2023 Massachusetts Bear Activity

 

What a year it’s been camera trapping bears in Massachusetts. It will be interesting to see when trail cameras capture the last sow with cubs for 2023. This week a sow with a completely black face was videoed (cover picture). She had three yearlings with her. That mom is new to my camera trapping area, making her the twenty fifth different bear caught on camera traps so far this year.  This is up from eighteen in 2022. Also, in October last year, my trail cameras went dry not capturing any bears during October. This year, October has reached thirty-seven camera trap triggers with a few days to go. Also, the last bear captured on a TC in 2022 was November 10^th. What date will it be this year?

I had a neat experience this week while out in a swamp setting a trail camera. I felt like something was watching me. Typically, when this happens, I look up and there’s a deer looking at me. That morning it was a bear! How neat. When I stood up it ran the opposite way.

Jim

Bears Soon To Den - 2023 Camera Trapping Goals

 

Just one more plug for my upcoming “Quabbin “presentation October 25^th 7:00 PM Rutland Massachusetts Library. Would enjoy seeing you all.

Bears will soon be looking for their winter dens. Sows with cubs and females will usually den early November. Food is the determining factor.

My focus on bears the last four or five years has been quite a
learning experience. I can now recognize bear sign while bushwhacking and have located ideal bear habitat with the best camera trapping results yet.

Time to start thinking about 2024 camera trapping goals. As shared in the past, these enjoyable goals motivate me and assist me in learning about nature. Let’s review my 2023 goals. I’m pleased with the effort but didn’t quite get a bear / den picture suitable for the wall but came close. Here were 2023 goals:

-          Video of a bear with a beaver lodge in the background – hopefully nice enough to frame.

-          Video a bear crossing a log or what I call a log walker.

-         Video a day daytime video with a cow moose and calf

 

 

 

Jim

Presentation - Rutland Massachusetts Library - Oct 25, 2023

 

Yet A Bigger Bull

 

It looks like a bigger bull showed up last week. Comparing pics from last week’s cover picture to this week’s pic it looks to have a bigger rack. A bit tough to tell though.

The weather has been great this week for hiking and even got a morning of kayaking in retrieving trail cameras. Last week while checking trail cameras in another area I noticed the beaver pond was losing water. Yesterday I hiked in to check it out, the beaver dam had breached from the recent heavy rains. This is the second beaver dam to let go in my camera trapping areas. There were two active lodges on this beaver pond. It will be interesting to see when the water flow slows at the breach if the beavers repair the dam. My guess would be yes. I will check it out in a month or so. The low water level provided an opportunity to hike the shoreline looking for tracks. A small bear had left decent tracks so yesterday I hiked back in to cast those tracks.

Jim

Breached Beaver Dam

 

Cast Bear Tracks

MA Bull Moose Rut In Full Swing

 

The Massachusetts moose rut is in full swing. Last weeks “Biggest Rack Bull” fell into second place. The brute  pictured above recently passed by two of my camera sets. Clearly a respectable bull for MA. Another bull with a smaller rack also triggered a camera trap during the day in another location. The game plan was to hopefully capture a video clip of a bull during the day. Guess that box can be checked off.
Now can a camera trap take a closer video clip of the top bull. He missed passing by my camera trap sets by about twenty-five yards. Reviewing the videos, he approaches from the east heading west. I have relocated trail cameras in anticipation that he will repeat the same approach. Stay Tuned

Jim

Three Respectable Bulls So Far This Ma Rutting Season

 

My trail camera check this morning gave up the biggest Massachusetts bull so far, this rutting season. He is pictured above. Reviewing all my moose video footage since September 1^st has captured three different bulls in two areas. I still have several locations to check over the next few days. I’m still looking for a nice day time video of a bull. Interesting the location I checked this morning usually has at least one cow passing a trail camera each week. Nothing this week

Jim

Moose Are On The Move !

 

It appears my TC’s are dialed in for the Massachusetts moose rut. One area had videoed several cows grunting and   this mornings SD card check had several bulls that have passed by the trail cameras at night, I did see a beautiful cow hiking this morning. I won’t be able to check the other moose spots for a week or so heading out camping.

Overall moose activity on trail cameras has been high. Hopefully I’ll capture some nice moose footage over the next several weeks.

Jim