It’s been a good month camera trapping bears. The tally so far for April
is seven different bears. I still have two locations to check next week.
Yesterday, I finally found an old chewed deer shed heading into a camera
trapping spot. Checking two trail cameras that have been there about a month showed
a consistent visit from a coyote during the day and it wasn’t skittish
about passing by the cameras. I suspect there’s a den in
the area.
Now that Spring is here, I’ve been sitting
with my SLR camera watching a swamp come alive. Lots of waterfowl seen with the
spring migration north. There is a beaver lodge in view and what a show I got
the other day. A Beaver colony typically consists of two adults, two adolescents
and two newborn beavers. Late April or early May the two adults will” push” the two adolescent
beavers to leave the lodge. This process can become physically confrontational
and vocal, as it did to this morning. It took nearly four hours with both parents
continually driving the youngsters away from the lodge for them to finally move
on. Things quieted down after that, then two kit beavers were seen swimming
around close to the lodge entrance. Just when I thought the excitement was over,
a large snapping turtle surfaced about twenty yards from the beaver lodge. Immediately
one of the adults moved into the turtle’s space and
persuaded it to move on.
What an awesome morning “Swamp Watching.”
Jim
