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On the way to checking my camera trap today I noticed a new bobcat scat on the trail. When I checked the camera I got the good news that I'd caught a bobcat on the first day of the set.
The bad news, unfortunately, was that the cat was my only catch all week (aside from a few wind-blown tanoak branches).
I suspect the camera trap frightened the bobcat. The three images you see here are the three-in-a-row that the camera fires off whenever it's triggered.
I'm sympathetic with the frightened cat. Here it comes around the bend, minding its own business and probably having passed this way numerous times in its life, when it encounters something uncanny and probably unique in its experience -- a small box-shaped creature with flashing red eyes. I only hope I haven't tainted the cat's route forever.
But how about an alternative explanation for the quick turnaround. Maybe the cat spotted a squirrel up in a tree and was simply slinking back the way it came to better stalk its quarry.
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