Welcome to My Game Camera Photo Logbook. Join me as I use hidden game cameras to photograph deer, elk, eagles, hawks, cougar, bear and other animals that live around Mt. St. Helens. So, come along and let's get to know what lands on that stump or walks that log, and explore this forest that the animals call home.
posted by cliff @ 7:00 PM
4 comments
I've enjoyed hiking in the outdoors my entire life while trying to study the habits of animals. Mainly it was always a guess on what type of animal used the trails, unless you saw well defined tracks. But that has changed since I started using game cameras, now pictures show me whatever uses the trail day or night. I have learned more about wildlife by using trail cameras in the last 4 years than I did in the first 50+ years and ended up with some great photos. I hope you will enjoy a few stories and tips on how to set the game cameras to get the best pictures.
4 Comments:
What a neat find! Can't wait to see Mr Prickles.
Thank you so much for your reply to my question yesterday.
On my forest wander yesterday, I found a den with two bears in it!!! Wow! The yearling stirred, and I left.
But, I'm hatching a plan to put a cam that doesn't point into the entrance but across it so that I can get photos as they depart in the spring. I have one IR cam that I'm thinking of using because I'm terrified of disrupting this family's hibernation with shocking incandescent flashes.
I think that I remember you writing that bears attack cameras. Is that true? I do have a metal case for my IR cam. Perhaps I should use it?
And, do you think that I will disrupt the hibernation if I sneak back one more time with a camera?
Sorry to be so full of questions but I have these competing motivations: (1) to get photos and learn more about these animals, (2) to never do anything that will hurt them.
Thanks! I hope that you get a porcupine photo. How did you know that it was a porcupine den entrance?
Codger, it looks like a long term camera. No fresh sign on the trail leading to the brush pile.
KB ... Great find on the bear den. Don't think it would bother the bear if it was aimed to catch them leaving the den. Also bears at times will bother the camera but not really an attack, just a playful claw or bite. I'm not into IR cameras, I like color photos and bears have powerful sense of smell so they know the camera is there and can get curious. Also, don't worry about hurting the wild animals with a game camera, have never seen where their habits have changed from the flash.
I saw the porkys tracks leading into the pile, but they can have several dens so it might take a while for a good photo.
How interesting to learn how animal habits differ in different parts of the country. I am in Massachusetts, and where porcupines are present, their dens are often obvious. It must be that good winter den sites are in short supply around here, because some of them have huge piles of scat spilling out of them.
In this area, where winter food sources and good den sites are concentrated, porcupines will live so close together that it looks like a colony. A slope of boulders near hemlocks (a favorite winter food here) can have many dens with loads of scat at the entrance.
Recently in such a location we saw four different porcupines scrabbling up the slope at mid-day in the span of less than an hour.
I hope you get some nice photos!
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