Parade of critters

We got a brand new fancy field camera and set it up a couple months ago.  It's on top a steep and rocky hill and it takes a good 15 minute hike and many breaks to get up to it.  I'm usually the one to go and it's my exercise for the day.  We set the camera up to take 3 shots once the motion detector goes off with a 1 second interval. At first, everything was great with a reasonable amount of shots to review each week.  We even put the old field camera up near it.  We've had a bunch of windy days and nights which resulted in at first hundreds of photos within a week, but the latest round has resulted in over 6,000 photos.  It's attached to a smaller tree that moves in the wind and there's an ample amount of branches and leaves into the field of view to set the camera off.  The top bear photo was enough to stop reviewing the photos in the field and quickly scramble back down the mountain. I just hope this big guy survived the imminent bear hunt.  The usually visitors are the squirrel, oppossum, and raccoon.  The coon and possum seem to play tag team and their photos are always close to each others.  The squirrel shot is what I called the sunbeam squirrel shot.  For now, we've taken the cameras down and will wait later winter for some new action.  In the meantime, I hope that we can solve the excessive photos because my eyes are not happy from reviewing them all.

 

We also had a mystery guest as shown on the photo below.  The camera is set pretty close to the ground.  By process of elimination, we said it was a red fox.  We think its' up on the camera going for a very very quick sniff because the photos before and after it, which are one second apart, show nothing.....unless someone else thinks otherwise.

 

Quick visits

We had some quick visits over at the camera trap. Each video is short....like 20 seconds and sound is not needed. It's been bitterly cold and that has taken it's toll on the battery. Cold temperatures really drain batteries. The fox makes its quick appearance in the very beginning. The raccoons have a longer roly poly scampering appearance.

Lakota Wolf Walk

Following our attempt to get to Raccoon Ridge, a diner run, and refueling, we headed to the Lakota Wolf Walk. The parking area was packed and we decided to walk to the Wolf Walk rather than being driven in the bus. In theory, it wasn't that far and was through the woods. We huffed and puffed our way up the hill. Mind you we just came from a long hike, so our legs and lungs were already burning. But we made it and the wolves were seen lounging about or occasionally running along the double chain link fence. There were four enclosures for each of the wolf packs/types. They had ample woods, a small pond and a water trough. The wolves knew that it was time for doggie treats and they headed to the fence. They were rewarded for their appearance with a doggie treat and a pet through the fence by the tour guide. I still can't pick my favorite wolf let along my favorite wolf pack. We then got to try to make the wolves howl. Of course, it didn't work. But our tour guide called forward his howliest wolf (a puppy) and then howled to the wolves. Howlie started right in and soon enough it became a case of the crying baby syndrome. More wolves chimed in (the other half of the wolves couldn't even be bothered to even sit up and continued with their naps) and just when you thought there were done another wolf started in and the whole cycle began again. It was very cool! Each wolf knows its name. I could've stayed there all day just watching them. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to take focused pictures through a chain link fence. The camera focuses on the fence and the wolves get blurred out.

Reluctantly, we left the wolf area and headed over to hear the fox and bobcat talks. The foxes were cute. I don't know why I didn't take any pics. I did have a bad vantage point (thanks to our late arrival) and was disheartened from all the blurry wolf pics. So that's probably why. But one of the foxes was super enchanted with the tour guide. He wouldn't leave her side and just gazed at her for at least 20 minutes. The promise of occasional treats and dinner! We heard a bunch of cool fox stories. I won't retell so you guys will have to go there and hear them for yourselves. Then the foxes were put away so the bobcats could come out. They were super cute and apparently are ferocious. More funny bobcat stories ensue. The entertaining part was watching the tour guide try to avoid being bitten by Cache the male bobcat. Below is apparently an action shot of Cache coming close to attacking. Did you know that a bobcat can take down a deer? Yes. It's true and crazy!