A day in the life of a solar panel…
I made a short timelapse movie using one of my wildlife cameras to photograph our solar panels throughout a solar day: after a foggy start, the solar panels track the sunshine from sunrise to sunset. This movie is from June 25 – less than a week after summer solstice – and at midday you can see the sun is very high in the sky; check out the video!
Watch spring arrive in New Hampshire!
As regular readers know, I have placed several wildlife cameras in a forest near home, and have captured many enjoyable videos of wildlife like deer, bear, fox, coyote, bobcat, turkey, and more. The same cameras can be set to capture photos on a regular schedule, which can later be stitched into a timelapse video. Back in March, a few days before the spring equinox, I placed a camera at the edge of what I knew to be a vernal pool; this month, a few days after the summer solstice, I removed the camera. The camera snapped an image every five minutes from sunrise to sunset, resulting in 14,697 images. Watch the pool evolve from a snowy landscape into a lush fern-filled glade. Watch the heavy snow of March 23 lay its burden on the branches, and then watch those branches relax on March 23 and 25; watch the pool freeze and then re-thaw; watch the April 4th snowstorm bury the pool once again; watch snow melt and the grasses stretch toward the April sun; watch the ferns unfurl into the May sunshine. Below is an abbreviated timelapse, one photo per day at noon. See the full-res noon-time video (1 minute), and the full-length video (10 minutes). If you watch very, very closely, you might see a animal or two.
Who knows why, but the osprey have moved on.
It has been 10 days since I last saw the osprey building a nest, just upriver from here. Unfortunately, they seem to have given up and sought a better location. I saw one osprey, in flight, over the weekend – but not near the nest. One day, when I went to investigate, I found this fellow sitting in a nearby tree. I imagine eagles and osprey compete for territory – they both dine primarily on fish, especially when living alongside a river – and so the osprey may have been pushed out.
Notice the small, dark bird above and to his left. They both sat in contented companionship for tens of minutes, while I watched.
Continue reading “Eagle replaces Osprey?”Five cameras in the forest.
As spring turns into summer, my wildlife cameras have been busy. I have five cameras out in the forest – one capturing a timelapse and four using motion triggers to capture passing wildlife. After the exciting encounter with momma bear (and two cubs) early in the month, as noted in my earlier post, I did not see her again for almost three weeks. This month’s video highlights a variety of animals and locations, mostly in chronological order: turkey, deer, raccoon, porcupine, a teeny mouse, … and yes, momma bear, who returns to fiddle with my cameras once again.
A new couple is building a home in our neighborhood.
When I row my shell upriver, I pass a manufactured nesting platform – a tall telephone pole with a crude wooden frame nailed on top. It stands on a tiny spit of land, adjacent to the river, and separated from River Road by a small wetland favored by ducks and redwing blackbirds. The pole was placed there by NH Fish & Game to encourage osprey to nest here… but I’ve only seen it occupied once in 25+ years. Last week, as I rowed by, I saw a few dead sticks sitting atop the platform. Hey! That’s new. I paused. Sure enough, a few moments later, an osprey flapped by, carrying a stick, and added it to the growing pile. I rowed quickly home, grabbed my camera gear, and drove up the road where I could get a better view. Over the course of three mornings, I’ve enjoyed watching the two osprey as they build their nest. They don’t need to look far for materials – I’ve seen them flap over to a neighboring snag, grab a dead branch with their talons, snap it off, and bring it back. It is slow, methodical work! Check out the photo gallery, including a video.
From what Wikipedia says about osprey, it sounds like they may be here for another 10-15 weeks until the nest is built, eggs are laid, and chicks are fledged. Many more photos to come!
I also discovered the Osprey Watch website – I’ll check that out next week.
Momma bear deconstructs my camera…
A couple months ago I circumnavigated the forest property where I keep my wildlife cameras, re-discovering a steep ledgy hillside that I’d seen a few years earlier. The landowner had told me that this area was “bear country”; seeing these granite outcrops, with their many dark nooks and crannies, and jagged fallen boulders, made me understand why. This rugged terrain, with plenty of surrounding forest and nearby sources of water, virtually cried out to as home for bear, coyote, and bobcat. So at the end of April I brought two of my cameras over to that side of the hill. I found a promising game trail and strapped my camera to a tree. Little did I know what would come by, only hours later! Read on to find out.
Momma bear returns… with cubs!
April was a month of transition for my local patch of forest, here in Lyme New Hampshire. Although we had a big snowstorm early in the month, all of the interesting wildlife videos I have to share this month show the bare ground and leafless branches of early spring. In this month’s video highlights, you’ll see a familiar cast of characters – turkey, deer, raccoon, porcupine, skunk, and even a busy little mouse. I caught the raccoon red-handed (twice!) inspecting that hole in the tree – highlighted in a recent post – but as far as I can tell, the hole is still unoccupied.
Perhaps most excitingly, the big black bear is back – last seen on Christmas Day – and now has two little cubs in tow! The appearance of this bear family reminded me of a comment made by a local – that the other side of the hill is “bear country” – so I moved a couple cameras over there. Two weeks later: Wow! I got more than I expected. I’ll share that experience soon. (Subscribe, so you won’t miss it!)
Spring has arrived.
I took an extended walk through my backyard patch of forest, today, roaming over the hills and through the empty forests. The snow has disappeared, exposing dry, brown leaves from the fall, a litter of twigs and branches snapped from the trees by the winter’s wind and snow. Here and there, though, the colors of Spring have begun to appear.
Finally, a visitor to the hole in the tree.
Back in February I noticed some tracks and signs in the snow beneath a big ol’ tree. Looking up, I could see a big hole in the tree, about 25′ up; it sure looked like a nice place to build a nest. So I set up two cameras there: one at the base of the tree – which has led to some pretty cool videos of fisher, coyote, bobcat, and more – and another high in a neighboring tree so I could record any activity in that high-up hole. The picture below is the view from that camera. I’ve gotten a lot of video from that camera, but all of it was simply from the wind blowing the trees back and forth. Until now! Read on.
Fox, deer, turkey, skunk, mouse, more!
March was unusually warm – and my patch of woods lost all their snow even before the month began. But snow fell again, at least twice, and so my wildlife videos include some scenes with snow, and some without. Two new critters appear this month for the first time – a tiny (but very busy!) mouse, and a chipmunk. (Both on the same log! I share only a little video of each.)
This month’s video (less than four minutes) ends in a cliffhanger: does the fox crawl into the skunk’s burrow? and if so, what happened next?
David Kotz 