possum – David Kotz

Wildlife cameras – October

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!

Lyme wildlife – August

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.

Two bear cubs explore the shore of a vernal pool.

Wildlife camera – October

Fox, deer, bobcat, and more!

My two wildlife cameras spent another month in the yard, capturing some fun photos and video of critters who visit our property. Most of them were captured at night, using the cameras’ infrared illumination. Check out the gallery!

Perhaps the most fun video was the parade of animals that came by our patio to check out the spot where we’d accidentally dropped a pizza as it came out of the pizza oven! I also experimented with other locations.

You may want to take another look at September’s gallery, to which I’ve added some new content. Lots of critters came to browse for fallen apples under the apple tree: groundhog, possum, raccoon, porcupine, turkey, deer, fox. I was particularly excited to see a bobcat come by one night!

For November, I’ve placed the cameras in the forested hillside across the street – with landowner permission – and am hoping for some more action “in the wild!”

Backyard wildlife

One location, nine days, six types of critter!

I found a new location for my wildlife camera that is creating a feast of images: the backyard apple tree. The apples are ripe, falling from the tree, and feeding the entire neighborhood! Check out this two-minute video review of the local deer, fox, woodchuck, turkey, possum, and porcupine.

The woodchuck stands to watch and listen – keeping one eye on my camera.

Vermont Institute of Natural Science

Always a worthwhile visit.

It’s always worthwhile to visit VINS, especially when they have a special event… today, it was “Marvelous Mammals Day”, so in addition to their display of live raptors (hawks, eagles, owls, etc.) they had several live mammals on display, with expert docents explaining their interesting features. We enjoyed the presentation of a red-tailed hawk, a porcupine, and a possum.