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.

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.

Thanks to Tim Regan and Northern Virginia Magazine!

A Case of Wildlife Fever is now featured in a local magazine!

The comments and emails that I receive are one of my favorite parts of having this blog.  People often ask me what is in their neighborhood or what I am trying to find out next on the blog.

One of these emails I received was from Tim Regan, a writer for Northern Virginia Magazine.  It was great giving him information via emails and phone calls as to what kind of animals are here and telling him some secrets regarding my pictures and research.

The magazine article that came out this month did not contain the bear pictures, so it's good to see them on the web version.

I thank him and the staff at Northern Virginia Magazine for taking the time to contact me and for having an interest in what I do,

Check out the web version of the magazine article by clicking the link below:
NoVA's Hidden Residents

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.

Another Fox Meal

Today was another one of those busy camera trapping days.  I've got so many cameras under my control that it is beginning to get difficult to remember where exactly they are.  No fear though, I've got the locations of all of them drawn on maps, on a piece of paper, in my phone's GPS, and on my computer.

I put this camera on a popular game trail in Leesburg, Va.  It is a trail that leads to one of the fox dens I have another camera at.

A fox appeared of course, and was carrying a large meal.  A muskrat was in its mouth, being dragged towards the den.

Muskrats are supposedly plentiful in this area, as Goose Creek is very close.  Goose Creek is a small river flowing in Loudoun County.  It is a tributary of the Potomac River, which flows past D.C. and empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

This camera had other visitors, including a skunk, deer, another fox, squirrels, and a single wild turkey.

Other good news is that I now have permission to camera-trap in Alexandria, Virginia on a very large piece of property.

I still have to decide if I will be able to make the drive down there once a month or so now since I have cameras in so many towns around here already.

Into the Appalachians

The Appalachian Trail (AT) was calling my name today.  After finishing class for the day, I donned my boots and hiking gaiters, packed up a camera and gear, and set out to drive west.   The mountains and hills of Loudoun and Clarke County, Virginia were welcomed sights on a warm, spring day.

I set out for a short hike on the AT near Bear's Den.  Bear's Den is a sort of pit-stop for AT hikers and contains a few miles of rollercoaster-like trail conditions.

I trekked towards another piece of property that I am very familiar with out there (which I will keep a secret for now) to set up one of my cameras.

The camera here is set a few feet off the ground, well off the actual footpath of the Appalachian Trail, but still in the same area that I know as, Bluemont, Virginia.

A garter snake came out of its rocky housing to see what my noise was all about and stayed around for a minute or two.

Camera-trap and a garter snake. 

I continued hiking for a few more minutes into a small stream where skunk cabbage was popping out of the ground.

Here is where I conversed with a group of young, "9-to-5-Charlies", that decided to leave the office for a 4 day weekend on the trail.

We did the obligatory, "Hey, how are you?", and the typical, "Where ya headed?", as if nobody had ever asked us these same questions while on the Appalachian Trail.

What was different about this time though, is that I asked them if they've heard any coyotes lately on the trail while sleeping at night.

Their response,  "Of course! Almost every night".  I smiled, nodded, and wished them well on the rest of their hike.

It may take me some time to come back to this location, as it is an hours drive away.  I'll go back there in a couple weeks with some fresh camera batteries and a heart full of camera-trapping hope.

Skunk cabbage.  I can smell this stuff from half a mile away if there is a lot of it.

Busy Days

I've been busy, really busy.  Schoolwork, homework, studying, work, and volunteering is all part of my schedule.

Camera trapping never ceases though, as the cameras are hard at work as well.

Thanks to my girlfriend and fellow cam-trapper
for taking this picture and accompanying me this weekend.

I've been back and forth to my new camera trap sets in Leesburg, Virginia.  It gets really windy on some of Leesburg's hills and small mountains.

Autumn olive chokes the forests in these parts.  Although it is an invasive species, autumn olive does provide a lot of cover, and one thing you want in a forested area when hiding a camera-trap, is a great amount of cover.

Poison ivy is around here as well.  I can see the hairy stems, the spreading roots, and old growth of the plants.   It hasn't even grown leaves yet this year,  but that didn't stop it from leaving rashes on my body for the better part of last week.  Of course, there is no telling exactly where I got the poison ivy from since a great deal of my work, walks, and research is done outdoors.

