The second installment in a two-part post of July/August wildlife videos.
Over the past two years, most of my wildlife videos have been captured by cameras placed on a hill near my home. In this post – my final post of wildlife-camera video until next year – I have some pretty neat stuff to share. Lots of bobcats and black bears! Read on to watch both videos.
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)”A vernal pool is a busy crossroads.
In the Lyme forest, my usual tromping grounds include a couple of vernal pools. These small, shallow depressions fill with water in the spring – initially, from melting snow that cannot yet seep into the still-frozen earth below, and later from early spring rains. They teem with life, and are a particularly important breeding ground for amphibians. They also attract wildlife of all types, to hunt or to drink. I saved aside the clips from my two cameras beside one vernal pool – not included in my April videos shared two weeks ago – because the activity around this pool is so fascinating. It also provides my first ever view of predation in action, in almost two years of work with wildlife cameras.
Local wildlife remains busy, throughout the winter.
I’ve been pleased by the overwhelming response to my “Best of 2024” summary video, which seems to have brought enjoyment to many an armchair wildlife fan. Thanks for sharing your feedback! I enjoy sharing the videos from my wildlife camera, and I enjoy even more the opportunity to spend time in the outdoors, off trail, wandering through a local forest with an eye and ear tuned to the signs and sounds of nature. Read on to see January’s new videos!
Favorite photos and videos.
Wow, 2024 was quite the year. With a dozen or more hikes in New Hampshire, and travels to Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, California, South Carolina, and India, I had many opportunities for photography. Check out some of my favorite photos!
This year I dug deeper into wildlife photography by expanding my network of camera traps (wildlife cameras) in a forest near home. Click on the image below for a compendium of my favorite clips! It is 14 minutes long – I know, in the era of TikTok that may seem interminable, but I encourage you to sit back and enjoy the wildlife at its own pace. You’ll see black bear, beaver, bobcat, coyote, deer, fisher, red fox, goose, groundhog, owl, raccoon, skunk, flying squirrel, and turkey.
For all my wildlife-camera videos, visit this tag.
P.S. PetaPixel posted its own “best trail camera photos of 2024”. Exotic!
Still cameras: this year I upgraded from the Canon R5 to the Canon R5 Mark II; I use several lenses for most photos: 24-105mm, 100-500mm, and (recently) 200-800mm. Some of my favorites also come from my iPhone 14 Pro.
Wildlife cameras: I started off with a pair of cameras from Punvoe, which produced most of the video on this site; more recently I’ve bought some Rigdoo; they are very similar (the internal firmware is clearly almost identical) but with a better camera (4K) and (supposedly) a faster reaction time and less-obtrusive night-vision light.
Bobcats, beavers, coyotes, and more!
The month of December brought snow… then melt… then snow… then melt. The wildlife in my little area of Lyme’s forest were busy… the deer were seeking food among the remnants of summer’s bounty, the squirrels were looking for long-lost acorns, the beavers were rebuilding one section of their dam only to find other sections breached in late-December rains. The foxes, coyotes, and bobcats were on the prowl, hoping to capture one of the above. Check out this month’s video for more! Sit back and relax for just six minutes.
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”July edition of captures from my wildlife cameras in the forests of Lyme. Squirrel, bear, deer, and raccoons.
July was a quiet month for my wildlife cameras – but resulted in some interesting video captures! Mid-month I shared the fun close-up view of a black bear, who used my camera as a back-scratcher. Now, I share a video compendium… a cute squirrel grooming himself, a busy raccoon moving through the woods overnight, a black bear that gets frighteningly close, a series of deer (including a young buck), and a pair of mischievous raccoons!
David Kotz 