Lyme wildlife – April

I have followed the same route for years, climbing steeply up the hillside following a skidder trail left behind from a logging operation more than twenty years ago. It slants upward, moderating its steepness and thereby reducing the potential for erosion, then hooks sharply right as it reaches the ridge and settles out at the high point. Although this hilltop is fully forested, and only a few hundred feet in elevation, I affectionately refer to it as the ‘summit’, the high point of my home turf. It was the first location I chose for a wildlife camera, and it has never failed to capture interesting action.

On a cold day in early April, this trail gave me the opportunity to come face to face with one of my subjects. Perhaps because of the downslope breeze and a light mix of drizzle and freezing rain pattering loudly on the leaf litter of the forest floor, the white-tailed deer did not see or hear me coming. I started recording video, while stepping gently closer and closer. I include that encounter in this month’s compendium of camera captures from the summit and nearby. Check it out! and you’ll see turkeys preparing for mating season, and coyotes sniffing for opportunity.

Meanwhile, let’s take a moment to catch up with that cuddly porcupine couple at my new area of exploration (“region 2”). The bobcat keeps exploring around their den, a pair of coyotes pass by, and a black bear has emerged from hibernation and is looking for something good to eat.

PS. In case you missed them, I already posted two other April videos: a black bear, rather too close for comfort; and a contest between a groundhog and a skunk for use of a cozy den site in our backyard.