Author Archives: kitty

Game Cameras Early Fall 2016

or… What’s Doing on the Farm

We’ve had a bit of a fail. One of the cameras was hors de combat due to a mis-formated card. The camera located in the septic field took no pictures during September and October.
Meanwhile — here’s what’s been doing on the pasture road and driveway at the beginning of fall.

Our bear has not left the area. Though by now (early November) he’s likely denned up and torpid for the winter.

Back and cruising up the driveway like he owns the place.

We’ve seen this bobcat twice, about three weeks apart, near the pasture. I suspect there would be more pictures of him (her?) on the septic camera if it hadn’t failed. It’s interesting that the coyotes are nowhere to be seen since the cat has been around.

Bobcat sighting

A second sighting of the bobcat 3 weeks later.

Then there’s this night creature.

Rarely sighted. The landshark by night.

In early fall we’re still mowing the verges and roadsides. Jim often combines taking the trash cans to the road with a quick pass along the sides of the driveway and around the pasture fence.

Mowing happens in the fall too.

And the camera continues to capture the occasional arty shot.

The tractor doing its weekly chores.

The big news around here for October was Jim’s new knee. He had surgery on the 11^th. For the two days that we were at the hospital and the first couple of weeks after we had a lot of help from friends and neighbors. And because we’re kind of creepy like that we’ve got pictures. 😀

Shasta and Jack walking Gizmo.

Yoav heading home after helping with the farm chores.

Jim is starting to get back into the swing of things. One of his big accomplishments was to get out and walk around the pasture.

Jim takes his first walk after the new knee install.

Life goes on and the seasons turn here on the farm. Bucky has reappeared — with a nice set of points in velvet.

Bucky is back!

Game Cameras Late Summer 2016

In the last couple of months we’ve seen more predators and fewer deer than in the past.

We do have a nice little buckling hanging around.

our buckling

And here he is with one of the does.

buckling and doe in the evening

We also had a couple of very exciting days when we were being visited by a bear. We saw him wander across the work yard one evening around supper time. Here’s a picture of him cruising down the driveway. And we found him again a couple of nights later chowing down on the bird feeders. The first time in over 15 years that we’ve had problems with the bird feeders. It’s sad that I can’t watch the summer bird from my office windows.

bear on the driveway!

We’ve seen a lot of the coyotes. Frequently as a pair. There has been no sign of pups, perhaps they are too young? This is the first year that we’ve seen them together.

wandering around the lower pasture road

Once more walking up the driveway in the middle of the night.

walking up the driveway in the middle of the night

The big news however is that we have captured on camera the collared female cougar that haunts our neighborhood.

Sadly it seems that she was in the neighborhood attacking livestock. None of ours but folks just up the road lost an alpaca.

tracked under the name F17

Sometimes you get just plain odd or lucky shots. The driveway camera is sometimes triggered by birds landing on the rail that you can see on the left in these pictures. Here’s lucky shot of a bird flying away.

one of the crows?

We also capture the occasional strolling neighbor.

man and dog

Summer is almost over — we’ll probably only mow one more time. But in the middle of summer it’s a constant battle against the overwhelming vegetation. Here Jim is mowing the lower pasture lane

And this one last shot of ourselves coming back from a concert in the sidecar.

that’s a lot of reflective gear

A Few Morning Moments

A few minutes out of the morning routine on a pleasant summer day. It’s not quite so much fun in the middle of the winter, but the animals are always about this amusing.

More from the Game Cameras

June was a bad month for game cameras. One of the Brownings died — no idea why. And the replacement Bushnells are taking some time to get set up the way we want them. Still there were a couple of interesting sightings and good pictures.

Things we see during the day:

two up on the way out

We’ve seen both the resident does — skinny neck and ragged ear. There’s also a little buckling but he’s not showing up on the cameras yet.

skinny neck

ragged ear

There are two coyotes:
We’re still learning to tell them apart. One has very distinct coloration on his face. The other is not so dramatically marked.

first there is this in the septic field — blurry as heck

30 seconds later on the pasture road (the female?)

this is the male — I think.

