Anniversary

Sometimes you cannot celebrate anniversaries enough.  Wedding, first buck, deer camp and more.  The post card above arrived in the mail the other day reminding me that this is the seventh anniversary of the deployment of a Snapshot Wisconsin DNR trail camera on our property on October 20, 2018.

The Snapshot program utilizes volunteers to help identify and count the animals recorded on these trail cameras.  Crowdsourcing the data of where and when each photo was taken will hopefully lend further understanding of wildlife population distributions across Wisconsin and how these distributions change over time. Snapshot Wisconsin is a consistent mechanism to monitor all types of wildlife throughout the year.   The most frequently photographed animal happens to be Odocoileus virginianus, the whitetail deer.  Same here.  The top four animals captured here are as follows (in rank order) - Deer, Turkey, Cottontail and Racoon

Funded primarily through Pittman-Robertson dollars provided by the Federal government to Wisconsin DNR. Other funding is provided by a grant from the NASA Applied Science Program through the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Other partners include UW-Extension, Adler Planetarium, Zooniverse, Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers and the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board. 

Having commenced year number eight this last autumn I deployed the third camera having lost the previous two to critter damage and a technology failure.  With five additional cameras deployed on the property this is nothing new. 

Anyway, to celebrate the occasion I thought I'd share a handful of some of my favorite photos captured from the same location.  

 

 

 

From the top: a buck, fisher, coyote, turkey, bald eagle, fawn and some river otters.  Time flies when you're having fun. 

Fun Fact:  In July of last year the Snapshot program celebrated their 100 millionth photo.  The photo featured for Door County was taken by the camera we host.  

Neighborhood Baldy

A few days ago I had to run into town on some holiday errands and encountered this.

 

One of our resident bald eagles.  The bird casually allowed me to snap photos and even reposition the car on the road.  As I departed the bird did too.  I wonder if he/she deliberately allowed me the convenience of observation and study.  Naw.  That would be too much Disney-like anthropomorphism. 

 

Thirty years ago these weren’t as common as they are nowadays.

 

On the south side of County D a short distance from my front door…

Fine Dining

click on image for a closer look

On the way to class this morning I spotted one of our resident bald eagles accompanied by three juveniles dining on a road-killed whitetail in a neighbor’s field.

The third juvenile had just taken to the air; look for it in the center of the photo (trees in the background).  

Bald eagles develop their distinctive white head, neck, tail feathers and yellow beak and eyes around five years of age. 

Want to read previous posts on the subject of bald eagles?  Use the handy Label feature to the left or click on this link. 

Monday Morning Visitor

24F and sunny. 

One of the simple things that brings me joy is grabbing some fresh air while walking the doggo. 

Bonus today makes an appearance at the 30 second mark. 

Thanks for dropping-by Philly……

Trail Camera Bonus

While we were vacationing in Eastern Europe and interesting development was occurring here.  Something that was unexpected.  One of the trail cameras was patiently documenting the kill/discovery of a whitetail deer by a pair of coyotes.  It was nothing short pf a remarkable coincidence.  An unchoreographed sequence of photographs captured over five days.  I couldn't have staged it better if I tried. 

 

After we returned home I went out to fetch the SD cards on the trail camera trap line and I came across the remains of the deer laying within the field of view of a trail camera. The camera is circled in the image.

 

Examining the skeletal remains and judging from the size of the bones and the skull this appeared to be a yearling doe (born in spring 2022). Likely cause of death was predation by coyote.

 

Do I know that for sure?   Nope. Nevertheless, the photographic evidence is beyond circumstantial. 

 

What I do not know is if the deceased was crippled by a collision with a vehicle, weakened by winter and lack of browse (unlikely in farmland country) or otherwise compromised only to succumb to the whim of Ma Nature.

 

Nature can be a cruel mother. Yet that's how things work. Everything on the landscape is someone else's dinner.

 

These images document what unfolded.

 

Everyone eats whitetails....

 

Of hundreds of digital images here are a select number that capture what unfolded.

 

The event unfolded like this with a pair of coyotes lounging-about in the snow.  Then, over the course of about 20 minutes, they alternately feed-upon and drag a deer carcass into view.  What are the odds of this happening spontaneously?

 

For following morning the first to arrive on the scene are the crows, followed by additional avian predators.

 

 

Bald eagles - both adult and juvenile 

 

And, of course the coyotes returned

There were nocturnal visitations

 

More daylight visitors

 

Crows in a standoff with a juvenile bald eagle

And nocturnal

This alternated on and off...

 

 

 

Including a visitor from the arctic circle who winters here - The rough-legged hawk 

 

 

Curious deer and turkeys paid a call

And on the fifth day the batteries died

 

Almost 20 years of trail camera monitoring and I've never had something like this unfold.  I'm not one to anthropomorphize things but it's almost like these coyotes were doing me a solid favor.

