I put four cams out in the same general area in late December to get a sense of which trails the animals were using. I'm not talking about hiking trails, but game trails, although a pair of intrepid off-trail hikers did flash a peace sign at one of the cams.
I was surprised by how frequently the trails were used by presumably the same few deer. The SD cards recorded so many frames I thought for sure there would be a lot of wind-blown branches, or birds or squirrels, but it was almost all deer, and also several gray fox, with a few varied thrush, gray squirrels, and a tree-climbing mouse thrown in.
The buck above passed through on the afternoon of Jan. 9 while there was a bit of water on the lens. (BTW, this is Cam #2 as shown by the 0002 in the lower right of the info band).
And the very next day...
...he was down one antler! I'm pretty sure it's the same buck. He's even passing by within a half-hour of the previous day's time: 1:48 p.m. vs. 1:18 p.m.
I read that a buck's antlers will drop when their post-rut testosterone levels drop.
This wasn't the only buck who lost a new year's antler...
...except this guy lost the antler on the other side of his head.
Here's the same guy being caught by Cam. #3 a couple minutes later. I believe this is the same buck that was caught, with his antlers still intact, in the shot below.
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