From a Fallen White Pine

Fallen trees or logs are some of the best places to put a camera trap. At times I’ve set a camera trap at a long-fallen white pine; and sometimes place a “chirper” between the forks of the fallen tree. The chirper, which only operates at night, at random intervals produces a sound that mimics a small bird’s chirp. The chirper was used in hope of luring predators in front of the camera. Sometimes the camera trap has been positioned to look down the length of the log, other times at a right angle to the log. 

The first photos from the fallen white pine were of a barred owl –

Followed a few days later by a raccoon –

Squirrels were the animals most frequently photographed, both an occasional red squirrel –

And the ubiquitous gray squirrels –

 

Both species of squirrel must regularly gnaw on something to keep their incisor teeth, which grow continuously, at a proper length. Hard nut hulls are frequently adequate for gnawing purposes, but often other items are the subject of the gnawing. One of the things the gray squirrels picked to gnaw was my chirper. The white areas on the chirper are where squirrels have chewed away at the hardened construction adhesive used to help camouflage it from human eyes.  –

Early one evening in January a group of white-tailed deer wandered past the log and its attending camera trap –

For anyone who thinks the white flash of a camera trap would scare deer, consider this – the camera (and its flash) took 31 photographs of this group of deer over a span of four minutes.

By far the prize of this location was the bobcat that walked the log and looked back when it heard the camera’s lens extending – 

That's a sampling of the photos from the fallen white pine, we’ll see what the future brings.