turkey – David Kotz

Lyme wildlife – September forest

Frolicking fawns and vandalous bears!

Last week, I posted a video of September clips from the wildlife cameras in my backyard. Today, I’m sharing September clips from my other collection of wildlife cameras, in a forested area here in Lyme New Hampshire. This batch includes an exciting first – a bobcat carrying its prey, presumably back to its den for sharing with the kits. We also see mama bear and her two cubs, as well as a solo adult bear who likes to tear my cameras off trees. Finally, we get to watch a particularly fun segment at the vernal pool: a little fawn frolicking in the shallow water. It proves that every kid loves to play in puddles!

Lyme backyard wildlife – September

Bears and bobcats, oh my!

I found two of my older cameras and placed them in strategic locations in our backyard: down by the river, and on the trunk of a productive apple tree. Both of these locations attract a variety of critters –including a resident possum who loves fresh apples. This month, though, I was surprised to see both a bobcat and a black bear passing through in broad daylight! Click on the photo to see the video.

poster frame for the video; click to visit the video.

2025 Favorites

Favorite photos and videos.

Wow, 2025 was quite the year. With a dozen or more hikes in New Hampshire, and travels to Australia, England, Greenland, Iceland, New Zealand, Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Carolina, I had many opportunities for photography. Check out some of my favorite photos!

Sunrise view from Fryingpan Firetower, in the Blue Ridge of NC.

Lyme wildlife – June 2025

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!

Lyme wildlife – April pools!

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.

Lyme wildlife – April

Winter fades and spring emerges.

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.

Lyme wildlife – March

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.

2024 favorites

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!

Aurora borealis seen over the Northern Lights Village in Saariselkä, Finland.

Lyme wildlife – December

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.

Lyme wildlife – November part 3

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.