Who Is Eating The Blueberries?

 

A few weeks ago, I found several highbush blueberry bushes bent and broken, still heavy with berries. I set up a trail camera to monitor one bush, hoping a bear would take advantage of the low-hanging fruit—and a young bear did. The close-up video shows just how efficiently a bear can forage blueberries.

A squirrel also made frequent visits, which reminded me that small mammals benefit from a good blueberry crop, too.

Then, to my surprise, a family of three demonstrated how to reach the blueberries without getting wet.

Jim

Best Ever Moose - Trail Camera - Massachusetts

 

Now that bear activity has slowed, I have been repositioning trail cameras around beaver ponds in hopes of videoing ( TC) a moose feeding on aquatic vegetation or simply passing through. I expected a cow or young moose—not the impressive bull that walked past a Gardepro 7NWF camera. In all my years of camera trapping, this is the largest bull any of my trail cameras captured. He should look magnificent this fall before the rut.

Jim

Woods Have Calmed Down !

 

Bears are feeding in swamps with highbush blueberries, and several new bears have passed my trail cameras in these areas. The cover photo shows a new face. With mating season over, the woods have quieted down, and the trail cameras have videoed sows with cubs and yearlings in wetlands. A few scent-marking trees are still being used by medium to large boars.

Yesterday, while bushwhacking, I found a small area where a bear had rolled logs and pulled apart both a standing snag and a fallen one searching for insects..

Standing snag torn apart by bear

Bear spent time and effort pulling the downed snag apart

 

Jim

Find The Berries - You'll Find The Bears !

 

The small bear on the cover picture is a sow that had yearlings in tow late Spring. She is one of the three bears foraging on blueberries in a swamp.

 

Last year, the highbush blueberries had a banner crop in the swamps I was camera trapping. This year, the crop is more uneven: several swamps have sparse berries, while one swamp is loaded. Three different bears have found that site, as shown by broken blueberry branches and numerous scat piles throughout the swamp.

Highbush Blueberries

Bush Damaged From Bear 

There  is still some light scent marking going on with several bears at scent marking trees. One location that has been slow all year had three new bears pass by the marking tree in the last two weeks. Maybe just a coincidence.

I was excited to capture trail-camera video of a third sow with four cubs. So far this year, that makes three sows with four cubs each. The first sow with cubs was a considerable distance from the last two sows. The physical characteristics of the second and third sows made them easy to distinguish: one had a large body and a very dark muzzle, while the other had a much smaller frame and a brown muzzle.

Bear Scat w/ Blueberry Seeds Visisble

I have been moving trail cameras into blueberry swamps in hopes of capturing more videos of new bears.

Jim

Gardepro Solar Package Beaver Pond Set

 

It has been hot lately, so I’m glad I enjoy getting an early start at dawn.

Gardepro sent me an A60 Solar Package trail camera and I have it set up in a quiet, remote beaver pond. Wildlife activity has been slow in this area, likely because of the extreme heat. I also have two Gardepro T5WF trail cameras set nearby. I included a short YouTube video to share more details about the location.

So far, the A60 and T5WF cameras have videoed a respectable bear crossing the dam on a foggy morning. A few days ago, the T5WF captured a yearling cub foraging on the dam.

I use the T5WF white-flash trail cameras for fisher scent posts during the winter, though I believe this model is now obsolete.

I’ll share more photos as the summer goes on.

https://youtu.be/Ih9XxnbZLsI

Jim

Moose On The Move

 

It has been two months since I found this snag, which a bear had torn into while foraging for insects. A cow moose is the first notable mammal to pass through this location. I am still hoping the bear that excavated the snag returns, so I placed a small stick across the opening to tell from a distance whether anything has entered the cavity.

Moose have been on the move, with several cows and bulls triggering the trail cameras. So far, two different calves have been videoed.

Highbush blueberries are beginning to ripen, and one lone yearling has started feeding in one of the swamps my trail cameras are monitoring.

Jim

Just Like That, Everything Has Gone Quiet

 

My trail cameras have been working overtime recording bear activity throughout May and most of June. But this morning’s SD card check was unusually quiet. I checked three locations, with eight cameras monitoring bear scent-marking trees and two beaver dams. Seven cameras had zero bear triggers, and one TC captured two smaller bears crossing a log bridge.

Berry patches will likely be the next major food source. With mating season nearly over, sows with cubs should begin moving more freely. My trail cameras do not often capture sows with cub’s scent marking, but one sow with two cubs has been marking consistently in one area since early spring. Now, a second sow—the one in the cover photo—has marked in another location. Maybe sows with cub’s scent mark more than I realized, or perhaps my cameras simply have not captured much of that activity over the years.

Last week, while checking one of my more distant trail camera locations, a TC captured a second collared sow with four cubs. In ten years, this is only the second time my trail cameras have recorded two different sows with four cubs.

2nd Sow w/4 cubs

Jim