What was that?

I'm a hunter by nature. It's in my genes and every fall I hunt deer, well actually I hunt year round. I haven't killed an animal in at least 15 years but I still head out with a camera when everyone else is in the woods with a gun. Last week I went out looking for deer and came upon this unsuspecting little guy. I'm sure his mother is in the processing plant and he is getting by on instinct.

Summer Velvet

Another surprise on the camera trap! These cameras have been out in the same location for almost 3 months but the deer are still curious about them. The deer must smell the remnants of my breakfast when I change the SD cards. This is a limited hunting area on public land in the Minnesota River bottom. Hunters might be drooling at the size of these antlers. The color is before light transitions to complete darkness when the camera will use its light at 100% output.

Fawn in the Fog

This is another clip from the summer camera trap. I hope to watch this fawn grow over the season and will share it as it becomes available. I am learning the value of placing two cameras at this site, the animals have a lot of potential paths they can take. This was completely missed by the other camera. Love the mood the fog produces.

Fawn in the Rain

I checked my camera trap today and found an ant colony had taken up residence in its nooks and crannies. They were only on the outside but clearly messed up a large number of images as they moved across the camera lens during the last 3 weeks. I have heard of this happening but it was a first for me. I'm not sure how to prevent it either. Fortunately they had not messed up the best video on the card.

Goodbye Monochrome

Color is coming! After this week the world will be green! Deer are getting hungry for some fresh greens in Flandrau State Park. We are routinely seeing 15-20 browsing on our afternoon and evening hikes.

Hunger or Curiosity?

 

Is it hunger or just curiosity that caused these deer to investigate the camera? I think it is interesting to see the difference in behavior between these does and the buck shown on a previous blog post. Which is it? . . . I can only guess.

True Beauty of Nature

 

I usually try to record beauty and perfection in nature ignoring its imperfections. A perfect specimen always gets my attention, whether it is a trophy deer or wildflower at peak bloom. This otherwise healthy buck is an example of survival in an imperfect world. The beauty here is its ability to adapt, survive, and thrive. Isn't that the beauty of our lives as well?

Winter Begins

What a difference a little snow makes! I was in the woods when the first snow came on Thanksgiving and watched the animals while staying warm but getting a little wet. 

The Bond

I recently collected memory cards and was surprised to see this doe cleaning her new fawn in the water. I have an image of her (?) pregnant the afternoon before this was taken. She came into the water twice during the morning but has not returned since. My video camera trap was at a likely badger den which only captured a wet pheasant. A video would have been precious. Technical: the tilt is from slippage of the camera on the tree, cropped to remove camera info

On Two Legs

This was captured off the video shown on yesterday's blog. With my wandering mind I associated the precarious balance of this guy with the polar bear's threatened status. Don't even try to guess how I find similarities between polar bears and whitetail deer. Perhaps its because I have been watching the antics of polar bears at Churchill in the morning on explore.org recently and deer in the park during the afternoon. 

Technical: Captured from Canon C100 footage @1/60 second. Yes, the hooves are clipped.

Busted

This is the last thing a wildlife videographer wants to record when filming deer behavior.  The buck's body language is fun to watch but hard to put into a story about the deer rut. The lens is white, manual focus is required, and tracking him through the woods are all movements that he may have keyed in on. I am covered in a bag blind so the only movement is the camera and my gloved left hand. In my experience deer with little hunting pressure are very curious. Archery hunting from fixed tree stands is allowed in the park with a 3 deer per hunter limit so there is some hunting pressure but also lots of deer. This area of the park doesn't have hunting so I am free to hunt with the camera.