A Tale of Three Cameras

"Button Buck" captured on camera trap
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

I set three Reconyx cameras at our Muller Field Station in May of this year. They were retrieved about a month later. Each of the sets were located along the channel but each had very different results.  I guess this is one of the reasons I enjoy camera trapping so much. First, you never know what you are going to get and second, there is really a level of knowledge you need to tease out what is happening in the photos. Here are some of the best stories from each:





SET 1: Let's see... 145 captures X 10 photos per capture = 1,450 photos to sort through. I captured

Raccoon inspects snapping turtle
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

six species of mammal at this location (including that handsome deer in the photo above) but my favorite story involved a reptile. In the photo to the left, you can see the top of a shell of a snapping turtle. It appears the raccoon doesn't know what to make of it. I wish the camera was set a bit lower to capture the whole image, but we will have to make due.

The next day, the turtle was in the exact same place (making me pretty sure it was a female laying eggs) and two river otters found her. In this photo, the one of the river otters actually puts it front paws on the carapace.

River otter and snapping turtle
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

SET 2: The otters visited this site as well. With no turtles to play with, they had to occupy their time in other ways. They visited a total of five times in the month but never stayed for more than a few minutes.

Daytime capture of river otter
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

River otters mating?
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

Alright, let's talk about that last photo. Although the otters are in the mating position, I am not certain that they are actually copulating here. This could just be play. What I am certain of is that the encounter was brief.
Otters weren't the only story here. Canada Geese came on many nights to loaf in front of the camera.

Banded Canada Goose and goslings
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

That means lots of photos. I assumed that it was the same group of birds each night but when I looked closer, I noticed that on a few occasions, a banded adult showed up while on other nights, the adults were all unbanded. I don't recall ever camera trapping a banded bird before.







SET 3: This was the most interesting set. Years ago a tree toppled over the channel and what was the trunk is now a horizontal trunk that is suspended over the water. I have always wanted to create a set here and finally did. One of the tree limbs, now pointing towards the sky, worked as a perfect point of attachment. I assumed I would get river otters here. I mean, it just looked like a real inviting place for otters to climb up and explore. It turns out this was the only set that did not capture otters. Instead, I captured my other favorite mammal... black bear! And it only took four hours from the time the cameras were set until the bear showed up (I understand how lucky that is! The last time I set a camera at the Muller Field Station, it took 10 weeks to capture a bear image).

Black bear
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

Black bear showing hind paw
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

Birds were the second story of this set.

Wood Duck drake
(Muller Field Station, 5/15)

Great Blue Heron
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

Wood Duck hen
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

Take a look at the photo above. The photo below was taken less than 48 hours later. The camera hasn't moved but the water level changed dramatically. Instead of ducks loafing on a dry perch in front of the camera, they are SWIMMING past it. This was not the only hard rain we had this year and I am grateful that the camera stayed above the waterline :)

Mallards
(Muller Field Station, 6/15)

Bobcats return to the Finger Lakes Region of NY

I have been enjoying my camera traps for several years now and have been blogging about them for nearly two. But my fascination for them continues to grow. I have been toying with new sets lately and, as expected, have had mixed results. Not all new ideas are good ones. But it was an old fashioned hedgerow set this summer that produced my most unusual capture to date.

We had a group of middle-schoolers scheduled to visit our Muller Field Station this August for a day of outdoor adventure and a taste of science in the real world. I had set out some camera traps a few days earlier and to increase my chances of captures, I used some scent lures we had left over from a previous project. The field station is adjacent to a wetland and although we have only a narrow strip of forest along our old fields, we but up to almost two thousand acres of State-owned lowland ash-maple forest.

I gave the kids a brief introduction to camera traps (some were familiar with them from personal family use) and we predicted what animals we may capture given the habitat. Then it was time to check the cameras. I took them to the sets and explained at each one what my intention was. One was at the mouth of a culvert pipe, one was along a deer trail, etc. and the final camera was in the hedgerow closest to the buildings. I literally chose this location becuase it would bring us back around to the station along the easiest possible route. When we got back to the classroom, I pulled an SD card at random from my pocket without knowing which camera it came from.

Bobcat
(Richmand, NY 08/12)

And the very first photo from that very first card was the photo on the right: a BOBCAT! Well, half a bobcat. To say that I was excited is an understatement. Some of the middle-schoolers fed off my enthusiasm while others were more "Like, it's just a butt!". Well, yes, but it is the butt of a BOBCAT! Not only is a bobcat a pretty cool capture anyplace, it is particularly great here in the Finger Lakes because we are just getting a resident population back after many decades.

But that is news to some people. You see, sightings of bobcats have been much, much more common than the confirmed evidence would predict. Physical evidence of bobcats would most likely be road kill, camera trap photos and incidental captures in foothold traps. These forms of physical evidence have become increasingly more common in the Finger Lakes over the past ten years in particular. So why the "too-common" sightings? Misidentifications, of course. Feral cats are common and it is easy for someone to mistake a big feral cat with a bobcat.