The point is, is that poison ivy is nasty, and will still affect you even when it doesn't have its infamous "leaves of three".  Boots, jeans, long sleeves, hiking gaiters, and a shower afterwards are all necessary.

The good news though is that I have deployed a whole army of new cameras out and they are heavily covered and hidden in poison ivy patches where autumn olive also lives.

One of my newest camera trap sets has been at a fresh den site.  This den has three openings and seems well used.  Me and a few other people familiar with the area were wondering if it was a fox den or a groundhog's den.  We agreed to put a camera up and find out.

Turns out that it was indeed a fox den.  A pretty lookin' feral cat also came by.

There is a ridiculous amount of coyote scat located on the trail adjacent to the den.  There is also fox scat around as well, but the coyote scat is dramatically different in size.  It should only be a matter of time before a coyote gets curious or wants to take a whiff of the smell of the fox den.  During that time, I hope to get a picture of a coyote on this camera.

Also around here are many bluebird birdhouses lining meadows so they were flying all around. I also spotted an American Kestrel perched on a wire, and many vultures waiting for their next carrion meal.  All in all, camera trapping has been going well this week even though I personally have been very busy.

Missing Camera

A few months ago, one of my cameras went missing.  Now, I've had some cameras go "missing" before, but that has always ended up with retracing my footsteps and thinking more clearly until I find the place where I actually put the camera.

I looked at my GPS and walked around circles for a few minutes to locate the actual tree that my camera was placed on.  

Finally! I found the tree where I placed my camera but there was no camera on it.  In fact, the whole tree was knocked over.

Human tracks marked the area immediately around the tree.  Somebody had stolen my camera.  What makes this whole scene even more ridiculous is the fact that my cameras are locked around a tree with cables and locks. 

Of course, someone might be able to pick the lock or cut the cable, but not this criminal.  This person took out a saw, sawed the tree down, sawed the limbs off the tree, and then slipped the cable that my camera was on, right along the length of the tree.

How do I know exactly what this person did?  Well here's the thing. Other than the obvious human bootprints, the wrappers left at the scene, and the amount of sawdust under the tree, most of my camera sets are composed of 2 cameras, 3 cameras, or even 4 cameras!

These cameras are pointed at each other in opposing directions.  I've got some cameras that are in the holes of trees that even take me over 30 minutes to find.

This camera set actually had a few cameras at the set and around it that caught the action.

Now I'm not the one to investigate or accuse, but the picture below is of the only person that walked in this area (of 3 cameras) and was seen on other cameras with a saw as well.  Interesting. . . 

Even the local wildlife doesn't seem to steal my cameras, even though the deer get curious sometimes.

Scavenger Hawks

When there is fresh meat around, you never know exactly what animal will take the opportunity to eat some of it.

Red-tailed hawks have came by my cameras a lot to eat some of this fresh meat.  I've captured them eating  dead deer, as seen in Deer for Dinner: Food Fights.  

I captured this type of hawk recently again, but this time it was in Leesburg, Virginia.

The fields, meadows, and woods of Leesburg offer some prime hawk hunting grounds.  

Red-shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, cooper's hawks, broad-winged hawks, and sharp-shinned hawks populate the skies here. 

What really surprised me at this camera set though, was how quickly the hawk came in to eat after I set out the bait.  I placed the meat here at 3:08 PM as I had the camera rolling (as I realized when I got my picture taken doing so).  The first hawk picture (as seen above) was taken at 3:11 PM on the same day.

That's only 3 minutes!

What is even more surprising is knowing the fact that it took me at least 2 minutes to walk back to my car (located maybe 30 yards away), set my gear down, and pull out of the parking space.  If I was there for another 60 seconds, I may have been able to view this hungry hawk first-hand, but I didn't know it was there in the first place.

Animal House

When there is no human supervision in an old, abandoned building, who would you expect to come in and party?

If you guessed rats, mice, and raccoons, then you are correct.  However, you are only beginning to touch the tip of the iceberg that is the full answer.

See what critters came into an old building that I put a camera into a few weeks ago by scrolling below.

Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) came by on many occasions and was the most common visitor.

Some kind of mouse.  I cannot tell what species this is for the life of me.  It's hard to see.  Can you see it? Here's a hint:  small mammal in the middle of the picture a little to the right.

Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) stopped in to take a look a few times during the week.

