Saturday, October 17, 2015

Summer and fall 2015

Getting good wildlife photos with a camera trap might seem easy; just plunk a camera in the woods and come back in a few weeks and collect your images!  It's not quite that easy though.  Takes a lot of exploring,  experimentation, and just plain luck!  The following are the best of this spring, summer and fall.

The first four pictures are from the same set, up in the boreal forests of Isabella, MN.  Not much shows up, but what does is usually interesting.  This is a lynx after an early May snowfall.





This gray fox showed up at the same set.  Gray fox were usually thought of as a species of the hardwood forests, but seemingly not anymore.


A timber wolf came by.




Finally a red fox.

Was hoping for an owl, got a snowshoe hare.



Drumming grouse


Wood duck







7 comments:

  1. Very nice photos. What lure did you have at the set where you got the photos of the lynx, gray fox and wolf?

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  2. Thanks Woody. I don't remember what was there when the lynx came by, but the foxes and the wolf were pulled in by a paint can full of rotten chicken gizzards hanging in the tree(small holes punched in the lid so flies can't get it); the red fox is looking up at it. I think the timber wolf is sniffing the ground right under it.

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  3. Wow, your photos are amazing! What kind of camera are you using? Is it a homebrew? Photos seem to be of much better quality than is typical of commercial trail camera photos.

    Also, how did you determine where to station the camera to get the drumming grouse? Did you find droppings there before placing the camera, or did you choose that log just because it was the right size and in the right habitat?

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    1. Thanks Janet! My photos are mostly taken by homebrew camera traps using inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras (Sony H70 and Sony S600). I have removed or blocked the onboard flash and am using an offset flash to improve the quality of the night photos. You can read about how I do that here: http://camtrapper.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9557

      The exception to the above is the deer and the wood duck which were taken with a commercial camera--Scoutguard 565 white flash camera, which takes great daytime photos (or took I should say, as both of my Scoutguards are kaput). If you are interested, you can buy ready made home brew cameras.

      The log was a very striking large, moss covered white pine. I flushed a grouse near there in the fall, and guessed it was a drumming log. I returned in the spring and found a lot of droppings. I think it would be pretty easy to go out in the spring and home in on a drumming log while they are drumming.

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    2. Thanks! We are working on a homebrew cam with an inexpensive point and shoot. can't believe a scoutguard took the deer and the duck. I have a scoutguard 565 and its pictures are not that good. Anyway, thanks - we need to get our homebrew going. Much better pictures!

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    3. I bought the Scoutguards in 2013. I bought another one about a year ago and it wasn't as good. I wondered if they had changed something. When did you get yours?

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    4. I just got mine within the past year. NOt impressed at all so far.

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