Antler Shedding

It's that time of year again for our white-tailed deer.  The bucks are starting to shed their antlers and they are available for mice to chew on, for dogs to play with, and for some of us to collect.

So why do antlers drop in January, February, and March?  Well, to answer that question, we've got to think back to the previous year.

In late October, most of November, and early December the deer here are in rut.  This means that they capable of mating with females.  Antlers are used to display dominance and to fight off other bucks that may provide competition to the mating "rights" of a group of does.

The rut ends before the New Year starts and the antlers become less of a necessity for bucks.  Since they take extra energy to grow and walk around with, deer shed or drop their antlers to save energy and because they really aren't needed any more.

New antlers begin to grow and the process is repeated, year after year.

It's legal in Virginia to collect them and possess them (as long as you have landowner permission to do so), so I always like to find a few to collect.  Maybe I'll even make some new knife handles again this year

There is an importance to leave some for the animals though.  Mice, squirrels, and other rodents chew on antlers to sharpen their teeth and to gain important vitamins and minerals that can become extremely scarce in the winter from their regular food sources.

One Antlered Deer

Here's an interesting white-tailed deer missing one of his antlers.

It's early for bucks to be losing their deciduous antlers.  Really early.  In most cases around here, they drop their antlers during the last week of January to the last week of March.  It's interesting, for sure, but stranger things have happened in the outdoors.

Deer Exodus

The melting snow in the Shenandoah Valley from last week and rain all around have made the Potomac River rise to "Flood Stage".  It's raging and is a dangerous monster when this happens.

Flowing on top of the water is a scattered garbage dump full of what I call "River Nonsense".  River nonsense is mostly made up of pieces of lumber, sticks, oil barrels, and general trash.  It's all the stuff that gets moving when the river floods its own banks.  It's not pretty, but sort of interesting in a weird way.

With the flowing water and garbage also comes another interesting sight.  Deer (the white-tailed variety of course) are swimming all over the place.  They're swimming to islands, from islands, to the mainland, and all over.  

They do this because some of them live on the islands of the Potomac River across from Great Falls, Virginia.  There are islands big and small, and when the river water rises this high, it makes for a very crammed problem for these deer. 

So what do these deer do?  The move, and to move away, they start swimming.

I saw this today and have only seen it once before during Hurricane Sandy's wrath.

I couldn't get a good picture of the deer since they were maybe around 300-400 yards away, but it was quite a sight.

A Puddle with A Purpose

A small puddle at the edge of a pond does a lot for the local wildlife.

Great blue herons use it to find their food...

 

Fox squirrels walk near it... Look at the size of those arms and muscles!  I cropped the image so you could be see the little guy.





 

White-tailed deer drink from the puddle...





And raccoons also use it to find their food.

 

The puddle offers a lot to the animals.  For now though, the camera is being moved to a new location.  I'll revisit the puddle with cameras in another month or so.



Piebald Deer Again

Everyone seems to enjoy looking at the video that I posted recently of the piebald buck.  People have emailed and told me that they want to see more.

Also, in some workplace environments, streaming video online is not allowed or blocked completely.  I figured I would take some snapshots of the video and put them in this post so that more people could enjoy them.

Piebald Buck

Undisclosed Location, Loudoun County, Virginia.

A piebald buck is a male deer that has a different colored coat than most other white-tailed deer.  It contains white splotches, patches, or markings and sticks out like a sore thumb in the woods.  It is a rarity among most white-tailed deer populations.

I've dedicated a few cameras to get photographs of piebald deer in locations where they have been seen in Great Falls, Virginia, but did not expect to see one at all when I checked a camera in Loudoun County. 

Such a beautiful deer!

No Shortage of Virginia Bucks

I'm not tired of big antler pictures yet, and hope you aren't either.  It's hunting season where I live and a lot of folks around here are excited to see my buck pictures.

I can't tell you, the hunters, or most other people where exactly the bucks are or where they'll be, but one thing for sure is that I've seen so many of them this year.

These were taken in Fauquier County, Virginia with the help of a friend and colleague.  We're going for the bears, bobcats, and coyotes specifically, but white-tailed deer pictures are always welcomed. 

This blog will be seeing more of this camera's pictures pretty soon.  It's a new county of camera-trapping for me, and I'm excited to be able to use this camera out there.

Buck in the Sun

Usually it's bad to face a camera-trap into the sun.  Pointing it west or east will give you a lot of washed out pictures due to the sun.  I made the mistake of pointing one camera this way, and only 1 picture was worth me taking the time to blog about.

I just thought this picture was cool and different.  The early morning sun behind the white-tailed buck isn't something I get to see often in camera-trap images.

There were still over 800 pictures of deer that were washed out and invaded by a rising or setting sun.  More thought was taken when resetting the camera.

It is now at the edge of this field in a shadier spot, not facing any sun.

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.

 

Ms. Deer's Parasitic Problem

Ms. Deer walked by a camera a while back.  She was showing off her summer coat dotted with unidentifiable insects and ticks on it.

Look carefully at her back, and you should be able to see tons of them.

Those parasites must be happy.  There's no word yet of what Ms. Deer thinks about her parasitic problem, but one can assume that she must be itching like crazy.

