MA Bears On The Move !

 

Last week was a big week for bears. Two of the new locations were active. The new scent tree location had two visits from bears and two sows with yearling cubs were videoed in the area. The second new location had the “ biggest bear” to date pass by a camera trap.(cover photo). This bear is beautiful and what a “ blocky head.” Haven’t videoed and sows with new cubs yet. Should be soon !

I spent a morning sitting with my camera watching a breached beaver pond. It was actually  very quiet with no wildlife seen. I hope to get back there next week. Before leaving , I set a camera trap watching the exposed beaver lodge.

Another secluded beaver pond has had a small bear visiting it on a weekly basis.

Jim

Pond Watch With My Camera

 

I changed the pace a bit last week and sat with my camera watching a beaver pond. This pond’s beaver dam breached early April. Last Sunday pre-scouting the small pond , its water level was down considerably exposing the shoreline. The beaver pond is small ( 225 Yds long x 90 Yds wide). My sitting spot has ideal lighting with the sun behind me while watching the west side of the pond . The first morning was eventful. A lone beaver patrolled the pond at dawn stopping to eat, chewing the bark off small branches. It was not long before it caught my scent and gave me the tail slap on the water. I was trying to avoid this because no doubt the tail slapping alerts wildlife to danger. All went quiet for about an hour or so, while watching the distant shoreline a small bear appeared out of nowhere, heading towards the beaver lodge. I was able to get a decent picture before it disappeared into the wood line. I am going to spend a few mornings there next week.

 Checking SD cards at a different location, the stream log trail camera set captured a good video of a “ Flying Bobcat.” This is a pic grab from the video  

This morning, I checked the new bear scent post tree I shared with you in last week’s blog. Surprisingly, no bears passed by the scent tree. Hopefully, something with the next SD card check.

Jim

Big Bear Only In Cover of Darkness

 

Massachusetts fisher scent post activity has slowed down in April. In this video I have  summarized this year’s Fisher highlights. Included are several fisher behaviors that were learned by me camera trapping. Last winter tracking a fisher, two active scent posts were located sixty feet apart. I identified them as a    “ Primary” & “Secondary “ scent post. I didn’t think the two scent posts being in such close proximity of each other would stay active. The graphs at the end of the video show the activity.

 

It has been another good week hiking in the Massachusetts woods. While kneeling to change out SD cards , I looked across the small beaver pond and a bear was foraging along the shoreline. I tried to video it with my GoPro camera, but it was to far away. It was interesting watching the bear as it foraged for food, then stopping dead in its tracks when locating a bear scent tree. It stood up , turned with its back against the tree and started doing what I call the “ The Bear Jig.” This consists of deep knee bends and rubbing its back up and down the tree. It did this for three or four minutes, then laying at the base of the tree. I guess this might have been to rest after the vigorous rubbing activity. After a few minutes’ resting, the bear moved on as it continued to search for food. Watching the bear scent marking was interesting and the bear identified a scent marking tree. A trail camera was set and hopefully more bears will leave there scent travelling through the area. Stay tuned.

Fisher scent post activity has slowed down; however, a male fisher has freshened the scent post twice in April. I’ll leave TC’s for the month.

https://youtu.be/59A6WMamdic

Bear activity continues to increase. The first sow of the Spring with three yearlings passed by a camera trap in the cover of darkness. The video is what I call an evidence vid, it’s low light and doesn’t make for a good show and tell.

The biggest bear so far this year ( cover pic) has triggered the same trail camera five times over three weeks. All have been at night. It’s a beautiful big bear, I hope I’m lucky enough to have him pass the TC during the day.

I did get out in my kayak this week with a camera in hopes to get a few pics of migratory ducks. Nothing yet !

Jim

Bear # 4 - So Early in The Spring

 

An eventful week to say the least! It started while hiking back to an area that has shown considerable bear sign this Spring. Enough so, that additional trail cameras were packed in. Bushwhacking along, I watched a distant moose canter along the open hardwoods. Certainly, a wonderful way to start the morning. Reaching the area with all the bear activity and kneeling to set up the first trail camera . I felt like I was being watched. Looking up , their stood a moose, thirty yards away, staring at me! Neat and a bit concerning. I stood up, took a few steps, and the moose went on its way. A few minutes later I looked behind me and there stood the moose watching me again. I was glad it didn’t keep following me. Continuing along the swamp edge, movement eighty yards or so out caught my eye. A  bear was foraging, it wasn’t long before the light breeze carried my scent and the bear vanished into the swamp. Two more TC’s were set, and it was time to head out. Reaching a cart road and rounding the corner, a second bear of the morning walked slowly away from me. I watched it for a minute or so before it wandered into a thick area heading towards a hardwood ridge.

Also, this week ,I went to pull the two Fisher scent post trail cameras and was surprised to see that both a male and female had freshened the scent post. I figured scent post marking was over, given it has been sixteen days since the prior  scent post visit. Last year, activity stopped on March 17^th. It will be interesting to see when activity stops this year.

Late Wednesday ( before Thursday snow) bushwhacking to check trail cameras, a second deer antler was found. This one is unique (pic). It appears to have shed the winter of 2023. It was still in decent shape, with only a few chew marks from mice.

So, all and all, it was an eventful week in the woods.