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) of course.  But not just any raccoons. . . 

Mating Raccoons!  Right in the middle of the frame of the camera.

A feral cat (Felis catus) stopped in to take a look but didn't stay for long at all.

Last but not least, a Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana).

I was surprised at the amount of animals that came in, and I was really only expecting rats, mice, and raccoons. 

There’s still an incredible amount of hope that I have, that I will get a picture of a resident owl swooping down to catch a squirrel or mouse in the same frame as these other animals.  That kind of picture inside a building is going to take a lot more patience on my part. 

But hey, these results were way better than I expected for a small, old building.  

Thorns, Briers, and Brambles

Sometimes dense forest or ground cover leads you right into briars, brambles, and thorns of every shape and size you could imagine.  I seem to have mastered the art of getting stuck by these plants.

Like Velcro, some of these plants cling on for a ride of their life.  They slow me down, prick me, poke me, and frustrate me.

Here is a list of sorts of some of the plants that cling to my skin and clothes while walking in the woods to camera trap and hike.

Green brier.

One of the eastern United States’ most unforgiving briers.  This vine has the ability to grow high and hard.  Some other briers and brambles break or fall when you walk across them, but this one does not.  It secures itself with very hard, woody, green stems and thorns.

You can’t just walk past this one in hopes of “bushwhacking” through it.  Forget about a quick walk in the woods if you get entangled in a few feet of this.  What you might have thought would be a quick weekend outing, is now a challenge full of pricks.  If you’ve never had this experience,  try to compare it to getting a few thumbtacks embedded in your calves for a few seconds.

Multiflora rose.

One of the most beautiful flowering plants around but it packs a punch to your unprotected legs. It is a woody rose plant that grows all over.  Walking through this stuff without 7 pairs of wool socks, boots, 9 pairs of jeans, and 10 pairs of long underwear will get you into some outdoor prickly trouble.  Stay away!

Raspberry and Wineberry

“A fantastic edible plant with prickly consequences” is how I like to describe the raspberry plant to park visitors.  It can grow many stems and shoots that are full of hard spines (growing to around 7mm) and hair-like spines that are only a few millimeters long and are much softer.

The wineberry plant is usually red with some greens mixed in on its leaves and some stems. This is considered only a type of raspberry as it is in the genus, Rubus, that raspberries are also classified under.  Wineberry is easily confused with raspberry (a mistake that even I have made) but they both have nasty prick producing spines.

The raspberry plant is actually greener than wineberry and has spines that are less hair-like.
When walking through a plot of these in the woods, I tend to trek through at a fast pace so that they might brush past my clothes.  This plant painfully resembles modern-day Velcro but with a slightly sharper side-effect.

American Holly. 

This is not a hard one to spot or get out of, but still harbors some nasty spines.  American holly, one of America’s native trees and a symbol of Christmas traditions all over the world, can pack an unpredictable prick.

It’s delightful green leaves stick out like a sore thumb in the wintertime here in Virginia but even so, I somehow find myself amidst its prickly leaves a few times month.

Mahonia.

An invasive species to Virginia that reminds me of American holly.  In the places I hike and camera trap, it usually grows a few woody stems straight up a few feet.  These stems are extremely tough to the touch and contain small branches with many leathery leaves.

The leaves are similar to American holly in that they are evergreen, leathery, and have spines lining the leaf.  Its leaves are a dark green color and will prick you if you try to step to the side of it, around it, or over it.  Cut its woody stems open, and you will be greeted with a fluorescent yellow color that a highlighter has a tough time competing with.

Autumn Olive.

This one is a real pest to everyone around.  It is not native at all to anywhere in Virginia but has established itself as one of the rest.  It is an invasive species that grows as a tree-like shrub, having many stems shooting upwards and eventually sideways.  It is a beautiful silver with silver-green leaves though.  Even though it may look pretty and provides great cover for birds, it is one of my most hated plants.

Autumn olive grows extremely dense in some parts of the woods that I camera trap in.  It goes up my jeans and in its later stages of live, grows centimeter long thorns around its many shoots.  The thorns have bark that very irritating to my skin and after a week of getting pricked by them, I can still feel exactly where they punctured me.



**A personal thanks to fellow park employee, Julie for catching an earlier mistake I made regarding raspberry vs. wineberry identification.  She has provided me with a lot of wildlife information and I can't wait to learn even more!