Saturday, March 23, 2024

Spring Trail Cameras All Set

 


What a transformation Scat Swamp has been through since the two beaver dams breached last August. Torrential rains collapsed the primary dam which in tun washed away the secondary dam (shown in the pic above).  The beavers built a new smaller lodge and rebuilt the secondary dam. The new dam has an abundance of sticks that are interlocked  and will be much sturdier than the prior dam. Last week a bobcat used the dam on three occasions. Hopefully, the new beaver dam becomes a bridge for a variety of wildlife.



I had a wonderful otter experience this week, As I walked up to an active beaver lodge  two otters were approaching. Standing motionless the two otters climbed up onto  grass hummocks a short distance from me . For twenty minutes they chattered , preened, played, and napped. My trail camera was set to monitor the lodge and didn’t catch the otters, oh well , it was an awesome experience, 



Finally found a decent eight-point deer shed while checking trail cameras this week. With little snow this winter it was ideal conditions to search for antlers. Three months of bushwhacking gave up two old, chewed antlers (one moose , one deer) before finding the eight-point shed this week.

After visiting Urgent Care and getting a script for steroids my poison Ivy has cleared up. Hope not to do that again !

Jim


Sunday, March 17, 2024

First 2024 MA Camera Trapped Bear

 

Last week I had one of those AWSOME camera trapping days, capturing my first 2024 Massachusetts bear on video. It is a fantastic way to start  with the onset of spring. Skunk cabbage has started to sprout in the local wetlands, A bears first greens. Hopefully, it will not be long be videoing sows with cubs.

Fishers are still visiting the scent post site. It will be interesting to see when the activity tapers off.

I was able to set more camera traps for bears this week. While doing so, I encountered poison ivy. Not sure where or how , but I managed to rub my face and eyes with it. That was a guaranteed trip to Urgent Care!! I am now back to wearing gloves when setting trail cameras. There are  several locations I still need to set cameras up. I will get them set next week.

Waterfowl are migrating north; it is an enjoyable time to be out with your camera. I loaded up the kayak, camera gear and headed out to a local hotspot yesterday. There were plenty of ducks, but unfortunately fog did not lift early enough. I will give it another try soon.

Jim

Morning camera trapping

https://youtu.be/4qeNZ0awrDw

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Massachusetts Bears Soon Will Be On The Move

 




Camera trapping bobcats over the winter was a fun project. In addition to bobcats investigating beaver lodges , coyotes were also frequent visitors. I was able to pull a  nice picture ( cover pic -  video grab) of an Eastern Coyote.

The lodge in the picture ended up attracting more wildlife over the winter than any of the other five lodges.

Last week was the start of setting  camera traps for emerging bears. With warm temperatures in the forecast, no doubt bears will be on the move. Unfortunately, the nicer weather also brings TICKS. I have already pulled them off my cloths. Time to spray cloths with Permethrin .

The heavy rains sure are playing havoc setting and checking camera traps around beaver ponds. I’ve added hip boots to my pack. I needed them last week and with the heavy rain last night, surely will need them next week.

A bobcat has presented an interesting challenge for me. The cat is using a downed tree in the outflow of a breached beaver dam as a staging platform before jumping across turbulent water . A camera trap was set in efforts to catch the bobcat airborne.

Jim

 

Friday, March 1, 2024

Camera Trapping Massachusetts Bobcat's

 

My  Massachusetts winter bobcat camera trapping project is complete. It consisted of monitoring  six beaver lodges, (four active and two abandoned) in efforts to learn more about bobcat behavior around beaver lodges, and  the frequency they visited  beaver lodges. The project goals were to  set camera traps  during January & February, this would provide 360 camera trapping days. ( 60 days x 6 lodges = 360 trapping days. Over those sixty days the hope  ( my fingers crossed) was to capture at least thirty-six videos of bobcats on or near beaver lodges. Then, with a bit of luck there will be at least four interesting captures and one unique capture. There were variables .Setting specific numbers may prove unreasonable. Starting with two weeks during January, there was minimal  or no ice and most of the lodges had exposed water around them. That  prompted me to add one trail camera closer to ab abandon lodge. That addition ended up a GOOD DECISION with  excellent footage captured. My point with sharing that information  is after setting camera trap(s) at a location. they may  need tweaking to increase your captures.

