Bobcat at ground level

I had placed a second photo of this cat on an earlier post, mainly because I liked the bobcat looking away into the swamp with a little haze in the air. This was the first picture as it walked into the camera, because it was close I was able to identify this same bobcat on a different location months later. Since then I have seen otter tracks as well as mink, raccoon on the edge of the pond and it's a good deer and elk crossing.

Tip for game cameras when changing locations

Lot's of things to remember when moving your trail cameras to a new location and for different animals. I made a mistake of not checking the settings on a camera that was set for frogs (very close focus, low flash and ISO at 100) and setting the camera up for deer and elk on a trail. Very dark night photos and some just showing eyes in the dark. It's also nice to plug the camera into the board, place batteries into the camera, make sure the camera is in picture mode and not movie or review mode and to turn the camera on when leaving. I've done all of these at one time or another and most likely will continue.

Bull elk lurking a couple miles from my house

This was a suprise to me, had been getting some elk photos in this area and even a few bulls, but this a first for this bull. Wish it would have been closer to the middle of the picture but at least it's during the day. Really a good brush bull with dark antlers.

Aiming a trail camera for small and large animals

Sometimes on a new trail you need to set the game camera up for predators and larger animals such as deer and elk. It's nice to get close enough for a bobcat and still get the entire deer in the photo, this can be done if you keep the camera low, about 2 feet off the ground and aimed a little above level and still keep the bottom of the trail in the field of view. It also helps to set the camera above the trail on uneven ground.

Here's a porcupine and a deer on this location and the deer worked out fine.



This Olympus 380 was set above and four feet from the trail for bobcats but still wanted to see if many deer used this trail next to a swamp. I like to use the 380 when testing new trails because it's fast and and has a good field of view. If I'm pleased with the different animals and the background I will move in a Sony 41 for better quality pictures, this saves a lot of time for a high quality camera to set for weeks and even months waiting for an animal to use the trail.

I also had a bobcat during the day but the flash went off and had some eye glare.


This particular trail showed good promise during the first week, so I will swap the 380 with a 41 on the next checking.

Turkey on same trail as the porky

Finally getting some action on the predator trail, the same place as the porky photo. While hiking in to the trail I found where a coyote had killed a turkey about 100 yards down the trail from my camera, so I was sure I had either a yote or a turkey photo. No yote but a couple of turkeys. Wasn't pleased with background on the photo so I moved it across the trail and will see what happens.

Porcupine rushing past the camera

Well maybe not rushing, but fast for a porky. I've been trying to get a photo of one up a tree eating bark and will try again next spring.

On another note, I have been searching for a large ant hill to place a long term camera to find out the types of animals that dig the ant hill apart. Found a nice one but it had been torn up in the middle recently, plus it's out in the open and can be seen easily, so it's out of the question. Need one that's out of the way from humans if I'm going to leave a camera on it for months at a time.

One of the first digital trail cameras is still a workhorse

I still use the Olympus 380 in a few of my game cameras, it was one of the first digital cameras that replaced the 35mm film cameras. Only 2 megs but if you set it close you can get some very nice photos. Not the best flash but it is very quick to take a picture. I set them less than 6 feet from the trails and works great for predators.

This beaver runway is well used so I wanted to test out a long term camera to see how the external batteries and camera worked up close. I have a little flash bleed, but it is very quick and and the batteries worked great.