The first of two installments of video from my wildlife cameras.
It felt like we had a slow start to summer here in Lyme, but my wildlife cameras nonetheless captured bears, bobcats, and more. In this post, I’ll share two videos spanning July 1 through August 5.
Continue reading “Lyme wildlife – July (part 1)”Animal babies!
The month of June brings the onset of summer – and the emergence of wildlife babies. In this month’s episode of clips from my wildlife cameras, you’ll see young’uns from two or three species, and some really interesting behavior from a raccoon, deer, porcupine, barred owl, and black bear. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Bears, bobcats, groundhogs, and more.
The month of May was surprisingly quiet, as if the animals of Lyme were on the move – not settled in any given location, not often reappearing in the video captures from my wildlife cameras posted in two forests and my own backyard. Some locations that had previously provided multiple daily videos of a busy porcupine couple, for example, became dormant, causing me to explore new locations that may be more lively. One of those turned out to be exceptionally lively, attacked by a bear within days of its deployment! Read on…
Continue reading “Lyme wildlife – May 2025”Winter becomes spring, and the animals are busy.
It was like a switch had flipped. February here in New Hampshire was snowy and consistently cold – the temperature never rose above freezing, which led to a fantastic season for outdoor winter activities. But on the first of March the weather immediately started to warm. The lower elevations of Lyme, where I deploy my wildlife cameras, lost all their snow — only to see the snow return twice in brief snowstorms. My wanders through the forests of Lyme led me to discover exciting new locations to capture video of wildlife activity… and to meet some of these critters face to face! Read on.
Deep snowfall – and a new location!
Winter truly arrived in February, with deep cold and deep snow throughout most of the month. I had nine cameras out the field – but decided, mid-month, to relocate half of them to a new area of Lyme (New Hampshire). Although the terrain is similar – rolling hills, mixed forests, rocky slopes, low elevation – I was looking for new opportunities. That day (February 16) was an incredible winter’s day: a light snow was falling as a large winter storm was winding down, so I snowshoed through deep, soft powder around my usual loop, picking up cameras. The next day, I skied a loop in a different part of town, setting up cameras in promising new locations. What did the cameras find? Check out these four short videos (all less than three minutes)… read on!
Continue reading “Lyme wildlife – February”Final installment of clips from my wildlife cameras in November.
I recently doubled the number of cameras I have posted in strategic locations in a nearby forest of Lyme, New Hampshire. Last week I shared my first video of beavers, busy collecting trees and repairing their dams; then some video of other visitors to that same brook. Today I return to my traditional stomping grounds, where we get to see who was roaming that hill… the steep/rocky east side, the flat hilltop, and the vernal pool (now dry) on the west side. The video opens with a view of a beautiful canine, provides two angles on a mature buck (with unusual markings, whom we saw in this location last month), startles us with a one-eared black bear (shouldn’t he be asleep by now?), and ends with a flock of turkeys. I left out most of the (many) deer, and the deer hunters 😉 Check out the video, and read on for more information about the canine.
No bears! Maybe they’ve all hibernated.
October was another busy month for the wildlife cameras near my home. As the oaks dropped their leaves, the turkeys and squirrels were busy foraging for acorns and other delicacies. Deer – both does and bucks – were plentiful. I enjoyed the comings and goings of a red fox, trotting past my cameras at all hours of the day and night… as well the plodding of a porcupine. For me, the bobcats are still most exciting – whereas the most interesting may be a tough, scar-faced buck, and the most mysterious is the noctural appearance of some sort of weasel.
This month I have posted just one video – less than seven minutes long – with the highlights. I’ve organized it into three locations, and at each location the clips are presented in chronological order. I find it interesting to see the same location visited by several different critters, all in the same day. Sometimes the predator passes by only a few hours behind their prey!
Continue reading “Wildlife cameras – October”Spoiler alert: Not all the cameras survived!
September was a busy month in the forests of Lyme New Hampshire, as the foliage started to turn and forest residents began their preparations for winter. This month I’m organizing the videos by location – with each video mostly in chronological order. It’s interesting to see the variety of animals that pass by a given point – sometimes within minutes of each other. I captured first-looks at two species I’ve never seen on camera before: a solo flying squirrel, and a group of strolling crows, both foraging among the leaf litter. Unfortunately, one of my cameras did not survive the month! Read on.
Continue reading “Wildlife cameras – September”August treats us to bears, coyotes, a bathing owl, and more!
I woke at 2am to the howls of the coyotes, and they sounded close. It’s increasingly common for us to hear coyotes near our home, but in 33 years living in New Hampshire I’ve only once seen a coyote in-person. (They are mostly noctural, and I am not!) As noted in my post from June, I was thrilled when my wildlife camera caught a daylight video with a litter of coyote pups visiting a vernal pool. So, as I lay awake listening to the coyotes last night, I imagined those little pups were out there now, learning the ways of their pack, and wondered whether they might be in view of of one of my cameras.
Indeed my cameras brought us many exciting treats in August: a pack of coyotes, many views of both mama and papa bear (and baby bears too!), a fastidious barred owl, a nosy skunk, and more.
New surprises!
My wildlife cameras have been busy this month! With the return of spring, I placed a camera back down by the riverside… and started capturing the daily visits of a couple of Canada Geese and their brood of little goslings. As the weeks wore by, the goslings grew bigger… and fewer. (We started with four, then three, then two.) They were fun to watch, but the really cool stuff came later. Read on!
David Kotz 