Moose Are In Rut - Massachusetts

 

A lot of scouting and a lot more luck helped placed this Bushnell Aggressor in the right location to catch moose activity during the 2022 Massachusetts rut. Turn the volume up. Appears to be three different bulls? The videos are all from the same trail camera. Of course …. It’s the oldest one I have and records in AVI. Hopefully one of those bulls walks by the TC during the day

Jim

 

Back from camping!

I checked most of my trail cameras this week seeing little to no bear activity until his mornings check. This location had a sow with four cubs, sow with three cubs and a single bear passing through the area over the last three weeks. It was nice to see the sow with the four cubs. She has been seen on three different camera traps sets covering several miles. Not that that’s a big area for a bear, but it helps me in plotting here home range.

Massachusetts Moose are beginning to rut. This means the bulls will be on the move. I’ve made a number of sets hoping to catch a swamp side bull during the day.

Jim

Family of Four Bears

 

The majority of my trail cameras have been pretty quiet the last several weeks, typically mid-August tends to slow down. Not sure why. September usually has much more activity.

I did move one of my older cameras about three weeks ago to the northern edge of my camera trapping area, hoping to capture a video of a collared sow with three cubs. Surprising, a second sow with four COY triggered the camera... My TC’s captured this family of four about two miles from this location several days earlier.

I’m heading out camping and will have limited  access to or no WIFI. It may be a few weeks before the next update

Jim

Got Lucky !

 

Persistence Pays Off.

Late May my camera traps caught glimpse of this cow and her new calf. The camera traps were a great tool in validating a cow had offspring in my camera trapping area.  Thought went into how creative a camera set could be made in effort to capture a quality video. Four sets were made in a river, thought was put into the back drop and the position of the sun... This set was on a metal fence post that I packed in and secured near a downed tree in the river.  Believe me when I tell you, there were many SD card checks with empty cards .It took approximately ten weeks to capture these video I couldn’t be more pleased !

Jim

Finally Found Bear Track

 

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Water levels are very low in Massachusetts. The last several weeks my “Tracking” efforts have been focused around wetlands in search of bear sign. Surely it shouldn’t be that difficult to locate a bear track in the shoreline mud! WRONG!! This morning’s hike was in close proximity to a large body of water. I couldn’t do anything wrong. A short distance from my hiking starting point a bear crossed in front of my truck. I thought, this might be the day!  And that it was. In my travels a variety of tracks were seen, moose, coyote, otter, deer, raccoon and bear. I located what appeared to be a sow and yearling(s) (yearling(s) guess on my part judging by the track size. While bushwhacking a short distance from the bear tracks, I came across what appeared to be a: Day Bed” of a bear. Today was a very productive tracking day.

Jim

Animal Activity Slow With Heat

 

Man! , It has been Hot!

 Animal activity has slowed down significantly. I did find at least a dozen piles of bear scat in an area with blueberries. All the scat piles had blueberries in them.  While crossing a beaver dam this morning I saw the longest water snake I’ve ever seen! Deer flies toned down a bit. I was able to hike without a head net. 

There is a small bear that consistently crosses one beave dam east to west. I setup a 2^nd camera on the west side of the swamp attempting to catch a front view.

We need RAIN. Water levels are down and beaver ponds are low. I was able to walk the shorelines on several ponds this morning. I haven’t been able to do this since March. It gave me the opportunity to relocate several trail cameras.

A slight change with the cover picture. Bucks are starting to lose their velvet

 

 

Jim

That Didn't Take Long !

 

Well, everybody has to get lucky some time! I spent considerable time setting out cams in what I have figured out to be this sows northern home range. My goal was to see if I could capture videos of her and cubs... This is the sow that had four yearlings last year. One camera trap early on did catch glimpse of her without cubs in early May. I was curious as to how many cubs she had in tow for 2022. Focusing on some wild blueberry patches in her core range, several camera traps captured the sow with three cubs. The trail cameras also captured several other bears in close proximity to the berry patches. It will be interesting to see if she frequents this area after the berries pass.

Jim