Pic above are the sheds I have found over the years. It’s been a good start to this year with an 8-point deadhead and moose shed. Hopefully more to be found in the coming weeks.

 

Thanks to all that attended the WRNC annual banquet on Feb 22nd. I enjoyed the dialog and questions following my presentation.

For sure this is “ The Dead of Winter.”  The most recent storm on top of the snow from late January has slowed wildlife activity. Snowshoeing last week  checking TC’s gave up a few Coyote tracks. I did see the first sign of Spring this weekend with maple syrup buckets hanging. I took a ride through an area with open fields on Saturday morning hoping to see a raptor activity, no luck.

I’ve been looking for a more efficient way to keep track of my trail cameras in the field. A field notebook has worked well in the past. This year I added more cameras, locations, and travel time. I have been researching Apps for my phone.

I  may have found the ideal App for keeping track of TC’s . I loaded all my trail camera detail and data onto the site. The site offers many features , the two most important ( to me ) camera location and camera location history. Once I start bushwhacking  new areas, I move TC’s frequently, and in the past have forgotten to note a move in my notes. I think ( hoping) having the phone readily at hand will make it easier. We shall see!

Using my phone to keep track should make it easier. I will share more on this after setting out my TC’s.

Jim

Wildlife Activity Is Slow

 

Thank You ! to the Ware River Nature Club for inviting me to present at their annual banquet yesterday. It was an enjoyable afternoon with a wonderful audience.

It’s been an uneventful week from a wildlife perspective. Trail Cameras have had no activity, and I haven’t seen anything while snowshoeing.

I have cleaned up and organized my trail cameras and hardware with anticipation of Spring ( 4 weeks away ). The lag bolts that I had previously purchased from a local big box store were snapping when removing  lock boxes from the tree. Also, I had various bolt sizes. The old bolts are now in the trash and  have only one size bolt to carry in my backpack.

It will be interesting to see how Fisher’s navigate the deep snow with the onset of mating season. The last two years, Fisher activity at scent posts was consistent starting mid-February. One trail camera had activity just before the big snowstorm in January , nothing since.

Jim

Ideal Conditions Snowshoes - Shed Hunting

 

What a great week in the woods! I have been snowshoeing, checking trail cameras and searching for deer and moose sheds. Two things were found this week, the first were muscles that haven’t been used that much in years, and the second was a respectable moose shed. As the week went on the sore muscles eased and the time out snowshoeing increased. I have been searching for the other antler starting back where  the first shed  was found, then followed every moose track in the area  for long distances.

https://youtu.be/xktgQTTmkaE

What made this moose shed an interesting find was finding a shed and having a video of the  bull, and it appears the bull has moose hair on the brow tine. Doubtfully that hair has been there since the moose rut back in early fall. That hair could suggest bulls still spar aggressively until there antlers drop.

Jim

Lucky Trail Camera Catch

 

I have been busy snowshoeing the last couple of weeks. The conditions were ideal. Yesterday I snowshoed to my deepest trail camera set. As I came up on the set, there was a deep oval depression in the snow. A moose had bedded  a short distance from the trail camera. Talk about getting pumped ! When I opened the camera to check the SD card, the batteries were DEAD ! You got to be kidding me…. Thankfully, my pack had spare batteries. After powering the TC up , there were many videos. A  quick look showed a moose on the screen. With  temperatures near zero, further review would need to wait until I got home.

I could not be more pleased; there were 130 videos spanned over 3.5 hours, with a moose centered in front of the trail camera. You could not have staged it any better. And ……... It all took place during the snowstorm back on Jan 26^th.

Jim

 

The weather this week has been a bit brutal with the temperatures. I did get out a few times snowshoeing checking trail cameras. It’s been years since there has been enough snow to really hike with snowshoes. With nearly two feet of snow, they certainly were effective. Only issue was cold feet, 800 Gram Thinsulate boots aren’t enough anymore. I now have a 2000 Gram pair. I’ll take them for a test run next.

Trail camera activity has been slow, and batteries are going dead fast with these below zero temps.. In past winters I only used lithium batteries The cost of them skyrocketed so I went back to alkaline. I think I’ll give  lithium rechargeable batteries a try.

Well , tomorrow is Feb 1^st and I call that the dead of winter. Things are slow. A couple of weeks from now it will be notably lighter later and then all downhill from there till Spring. I am really looking forward to more scouting and setting up trail cameras in the new areas this Spring.

Jim

 

I swapped batteries out in many of my trail cameras this week, The extreme cold and estimated snow totals forecasted for today’s snowstorm will keep me from weekly checks for a while. I will be breaking out the snowshoes for sure next week. Lots of miles hiked this month looking for sheds with no luck other than the deadhead I found a few weeks back. The heavy snow coming will blanket sheds for a while.

A pleasant surprise this week with a TC video of a bull in a winter setting. Picture above

I checked  few trail cameras this morning before the snow started. Glad I did , batteries were dead.

Jim

Good Tracking Conditions

 

I ‘ve located another new bear area for the Spring. This location has excellent bear sign Now I have plenty of new locations for 2026 and will need to whittle it down to just three . Late winter and early Spring I will spend more time scouting these spots.

I put a TC on a old Fisher  scent post snag from last year and was pleased to see a fisher had recently visited it this month  ( pic above). I will try to locate a few more scent posts with the next snow fall.

I've been invited to speak at the Ware River Nature Club  ( WRNC) Annual Dinner Banquet, where I'll present my top wildlife photos, videos, and share my adventures.  It should  make  for an enjoyable afternoon. If your interested in attending you can find more information at 

https://www.warerivernatureclub.org/

Jim