Bobcat
(Richmond, NY 08/12)

It turns out I got two bobcat photos that day in August. The very next photo on the card was this one (left). The purplish color occurs when the light meter causes an incorrect exposure in low light conditions. It doesn't happen often but unfortunately it happened here. With the time stamps so close together, I have no reason to doubt that this was the same cat photographed earlier. I have to admit, the quality of the photos detracted some from the joy, but not much :)




The story isn't over yet. In September, I had my own students at the Muller Field Station for my Wetland Mammals class. Each group of students designes and implements a two-wwek field study with camera traps. This year, Stacy, Jeff and Adriel decided to compare wildlife crossing a beaver dam, a man-made bridge and a likely water route across the channel. The small iron bridge proved to be quite the highway for that two week period with red fox, gray squirrel, raccoon, BLACK BEAR and.... (wait for it)..... BOBCAT. And again there were two photos. This time, the pictures were from an IR camera, so they are black and white.

And a red fox for scale:

It turns out that this was the first confirmed bobcat in Honeoye Valley reported to the NYS DEC. What a thrill for my students and I. We were able to contribute a little to the natural history of this species. Leo Roth from the Rochester NY newspaper The Democrat and Chronicle did a story on it. And the timing of all this was perfect as the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation just released a new bobcat management plan for NY. You can find that plan here.

Looking forward to the next bobcat captures!

My First Bat Photo

Bat in flight
(Richmond, NY 9/2011)

At our Muller Field Station, we have a storage building that has bats roosting in the seems between the boards. So I set up a camera trap by clamping a 2x4 scab to the eave of the overhang. Well, after two weeks I managed a single bat photo! This was not the first time I tried to get a photo of a bat. I read somewhere that researchers used an eraser suspended from a wire to draw bats to the camera. However, that attempt (written about here) produced no bat photos. I mention all of this because I am sure by now you have seen the photo I am so excited about and are a bit underwhelmed..... But I was excited to see the results. One wing is better than none! :)

Camera trap workshop at Muller Field Station (FLCC)

Raccoon in swamp
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

Four participants attended a one day workshop on the use of camera traps and track boards on June 20th at the Muller Field Station (owned by Finger Lakes Community College). Through a grant, we have been able to create five "wildlife kits" for teachers to sign out. Each kit contains two camera traps, one digital camera, 12 Track Finder books and a set of common mammal track replicas.

Six days earlier, Sasha Mackenzie and I set out eight Cuddeback Capture cameras (four infrared and four white light flash). We set them in various locations. For example, we attached one to the leg of a bench in the lawn near the channel, baited with a tin of sardines. Another we placed in some ash trees, baited with Squirrel Paste (Havahart product). We even got in the canoes and set five cameras along the channel, hoping for some semi-aquatic mammals. I concocted a bait from the sardine oil and Vaseline. The petroleum jelly acts to hold the oil in place longer than the oil alone. From past experience, we knew we would get many coon photos and I sprayed raccoon urine at several of the sets just to make sure of attracting some of the bandits.

Red squirrel in mid air!
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

The morning of the workshop, we all gathered in the great room and I began with an overview of the day's events and goals. I had prepared a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation that went over the basics of camera trapping and how I use them in my classes. We passed around one of the cameras so everyone could see how it works. I brought everyone outside to the camera trap baited with Squirrel Paste. Everyone could crowd around the camera so we could all see it in operation. We had 26 photos on that camera and not only was the Squirrel Paste all gone, but the bark was gnawed off so the rodents could get every last bit. At left is the best photo of that lot. At first, I thought we had captured a flying squirrel, but closer examination reveals this is a red squirrel in mid air. Regardless, it is a stunning photo and an instant favorite among the group.

Retrieving camera traps
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

From there, we paired up and headed into the canoes. Sasha and I had 4 different sets out (one with two cameras) and were really hoping for some semi-aquatic mammals. As we retrieved the cameras, we were excited to find that we had numerous photos on each. We rounded a bend to find an immature bald eagle watching our progress at close range. When the last camera was gathered, there was excitement in each boat as we paddled back to the field station to check our SD cards.

Infrared photo of raccoon
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

As stated earlier, I expected lots of raccoon photos. And we were not disappointed. Here are a few of the better ones. I am not a fan of the IR cameras. I would rather have the crisp photos from the flash cameras. However, we have some of each as the IRs do have their advantages. I created this set along a log hoping for a mink, but got coons and red squirrels instead. Still, an interesting photo and we found that my sardine oil and Vaseline concoction held up well for the week.

Raccoon
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

Beaver
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

We totaled 16 species (well, 17 if you count the bullfrog that was on a log when a bird triggered the camera) in all with half of them birds.  I could not find my castor scent, so we only ended up with one beaver photo. But beaver pics are always nice. They are such a surprising looking animal that they look good at almost any angle. Look at the way the wet fur ripples on the right side of the animal.... just a cool photo!

Mink
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

We managed to document one other semi-aquatic mammal and like the beaver, only captured it in a single image. This is perhaps my favorite camera trapped mink. The pose is interesting and the face is fully visible. We didn't do a good enough job of keeping track of which SD card came from which set, so I am unsure what this set was baited with. Interestingly, when we ran the Wetlands Mammal class last fall we did not get a single photo of a mink but did get a photo of river otter. There have to be far more mink than otters so we were not expecting that result. It gave me a chance to talk to the students about the danger of relying on only one trial for your data (or your assumptions). 

Identifying tracks
(6/11, Muller Field Station)

When the camera trapping was done, Sasha took over and presented some basics on tracks, trails and animal feet. She started with a PowerPoint and then a description of how to use the Track Finder book. Once that was over, we went out to the picnic tables and practiced identifying tracks and trails in containers of sand. Sasha used the rubber track replicas from Acorn Nauralists to make the imprints. Everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge!