Coyote and the elusive Otter

I pulled most of my cameras and will move them to a different area, seems the deer and elk are bothered again by a cougar. When that happens I will change locations for several months.

I did get a coyote and the tail of an elusive otter on the river camera. The camera was well hid but the otter are fast and traveling long distances this time of the year so are difficult to get a good photo. Will be easier after the pups are born this spring.


It's been busy lately and just finished taking my antibiotics for lymes and starting to feel frisky again to get into the woods, especially when the sun comes out.

Stimulus money is working in rural America

It appears the stimulus money is definately working its way to all in rural America. Seems the beaver have bid out a very large job that should employ many from the neighborhood for years to come, if the wind doesn't finish the job first.


I thought the chips were getting smaller and the tracks were almost impossible to find. Just shows how animals can work together in rural America.

Rewarding day for trail camera photos

The weather was nice and warm with the sun peeking through the clouds for the beginning of a 4 mile hike to the cameras. Half way to the first camera I knew I was on a roll because not once had I tripped and fallen or had a limb poke me in the eye. It would surely not last, after I saw the pocupine photo I had been waiting a week for it was down hill the rest of the day.

Too close for the Porcupine, so I moved the camera back about 2 feet.


Then off to the beaver dam camera and a nice picture of half of a Blue Heron. Well done cliff.


A great photo of me walking up on the beaver tree camera. That's a keeper.

And to top off the entire day, I got home and had a tick trying to eat me alive. Now I'm being treated for lymes disease and an infection from the tick bite.

Wild turkey on river trail

This camera was set on an otter landing at a different angle than how I normally use in this location, mainly because I was hoping for some predators to pass by while waiting for the otter. As luck would have it, a flock of turkeys fed their way by the camera and had a nice closeup of a hen. No otter yet and never saw any coyote or bobcat tracks in the sand so I feel good about the turkeys.

The only animal I saw today on my hike was a grouse, but when I got home I watched an otter feed in the river for almost 15 minutes and it was fantastic. Have seen them in ponds feeding many times, but to sit in the house and watch one play and feed was something else. I do believe they could out swim a salmon.

Front door to a porcupine home

Should get a good closeup of a porcupine either leaving or entering this pile of logs and brush. Think I had the flash set ok, I hope, should know soon when I check the camera.

Time for beaver valley

The weather is warming up so I hit the creeks and my favorite beaver dams to check out all the new construction. Seems the population has doubled in the small creeks and lots of activity, from falling and logging trees to repairing and raising most of the dams. Set a couple of cameras on the spillways over the dams and some aimed at trees their falling.

Also took my Flip movie camera with me and took videos of one of the dams, then made a snapshot from the video.