maybe it has pulled fur out of its tail to add warmth to a den (yes, some foxes do this in the same way that some birds pull out down and feathers for the same reason).

Here's a picture of a different fox in the same location with a bushier tail.  What a beauty!

A Northern Flicker

Another new cam-trapped species for me!

And a cropped version of the photo for a closer look.

I've identified this one as a Northern Flicker.  Please correct me if I am wrong by commenting below or by emailing me.

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Two Cameras at One Set

Two cameras placed at a set are better than one!  Today's results proved this.

A few weeks ago, my father and I headed west to put up two of my cameras out into the woods.

We had two cameras to use and decided to place them both up at the same set.  We wondered if this would be a good or a bad idea, because if somebody was to find one of the cameras, they would most likely find both of the cameras.

It turned out to be a good idea when we checked them today.

Both of us had the day off, so we headed back out to the same place to review the SD cards that store the pictures in the cameras, change a few things, and replace any dead batteries.

It's a difficult camera-trap set to get to.

Driving west, it takes about 45 minutes to arrive at a trail head that leads to the site.  Hiking out, wading through skunk cabbage, and watching your footing on scree and boulders are all part of the process of getting to the cameras here.  It's a good little hike.

The one camera hasn't been working too well, so we took it down to take home with us.  The other camera (one made by Wildgame Innovations) takes better quality pictures and has a trigger system that works well, so we kept it there, protected in a bear-resistant case, to continue taking pictures.

Results of this camera weren't fantastic, but a few animals did come by.

An opossum appeared in 9 pictures and a fox appeared in 1 picture.

There were 24 total pictures, most of which were of squirrels or nothing (false triggers).



I've got the camera that we took down, sitting right next to me.  I'll decide where to put it next in a day or two.

Checking the Cams Before the Storm

Today was a successful day for me, even with a good thunderstorm that seemed to come out of nowhere.

I had to take a college exam in the morning, so I got that out of the way first.  I did a few errands as well, but eventually the time came for me to head out into one of Northern Virginia’s wilder areas to see what results a few of my cameras had gotten.

A good sized snapping turtle.

A good amount of turtles were out wandering the paths with me, so I decided to snap a few pictures of them.

Eastern box turtle taking a soak.

Another box turtle.

Nothing good came out the first camera-trap I checked.  It took 6 pictures of the woods (false triggers) and 4 pictures of white-tailed deer before the batteries ran out.  It only ran for a few hours.  I loaded it with new batteries and made sure it was working. 

On to the next!

The second camera is in a fantastic, picturesque setting that features a background of silver-green autumn olive trees.

It only took 19 pictures of white-tailed deer, a few of raccoons, and a few of groundhogs though.

By the time I left this camera, storm clouds were billowing up to a great height in the sky.  Time was running short.

I sped up to go to the next camera but as soon as I got there, the clouds opened up with an amazing array of lightning and thunder.  I quickly downloaded the pictures from the SD card in the camera, to my laptop.

I got back to a building before the hail came down and sat down to view the pictures that I had just downloaded, but not seen yet. 

Here is what I saw:

Pileated Woodpecker!  A new cam-trapped species for me.

White-tailed deer.  Notice the buttons growing from its head that are soon to be full antlers.