 

Eagle Update

After a week and a half of gloom a couple of things happened this afternoon.

The sun came out and everything became bright a beautiful.

After a couple of days of being away (or out of sight) there were several bald eagle sightings.  Every time I went out to try for some video of a soaring bird I was thwarted.  Nevertheless, the both of them (yes, two) perched in a cottonwood north of the house along the creek.

2022 brought the largest number of coyote sightings.  And 2023 is starting-off with the largest number of bald eagle sightings.  That is a significant anecdotal (unscientific) uptick in a couple of keystone predators in the last three decades.

Must be something in the water....

The Eagle Has Landed - An Update

Six days in a row our pal has been hanging out here. 

I finally took a walk to see if I might locate a carcass or other attraction. 

Nothing. 

 

Although there’s three inches of fresh wet snow on the ground. 

Got within 50 yards before it flew off. 

If I get another opportunity I’ll have enough presence of mind to get some video.

The Eagle Has Landed

There was a time when the appearance and spotting of a bald eagle was a rare occurrence.  With the passage of time it became more common.  Lately it has been rather frequent as it seems that just about every other day we spy one of these birds of prey flying overhead or perching out back to the north of the house.

Monday there was this. 

A favorite perch is this dead elm snag on the line fence.  The eagle was content to hangout for the morning alternating between the snag and a spot on the ground betwixt the pond and the house.  

By early afternoon the bird had departed (or vanished from view) and I was tempted to walk out there to see if there was a dead animal that was enticing the eagle to hang around here with frequency.  Alas, it was raining hard and I didn't want to get soaked.

Then the dang bird returned.  And was content to perch on a muskrat hut sticking from the icy pond surface.

The the bird dismounted, walked like a drunken sailor across the ice (yes, that is how their ungraceful walk appears) and hangout on the north shoreline of the icy surface.

I took numerous videos hoping for some action to occur.

But the bird was having nothing of it and didn't put on a show.

By the time you read this hopefully the weather will have cleared and I had an opportunity to walk out there and see what the fuss was all about - if anything.  Meanwhile, I'm sill learning the ropes of this new iPhone 14 Pro - the camera that manages data communication too.....

Roadkill

This is the final slug of trail camera photos taken over the road killed whitetail that I dragged to this location.

Here's a juvenile and adult bald eagle...

And a couple of adult bald eagles.  It is thought that these birds mate for life; although they may switch it up with an alternate if unsuccessful at breeding.  A couple of weeks ago Jill took a photo of a couple of adults (these?) along with a juvenile perched in a cottonwood tree on the bank of Silver Creek...

Another photo of a juvenile and adult.  We've been witness to regular bald eagle sightings in the last few years.  A big improvement over no sightings around here twenty years ago.  My conclusion is there may be a nest located in the Brussels-Kolberg area or perhaps along the coast near-by...

Here's a juvenile coming-in for a landing.  In the trail camera world an action photo such as this is can be called a Money Shot...

Adult...

Two juveniles sparring over the scraps...

Another Money Shot - a classic image of an adult eagle...

Wile E. Coyote and the resident raccoons most always come sneaking-around after dark...

Last photo to be shared.  You can see that the resident scavengers picked the whitetail clean.  Nothing but skin and bones remain.  This is a great lesson demonstrating the circle of life.  

I'm going to editorialize a wee bit.  If you have a road killed deer in a ditch close to where you live please slow down give the critters a break.  Just last week there was a local news item about an adult eagle that was struck and killed by a motorist as it was scavenging a road killed deer.  The person who killed the bird never reported it.  That sucks.

 

 

Roadkill

 There nothing left of the road-killed whitetail now but skin and bones.  Nevertheless, there are plenty of trail camera photos yet to share so be sure to stop-by from time to time and check them out.

This is a juvenile bald eagle.  The large, distinctive hook beak is one of the characteristics to aid in identification of this bird in the field.  Juveniles gain the characteristic bald eagle white head and tail at 4-5 years of age.

This is a rough-legged hawk.  The raptor takes its name from the feathers that extend down the legs to the base of the toes - an adaptation to the cold environment this bird prefers.  This hawk is only seen here on the peninsula during the winter months with the southern-most extent of its winter range being the Texas panhandle.  Summer breeding range is the northernmost extent of Canada's coniferous forest zone and escarpment bordering the arctic tundra. 

Wile E. Coyote.  This canine has been tugging and dragging the deer carcass from here to there.

Adult bald eagle stretching her wings.  At up to a 7-foot wingspan this is a Big Bird.

And there is this.  A raven selfie.  And I am really digging the hair do.....