With lots of effort and even more luck, my  Browning  Elite HP4 trail camera (Massachusetts) won the 2024 Trailcampro Video Contest. The contest rules were unique animal behavior and video quality. Who would ever believe a bear would behave as this one did in front of a trail camera? https://youtu.be/lsEZ-n4Zt-M

The cover picture bear is the forth different bear. The 2024 bear activity is starting out strong. In early April Sow’s with yearlings should start showing up on trail cameras then late April early May Sow’s with COY.

Jim

More and More Bears Showing UP On TCs

 

Last week after watching two otters preen and rub their scent on top of grass hummocks, I repositioned the trail camera just in case they returned. My efforts paid off with two minutes of wonderful otter footage. I included a snip below.

The cover pic is a young bull. I’m surprised to see he still has his antlers this late in March.

I’ll be pulling the Fisher sets this weekend. Scent post activity has stopped. A female really worked her scent back in mid-March I thought for sure a male would have responded to her last scent post coverage.

A hike this week to check the ledge camera trap sets turned out to be quite an eventful trip. The SD cards had two bobcats passing an opening that possibly could become a den site. Or at least that’s what I thought until I saw bear footage. Not that a bear would be out of the question in this spot, I just didn’t think I would ever capture a bear along this ledge transition line. 

Camera traps also videoed deer mice , chipmunks, and several gray squirrels. A paradise for a bobcat.

Jim

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

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

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

 

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

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. ?

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

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

Tracking Bobcat

 

I was able to check five of the beaver lodge camera traps sets this week. Most lodges had open water around them, which will hinder a bobcat from investigating. Next week’s temperatures don’t look  promising. It might reach close to  fifty degrees by Friday. My plan is to leave the sets until the end of February. Fisher scent post activity is picking up. February should be a good month. Hopefully, Massachusetts will get a little more snow so I can spend time tracking. A couple weeks ago I did track a bobcat for a while and was rewarded with a “ Ponce Site” Cover Pic. I am a beginner at best and attempted to show the sequence of events in the photo. If you have a different take, please email me at hikingcamera@aol.com . When checking the fieldstone camera set this week, I was surprised to find the trail camera laying on the ground. I was even more surprised to see that a late January bear removed it from the post.

Jim

Bobcat Activity Picking Up

 

I was able to check the six-beaver lodge camera trap sets last week. Three of the six lodges had bobcat activity. The bobcat that was on the cover last week walked by the same lodge  in darkness. One of the abandon lodges had a bobcat pass by the lodge six times over the last week . Activity is picking , just need some daytime videos. Coyotes are regular visitors to all the lodges.

Tracking the fisher last week resulted in capturing some good video footage of a female visiting the scent post then a male checking it out about an hour later.

https://youtu.be/ZoL7l_LKHOA

 Late last fall I located an outcrop of boulders with a ledge. Trail cameras were set in December. A TC check this week had two videos of bobcats. That is the cover pic this week.

Jim

Bobcat Activity Slow / Tracking Fishers

 

With below freezing temperatures in Massachusetts this week, beaver ponds have finally frozen over. January bobcat activity is off to a SLOW start. The bobcat pic above is a video grab. It would have been an impressive pic had it been one hour later. The tracks on the lodge belong to a coyote. Surprisingly, the pictured bobcat had no interest in the lodge. Earlier in the week beavers were adding mud to the lodge during the snowstorm.

With the few inches of snow central MA received this week, it made for ideal tracking conditions. My hope was to locate a fisher track in the fluffy snow. Fortunately, that happened, and I spent the last mornings tracking one fisher and learning its behavior. The total trail length was three miles zig zagging through the woods. The trail never ventured more than a mile and a half from the starting point. I did locate two active scent posts and set up trail cameras on them. With fisher mating season beginning soon, hopefully the fisher use those scent posts. While tracking this morning, I did locate five moose beds. After seeing them I had hopes of coming across a moose shed. No such luck !!

https://youtu.be/njhVtebmzi4      video added 1/20/24

 

Jim

 

Massachusetts Trail Camera Activity Slow

 

Not much is going on with trail camera sets last week. The weather has been all over the place. My area of Massachusetts received fifteen inches of snow last week, then two significant rain events. Flood warnings are in affect and ponds have little if any ice on them. The long-range forecast looks like cold temperatures next week. Hopefully then TC’s will start capturing videos of bobcats investigating beaver lodges. One trail camera did get a decent bobcat video at the fieldstone wall set. That TC missed what would have been a nice second video of the bobcat exiting the den.

 

If you set enough trail cameras you have experienced that trail cameras aren’t precise instruments and don’t always trigger as programmed. It’s difficult to understand how this trail camera could have  missed the second trigger. When I viewed the first video, I was surprised to see that the bobcat spent a minute inside the opening. Watching the next video in sequence and anticipating an IMPRESSIVE exit capture of the bobcat, it did not happen! The Bushnell Aggressor triggered fifty-nine seconds later with nothing on the video. I’m guessing the bobcat exited just prior to the start of the second video while the camera was re-setting .

Jim

Winter Finally Arrives In Massachusetts

 

Finally, wintry weather in Massachusetts. It has been a busy week checking  camera trap sets that are monitoring beaver lodges, only one beaver pond had enough ice to support a coyote or bobcat  ( cover pic). Although the temperatures are going to get above freezing next week, hopefully the ice will stay. Last week, two camera trap sets on log bridges captured bobcats crossing during the night. I will start keeping track of the number of bobcats that trigger trail cameras this winter. Tomorrow morning, I head out on my first tracking adventure of the year. Certainly, will be a bit challenging with a foot of snow.

Jim