Tag Archives: wildlife cam

Wildlife Showdown!

I got a new fly-through birdfeeder and barely the first night and a raccoon was casing the joint, trying to see what it could get. You can barely see in the back ground.

Bad raccoon!

Then it heard (?) smelled (?) Stinky and came dashing over to see what that was all about.

But Stinky stood its ground with super smooth moves.

There was a full-on showdown but it’s not clear whether anyone won. Mostly a lot of hilarious posturing.

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Blue Jays And The Spool of Destiny

via GIPHY

Opossum and bunny have been hanging out in the yard for long stretches of time just sitting there nibbling or whatever they do in the middle of the night. One time I pulled 147 clips from the camera after only 3 days. I love them but it takes a long time to go through 147 clips. Skunky has only shown up once in the last several weeks – I hope that’s not because there’s a litter of skunkies under the shed. Mousey ran through the other night.

Lots of raccoon shots. At least one comes through every night.

The other day I was out in the yard trying to get the spring weed jungle situation under control.

The blue jays recognize me as peanut lady and they hang out on the power lines and fly around my general vicinity to make sure I know they are there.

I put their peanuts on the Spool of Destiny so they were landing there, too.

Who should show up but Noah, the next door cat, strolling casually through the yard. Blue jay flew to the spool, spotted the cat and blasted out the blue jay screech of warning as it zoomed back to the overhead wires.

I called to Noah to leave the birds alone and he came over to me to get petted — the cat who goes out of his way to completely ignore me suddenly wanted my attention.

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The Odd Couple

Here is a clip of Opossum, slipping under the shed.

I have the whole shed blocked off except that one spot because I don’t want to seem welcoming but I also don’t want anything to die under there. The motion light was supposed to discourage wildlife but apparently they think it’s a handy porch light.

For the record I have seen other animals sniffing around that spot: cats, raccoons.

There’s a lot going on here and I’ll get back to it in a second. Don’t let it distract you from watching the porch light come on and a grand entrance from Skunky.

So, do they live together under there? Are they like The Odd Couple? Do they divide the under shed area into “skunk side” and “opossum side.” Are they friends?

I have so many questions.

Back to the clip, we have Raccy getting a little sip and then when Skunky comes out, it looks like something leaps across the lawn and I kind of think it’s Bunny. But it might be another Raccy.

There were several days where I didn’t get very many clips and I thought things had calmed down. No way. Bunny spent several hours one evening tripping off the camera and Opossum did the same thing the night before last.

Edited to add: according to my dashboard — this is post #3000.

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Oops. Time Stamp

I forgot that when you change the batteries in the trail cam, you have to reset the clock.

The camera went off during the day and took close to 500 clips of squirrels with some birds at the feeders mixed in. That’s not an exaggeration. There were almost 500 clips on the camera card. I went out and made the bed and folded a basket of clothes while they were downloading.

We don’t get a lot of crows in the backyard. I want to be a friend of crows but I don’t want to scare off my blue jay friends so I don’t encourage it.

This is a screenshot sampling of the thumbnails from my 500 clips. I deleted about 492 of them.

I haven’t seen a peep from the blue jays in days. Bob said one dive-bombed his head when he was taking out the compost.

I know they nest in the hedge next to the compost so I bet I know what they’re up to.

What an eco-system we have in that hedge.

via GIPHY

I always say whenever I get a cold, I always get a cough that lasts a month. It feels like I’m exaggerating but it was 4 weeks from the day I went down sick, that I got through my first day without a cough drop. My body just loves to hang on to a cough.

All good for now. But I’m paranoid that my Fisherman’s Friend supply is so low. Only 2 1/2 bags. I need to stock up. Just in case.

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Like the Drivin’ Rain

After some technology issues and then the crud and more of the crud, I am back in the office full time again. For extra credit: there is a new bus schedule which has more stops and fewer options so I am back to my long days again.

At least I get a nice stretch for reading.

I saw both Stinky and the raccoon trio in real time during the week but different nights. The motion lights were going off and I could see them running around, Stinky at 8:30p and the raccoons at 7:45p.

Yesterday we went to see the Pedro Almodovar film: Parallel Mothers. We loved it. Then we went out to dinner and talked about it and tried to remember the last time the two of us have been out together. We’ve gotten a lot of take out the past 2 years but we’ve only been out once or twice.

The restaurant has an item on the menu that’s a 22 oz. Bloody Mary and the garnish is brisket, a rib, and a sausage. All your hangover needs taken care of.

Bunny visited last night. He was out there for almost two hours, set off both the motion lights and had a good time.

That funny round thing in the lower left is what’s left of the ice I pulled out of the bucket a couple of days ago.

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This Deck Tastes Like Feet

This guy sat out there for a long time before tasting the deck and then wandering into the hedge.

I get a lot of video clips that aren’t clear enough to share. One time I caught a tiny frog on the deck. And then the owl that one night. A lot happens on the other side of the yard. This week I have one of Stinky coming out of his lair and the raccoons hightailing it out of there. Stinky hasn’t come near the house lately. One of these days I need to set up the day cam and get Fat Squirrel and the birds under the bird feeder.

Latest update on Part 1 of the Project of Forever:

22431 / 30000 words. 75% done!

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The Other Bear

I’ve been wanting to catch a bear on my trail cam every trip to Orleans. If the clip from last week wasn’t so fantastic, this one would be my favorite.

(Still in class for 4 more weeks. Super demanding but I love it.)

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Check Out This Big Guy

We saw lots of bear paw prints on the river bar below Mom’s house. I was hoping I could catch one.

This is from Mom’s yard. My favorite clip I’ve gotten so far.

Still taking a class and up to my eyeballs trying to keep up everything.

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Water Bucket Is Back Again

This raccoon is hilarious. Look how warm it was out there at 3am. I woke up a few times last night and it felt stuffy.

I put the bucket away a couple of times in hopes of getting Stinky to move away. So far he has resisted all my attempts. I have motion lights out there and I have one clip where it looks like he’s frolicking under the light. My neighbors across the street have a motion light and I woke up at 5am the other morning and that light went on so I peeked out the window and I think I saw some Stinkys playing on their lawn. It was dark and my eyes are terrible so I can’t be sure. I could have been their cat.

We’ve also had bunny, opossum, and coyote in the past week so our house remains popular on the tour.

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Turned the Corner

This is now the third time I’ve caught the coyote on camera so I guess we’re part of his rotation. And smart move for him seeing how many animals we have running around back there. (Also, I think he left us a turd back there.)

Yesterday bunny showed up. I haven’t caught him on camera for awhile.

I do consistently get Stinky but haven’t seen the family. I put the water bucket away and I have some motion lights out there so maybe they are doing their job?

But also who knows what’s going on in the back half of the yard. Maybe I’ll put the camera back there again. I need to research other ways of mounting the camera. We don’t have anything to strap it to back there.

There’s always a moment in August when you realize that summer has turned the corner. The days are getting a teeny bit shorter. When the sun is down there is a coolness in the air.

When you’re young and in school, this is a sad moment because you can see summer is going to end soon. But now I like that moment.

My pumpkin/squash crop is incredible this year. I better check the freezer and see how much we have left from last year. Time to eat pumpkin.

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