I never realized beaver dams have a role in a deer’s feeding
pattern. Setting camera traps on beaver dams the last several years has shown
that deer constantly visit dams to feed. It appears they feed on lily stems.
One day last week while checking camera traps I saw a very large buck out on a
beaver dam midmorning, pulling vegetation from beneath the water’s surface. The
doe above is a snag from a video. There is not a week that goes by that
several deer aren’t on this dam feeding.
Jim
Camera trapping bears in Massachusetts continues to be productive. It's surprising how many sows the trail cameras have videoed this spring. Today is the first day of summer ! A new season . Blueberries will be ripe soon. I have camera trap sets in several areas with lots of wild berries.
The picture above is a grab from a video. I really like the composition of this clip. Certainly worthy of hanging on the wall. It will be interesting to see if it breaks down when enlarged.
It 4:15 AM and time to head out before it gets to hot. The anticipation of checking SD cards is always a motivator ....
Jim
Persistence Pays Off.
One of my camera trapping goals for this year is to capture more of the animal and its environment. In the past my style of camera trapping was to basically capture a portrait of the animal.
The sow with the cubs is a “grab from a video” . I have learned that in most cases a video grab will give you more options with picture selection and most pictures are worthy of hanging on the wall.
It took seven weeks to capture this sow with two cubs crossing the beaver dam.
Risk versus reward. This is a secluded swamp with little human interference. There were no trees close enough to the dam.to mount a trail camera. The rotted stump just to the right of the sow was punky and I was not comfortable affixing a camera to it. The only option left was to fabricate a place to secure a camera. The ideal place would be on the end of the beaver dam. I found a beaver chewed tree from the dam and sunk it in the mud, then reinforcing it with a few smaller sticks.. Now all I needed was a bear hopefully with cubs to cross the dam during the day. The rest is history.
Jim
What miserable weather for Memorial Day last weekend in Massachusetts ! It rained heavy at times and temperatures stayed in the mid 40’s all weekend. I did hike each day with rain gear . It wasn’t the most enjoyable hiking conditions as I checked SD cards in three different areas. Bear activity slowed down with only capturing two bears on video last week. I was somewhat surprised at this with bear mating season in full swing.
I moved several cameras that were positioned inside the wood line of swamps , out into the swamps. Moose will start visiting secluded ponds in search of new plant vegetation. One of my goals is to hopefully capture a good video / picture of a moose in the water feeding. The video below was captured using two trail cameras. One above the dam pointed at the center of the dam and the second TC positioned below the dam pointed at the center.
Another anecdotal project I’m working on this year is monitoring a swamp over four seasons. So far so good, except for losing some winter coverage to a hard drive crash. Lesson learned for sure !
Jim
The more I thought about it the more questions I had. A return trip provided the answer. A big ole' elm tree sat directly in the middle of the scat piles. Not sure how this was missed the first time! I guess the excitement of locating all the scat piles kept me focused looking down at the ground.
Once I looked at the tree, there was no doubt this was a bear " baby sitting tree" What a find !! The wear marks on the tree trunk were very obvious.
The collared bear and cub(s) are the same family of bears that were videoed last month in another swamp located about three and one half miles away.
The collared bear is a Massachusetts study bear. This bear helps provide important data to the bears home range, habitat, reproduction rate , cub survivor rate ( winter bear den checks).
Based on my anecdotal data so far this year with capturing videos of:
- several single bears
- sow with four yearlings
- sow with three three yearlings
- sow with three COY ( cubs of year)
All in one location might suggest Massachusetts bears are thriving.
Late May and June are mating season for black bears in MA. The likelihood of seeing a bear is the greatest this time of year, with males spending more time travelling in pursuit of a mate. I'm hoping to catch a " Big Bruin" passing one of my trial cameras in the next few weeks.
Took my canoe out for it's " maiden voyage" yesterday on the Ware River. My daughter and I paddled five miles. We saw lots of herons and several water snakes.
Jim
The calm water and light patchy fog made an ideal setting seeing my first loon of the day. As the sun started to brighten the west shoreline of Mt Zion Island there was an eagle watching the reservoir .
In years past I had located three eagle nests. Todays journey was to see if they were still being used, The furthest nest was on Curtis Island. While there, I motored along the southeast shoreline to catch a glimpse of the fieldstone walls of the old Dugmar Country Club ( pictured above). This dwelling has an interesting story . Unfortunately none of the eagle nests were active. Three eagles were seen during the day.
I used a Garmin Inreach to track m route. I use this when hiking the Quabbin woods because cell phone service is poor at best in most areas.
Jim