Over the two-month period camera traps captured twenty-seven  ( 73% expectation ) of bobcats near or at a beaver lodge.

Top Captures for the project were:

-          Bobcat on lodge with snow

-          Bobcat looks into camera.

-          Vocal – two bobcats follow each other.

-          Distant bobcat walks by the lodge, falls out of view of the trail camera, then reappears  scent marks and walks close to camera with beaver lodge in background. This is also the most unique video captured during the project.

All six lodges had at least one bobcat  visit over the two-month period.

 Keeping track of the frequency each bobcat visits to the lodges  identified one lodge as a hotspot. This lodge had fifteen visits ,the best I could determine from four different bobcats.

 

 Project Summary:

I wasn’t surprised to see the level of bobcat activity at beaver  lodges. Most lodges create an ideal habitat for rodents. The bobcat in the first video was impressive with its size. I concluded it was a female with the low riding prom… She has been elusive over the years , capturing her on video twice. One lodge had fourteen visits from four different bobcats. Why would that lodge have drawn more bobcats to it than the other five lodges? It comes down to the location of the lodge in relation to its surroundings. This lodge is just west of a dam that had partially breached last summer. Bobcats could still navigate the dam without getting wet. West of the dam is a steep ridge that naturally  funnels wildlife to the edge of the beaver pond. Once on the edge of the pond the first thing in sight is the beaver lodge. Add stable ice around it you become a magnet for predators.

 Camera Trapping Winter Bobcats in Massachusetts

 

 

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for spring  Massachusetts camera trapping projects.

 

Jim


Sunday, February 25, 2024

Black Vulture on a Trail Camera

 

Bobcat and coyote activity around beaver lodges  has certainly picked up with the frozen beaver ponds. Camera traps have videoed excellent bobcat activity. I’ll start sorting through the videos and put something together for next weekend’s post . I located a single skunk cabbage plant  that was starting to sprout last week. Fisher scent post activity has been extremely slow. Not sure why that is. Yesterday I made the long trek to the ledges to change out SD cards, it has been a month since my last visit. It is amazing the number of mice and chipmunks that were videoed running along the ledge. There was one unique visitor ( cover pic) Black Vulture. That is a first for me. Although it was eleven degrees this morning  ,  you could hear redwing blackbirds chattering away in  the swamp and chipmunks scampering along  fieldstone walls Sure sign that Spring is not far away.

Jim


Skunk cabbage in Feb. ?


Friday, February 16, 2024

Fisher Scent Post Activity High

 

Picture above is a female fisher working a scent post

The major snowstorm that was supposed to hit central Massachusetts last Monday night ended up being a dud, with only an inch or so of snow falling. It was heavy and wet , the kind that sticks to the front of a trail camera. All my sets required a bit of  cleaning off of snow. A second dusting snow in the middle of the week made for good tracking. I located a track that worked its way through an outcrop of boulders. It took a bit of researching but I was able to identify the track as a long tail weasel. This is a first for me , it was a new addition to my tracking library. Fisher scent marking is very good right now. Two of the three scents post that I am monitoring have had twenty-four visits over the last three weeks. I added a white flash trail camera to the most active post. I missed some incredible nighttime  footage by a day.

Jim

Below are the long-tail weasel tracks I followed mid-week








Sunday, February 11, 2024

Bobcat Activity Increasing

 



Bobcats are highly active now. This week I was able to check many of my trial cameras. YTD bobcat TC triggers reached forty-one for the year so far. Time is running out for ice around beaver lodges. This week’s SD card check had open water around four of the six lodges, one abandoned lodge camera trap set did capture a decent daytime video of a  bobcat. The pic on the cover is a video grab. I did lighten it up.

Two of the three Fisher Scent Post sets have been active. The video shows a comparison between a male and female. https://youtu.be/NYhFxu2oIpQ 

A snowstorm with heavy wet snow is coming Monday night. That will certainly put a damper on checking camera traps sets next week. I am mindful about leaving a trail to any of my trail cameras.

Jim