Traveling Through

Those of you who regularly visit In Forest and Field may recall previous posts with photographs from a camera trap at a small cave. That cave was difficult of access, it was located on on a very steep slope that was covered with basket-ball sized rocks, some of which were not well anchored. An old leg injury and advancing age prompted abandonment of that camera trap site.

Not far from that small cave there’s another, more easily accessed, opening in the hillside, a cave that appears even smaller but which has a narrow passage off to one side that disappears further into the earth, to depths unknown. It’s on the approach to this cave that I placed a camera trap; it’s on the approach because there’s no suitable spot with a view of the cave’s entrance.

This new location has captured a few interesting photos and videos. Some of the wildlife was just traveling through on the way somewhere else, others seem to have taken up residence in the cave. Watch closely at the beginning of the video as the tail end of a bobcat disappears into the cave –

The video twice captured something I’d been told about but never believed – an opossum carrying bedding material with it’s tail. That an opossum might use its somewhat prehensile tail to carry leaves or grass was something I’d always thought was an “old woodsman’s tale” meant to fool gullible city slickers. Well, I was wrong – for here were two videos taken ten days apart of an opossum carrying oak leaves to the cave. The things a camera trap reveals or confirms ...