May

Here's a few more from our extremely late spring:

First, this is an immature bald eagle, caught feeding on a carcass.

The same set produced this bobcat.

I got wet several times for the next few pictures.  The first is a trumpeter swan;.

 These are hooded mergansers in the foreground.

Here's a wolf trying to keep it's feet dry.

Mallard

Not sure if it's growling or just licking it's chops.

 This deer was eating sunflower seeds under our bird feeder.

A different perspective on a gray squirrel.

Two beavers teaming up on dragging a sapling.

Not sure if these beavers are playing or fighting.

So close to a perfect trail camera shot!

April

Yes, there is still a lot of snow!

First, one more picture of a fisher.  This is the same set, and I'd guess the same fisher, from my last post.

The next two pictures were taken at an occupied beaver house.  I wonder what goes through a wolf's mind when it smells the beavers just a few a feet away!

I put a road-killed deer carcass out.  I set one camera up on a tree, hoping to get a nice bald eagle.  I got a few hundred raven shots, this being the best:

And then the bird with a face that only a mother can love:

And finally some open water!

Late winter fisher and marten

Interestingly, after mostly drawing a blank on these two species for much of the winter, both showed up within a week of each other, to sets that are less than 1/4 mile apart.    First, the fisher:  

Based on the apparent size and color, I guess this to be a small female fisher.

The marten below is quite a bit smaller.

Interesting how similar the pose is to the fisher's.

Wolves

We finally got a spell of warm weather, and least for a few days.  With another cold snap, the snow crusted nicely, and there was a definite uptick in animal activity.  I set a camera up on an abandoned beaver house, and got a lot of action (at least compared to the rest of the winter).  A rancid chicken carcass helped!

A bobcat made a brief appearance.  Like many cats, they don't seem to like tainted meat.

 The next week wolves showed up.  These are the highlights of about 10 triggers from wolves in the course of a few days.

More lynx and a hare.

Trying hard to get a nice pose on a lynx.  this is the best I've gotten so far.  

Every week there are multiple hare pics.  Here's the best one this week

A flying rabbit, and a few lynx

It's been a tough month, with deep snow and extreme cold.  Unfortunately, I took me the whole month to discover that when a camera freezes down to 30 below, it doesn't "save settings" so it no longer functions optimally as a camera trap.  Oh well.  I've got a ton of snowshoe hare pictures, however.  This one is about my favorite.  Looks like it's flying!

Here's another of my many snowshoe hare pics:

 This is a lynx captured in Isabella.  Lynx are around in unprecedented numberrs.  You can see it's tracks in the background.  Their feet are so big, it looks like they wear snowshoes.  You would be especially impressed if you tried to snowshoe yourself.  It's deep and very fluffy!

 Finally, there's this shot of a hind end of a lynx.  One of the ways you can tell a lynx from a bobcat is that a lynx's tail looks like it was dipped in black paint.  Unfortunately, it is going in the wrong direction, but I still like it.  They are sort of ghosts silently padding through the woods!

This week my cameras come in, as next weekend it the firearms deer season and I'm afraid of theft.  The beaver logging site was pretty quite.  Just one beaver skidding a log.  It's funny because there is plenty of trees down and waiting to be processed.

Then, this timber wolf showed up.  Sure glad it isn't going on the couch with those feet!