It was more foxy than usual around the pool the last couple of weeks.
One difference, though, is that the fox was always alone. Another is that it's showing up in the daytime.
Sometimes I can't figure out how an animal that appears to be heading directly for an area covered by another camera manages to escape without being camera-trapped. This fox is leaping toward the pool, but it didn't trigger the pool cam.
Often, an animal will light up one cam...
...then trigger a second cam.
This is where the fox ended up when she jumped off the log. In the past, this cam often didn't get triggered at times like this. The pool is to her left, but she has never stopped there to drink. As I was biking up the mountain I was surprised to hear a fair amount of running water in one of the roadside drainages, so I imagine there are still plenty of watering holes for a fox on the move.
The pool keeps getting smaller, but the raccoon continues to check it out. It's not coming to drink, but to hunt.
This guy chattered at me from high in a nearby tree almost the whole time I was hanging around the camera trap area. I recorded some video on my phone to capture all the sounds -- the scolding squirrel, the laughing acorn woodpeckers, the drumbeat of the woodpeckers making acorn holes, the loud calls of a nearby pileated woodpecker, and numerous small songbirds companion-calling.
This big buck made his first appearance.
Stepped in for a close-up.
Here, a different cam had caught him ten hours earlier.
And here he is trailing a doe.
I've always liked the general view of this cam, but it seemed to be missing a lot of shots (for example, when the bobcat was on the log, this cam did not fire), so I moved it to another tree slightly closer to the log. When I got the memory cards home, though, I could see that the cam had suddenly been doing much better. Why, I don't know. Hopefully I won't be sorry I moved it. It sometimes seems like whack-a-mole to get the position just right. I also brought my yard-cam up, so there are now four cams in this one little area.
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