The main event on the trail cams for the last two weeks was a bobcat passing through, and it only did so once in all that time. Although gray fox have been common in other locations, I rarely capture them here, and they always seem to pass through at night.
I felt a slight sense of dread as I hiked up the hill toward the trail cams and saw that someone had passed through the vicinity. The Aerobie I found back in February and placed on a bay laurel branch had been taken. Did they also take my cams? Thankfully, no. I was glad to see that both of the cams were still in place. The likely duo did turn up on one of the video clips (they did not notice the cam), and I hope they enjoy the flying ring. I had a feeling someone would spot its day-glow orange dangling in a tree someday.
I like that the GardePro cam has decent resolution in daytime shots (all the pix in this post are frame captures from 15-second video recordings). The night shots are not so great. I also wish the GardePro rendered green foliage as well as the Foxelli, but my main wishlist item would be a faster trigger speed. Animals moving across the frame are often captured just before they exit the frame altogether. And this is despite the cam's side-sensors which are supposed to make the trigger faster. I also miss having the info strip, and I might turn that back on despite the fact that it overlays part of the image.
The cams show that the little creek was still running well as recently as April 9, but it has been petering out since then. When I arrived on 4/13 it was quite choked with algae, although water was still moving through it. I suspect it will have dried up in another couple of weeks, but only the band-tailed pigeons seem to use it as a drinking source. The other animals usually just step over it, although once in a while they will take a quick drink. A red-tailed hawk showed up to drink a couple of times one day.
Band-Tailed Pigeons
Black-Tailed Jackrabbit
Bobcat in the Night
Gray Fox
Red-Tailed Hawk Takes Off After Drinking in Stream
Coyote (composite of two frame captures from video)
The Red-Tail's Return
Wild Turkey
Recent Trail Cam Video Clips
(with limping coyote mentioned in previous post at the end)
