Under the Apple Trees

Because of COVID-19 we haven’t seen our son and his family since before the beginning of 2020, they live far to the north where the incidence of the virus is much lower than in Pennsylvania. Who knows how long it will be until we see then again. Every few months our son changes the memory cards in the camera traps at their place and sends them to me. Videos from earlier in the year were posted here. 

One of the cameras is in a spot that had once been an open field, whether it had been a pasture or an orchard is a matter of conjecture since no records of its former use exist and the people who lived nearby are long gone. There's no way to determine the past use of this area other than to read the land. In any event, the old field has been occupied by wild apple trees, as are many other old fields in the general area, those apple trees have been joined by a few red and sugar maple, hawthorn and white birch.

In late summer, fall and winter many species of wildlife come to feed on fallen apples and travel beneath the trees on their way somewhere else. The summer just ended was exceptionally dry, which caused an almost total failure of the apple crop – so wildlife use was much diminished from other times. Nonetheless, here are the best videos from summer 2020 –

The camera trap at the fallen log further up the hill failed after taking one video – not an unusual occurrence with camera traps. Maybe, just maybe, there will be videos from the fallen log next time.