It is only assumed that this white-tailed deer is a female due to its lack of antlers.

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.

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.

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.

The Most Common Camera-Trap Visitor Is. . .

The white-tailed deer!

Deer walking on a popular game trail in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Other animals can't even come close to showing up in numbers comparable to deer. 

I have known this fact since I started doing this, but today I crunched some numbers to get exact percentages of deer having their pictures taken by my cams.  

It took some time to organize thousands of pictures into files and folders, but the time I spent doing this offered a good break from studying for my looming final exams that I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time on in the past week.

The results below omit videos, pictures of me taken by the cameras, false camera triggers, and test pictures.

White-tailed deer hold the record for most camera-trap images taken at a staggering 52% of total images of animals.  

Raccoons can't even catch up, but hold steady in second place by appearing in 29% of my pics.

Foxes come in third place and have shown up in 12% of my pics.

All other animals shown on this blog make up for the 7% that is in my collective category of fourth place.

What makes deer have such a greater number of camera appearances is based on a whole combination of factors.  

First of all, deer are very numerous in northern Virginia, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to see them so often.  

Deer also frequently travel in pairs or small groups.  If a camera triggers where there are multiple deer (as the cameras often do), the deer appearance rate goes up significantly since I account for multiple individuals of the same species in these statistics.  Deer also travel in both day and night and aren't as camera shy as many other animals are.

Deer live alongside humans in many areas of northern Virginia.  Seeing a camera in the woods does not seem to bother deer at all, since they are so used to human-made objects anyway.

Other factors to consider when wondering why deer show up so often are:  travel patterns, food availability for deer vs. other animals, skittishness, camera placement, camera height, mating seasons of deer vs. other animals, other animals in the area, how frequently I check the cameras, and many many more.

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.

White-tailed Winters

White-tailed deer in northern Virginia are now just braving out the last few weeks of winter.  Loudoun County experienced snow storm just a few days ago.  Some parts of the county had a measly 3 inches, while the western stretches of the county saw around 10 inches of snow.

White-tailed deer don't seem to mind the snow and cold too much though.  Their winter coat is made up of hairs that are thicker than in summer.

These hairs are actually hollow.  Hollow hairs allow air to become trapped more easily within the deer's coat.  Once air becomes trapped, it quickly warms up due the great amount of body heat that the deer produces.

I've caught a lot of deer lately on my cameras at this location.  This camera is actually pointed at a fox den, but there is a deer trail adjacent to it.

Deer travel along this trail at least every 2 days and do basically the same thing every time in front of the camera.  They walk up with their noses pointed down, smelling the scents of other animals and for food.  When the camera makes a very quiet clicking noise, they bolt their necks up and move their heads and ears around to recognize any danger.

They then get curious to the camera, as cameras are not in their natural habitat.  They look at it with their bulging eyes for a few seconds and turn their heads one way or another.  Once they realize it is not dangerous to them, they put their heads down, sniff the ground, and walk away.

Deer Skull Questions

Once in a while, while camera-trapping, working, or walking, I'll stumble across the remains of an animal that has been long dead.

Usually it is deer that I find.  This one is an interesting of example that harbors so many questions to me.

First and foremost, how did this young buck die? Of course it could have been natural causes, but could it have been mortally wounded in a fight with another buck?  Was it the prey of another species of animal?  Did it get shot by a poacher who couldn't track the deer after shooting it?  Or, did it spend its last moments of life in a street as cars were speeding by, waiting for a chance to get to the other side?

Another question I am asking myself is, "how did the antlers form this way?"

 

Without DNA testing and other genetic tests, it is hard to tell what exactly caused the differentiation of the shape and size of the antlers.

Genetics is only one explanation of this anomaly though.  The young buck could have had other testosterone deficiencies that are not genetically related.  It could have also broken part of the shorter antler during the earliest periods of its growth, such as in a fight with another buck.  Maybe it tripped and fell as a fawn, making its antler indent a certain way.  It could have some kind of disease contracted from other deer, the environment, or even a genetic disease.

There are so many explanations to as why deer antlers may grow this way.  Just looking at the skull and antlers from all directions is an extremely difficult way to tell what caused this in the antlers.

One thing is sure though.  If this buck did have a genetic disease or problem, it is dead now.  Since it is dead, it can no longer pass these genes to potential offspring.  

Nature continues to take its course in northern Virginia.

Spot the Deer

Let's play a game called "Spot the Deer"

I promise you, there is a white-tailed deer in this photo.  Can you see it?

Told you there was one in the photo.

This was a camera trap set that I had recently put up to see what was in one a few small meadows that I visit.  It only stretches for a few acres but splitting right down the middle of it is a small creek. 

This small creek was once damned up by beavers, creating a pond.  The pond built up and covered a small section of woods.  Trees in these woods got their roots rooted out, died, and that is how this small meadow in the middle of a forest was made.

Hint: If you're still stuck on trying to find it, it is staring right at you in the middle of the picture, slightly to the left.

I checked this spot almost daily for results so I did not expect anything too exciting due to the lingering human scent that I kept leaving.  A red fox (vulpes vulpes) made its way through though along with all the deer.