Things we see at night:
The deer of course.

deer in the night

and our only shots of the coyote pair together.

coyote pair going up the driveway

coyote pair coming back down the driveway

Equally flashy but not so scary.

That’s some flash gear.

not so wildlife

an evening walk in the rain

Game Cameras in the Late Winter and Early Spring

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any of the game camera pictures. Even when we are ignoring them they sit in the woods and on the driveway and quietly go about their business.

Mostly we get shots of deer. A few of which have identifiable traits. There’s Torn Ear.

Torn Ear

and one that I call Short Neck.

Short Neck

We see lots of butts.

Night Time Walk

And the Big Bike

Back of the Defender

We’ve seen a coyote a bunch of times. For a couple of days at a time about every month. Both in the woods and on the driveway. Gizmo tracks something/someone up the lower pasture road most mornings. I think the coyotes are around more often than they end up on camera.

Coyote Walks Down the Driveway

And surprise! We spotted a pair.

Two! Coyotes

We also get occasional sightings of Bob the Cat. Only in the septic field never on the driveway. I can’t figure out how he’s getting onto and off of the septic field.

Bob the Cat

Occasionally the cameras get arty.

Game Camera Art

We’ve pulled that cameras in for downloading and battery replacements. They should go back out this weekend. We’re going to move the one from the septic field to down at the other end of the pasture near the manure pile. See who’s using that lower pasture road. More pictures next month. (maybe)

Pretty Flowers are Pretty

Not too many words for this post. We returned to La Encantada Orquideario to see what new wonders there were in the rainy season. Sadly there has not been nearly as much rain as usual this summer and the orchids are suffering a bit. (And they are having to buy water.)

A stream runs through the middle of the plantation.

And a rickety bridge crosses the stream. (I am not really this much of a munchkin — Jim took the picture from far up the slope.)

Here are a selection of lovely flowers from big, about 3″ across, to tiny, less that a ¹⁄₄″ across.

For making it all the way to tend of this post you get a bonus:

Sunday in Oaxaca

The first day in Oaxaca is always a little slow — we have flight hangover and a bit of the altitude wibbles. So mostly we hang out and run a few errands. And It being Sunday we went to the Zocolo for the noon concert.

But first… Durango. Who’s grown into quite a nice boy.

Durango — the house dog, Wondering where the ball went.

Any Sunday trip to the Zocolo starts with coffee and a bit of breakfast.

Cappuchino!

Then you wander around for a while. Today we saw some new sculptures by Fernando Andriacci.

Bull.

Anatomically Correct Bull.

Dragon Fly

The point of Sunday in the Zocolo however is the Oaxaca State Band concert. Here’s a minute of the first piece, a bit of Schubert. Preceded by the church bells tolling noon.

On our way home I stopped to take a another picture of a little cat decal. I’ve been taking pictures of this for a number of years. It gets tattier and tattier but I still love it.

Cat Sticker on the Wall by the Local Market

New to the area is this art work on the wall on Miguel Negrete at Independencia.

About 2/3rds of the Mural

Eggs in Muffin Tins

These are a sort of quiche-like things that we make in muffin tins in order to have something quick available for breakfast. You can use any sort of cheese, meat or greens that you fancy or have hanging out at the bottom of the fridge.

It’s utterly adjustable as long as you keep the egg:milk/cream ration consistent and don’t overdo the volume of the add-ins.

In the Woods

We moved the game cameras to new locations two weekends ago.

This one we thought was a sleeping area.

1150:060515:59F:BDF ONE :5

But a couple of weeks of observation reveals nothing.

The other camera was placed at the south end of the septic field. An open area surrounded by forest and home to at least one bunny colony. Which explains the presence of this fellow.

1207:060415:54F:BDF TWO :5

He gets a close up.

1207:060415:54F:BDF TWO :5

We’ve also got the required butts. This one is especially graphic.

1905:061315:59F:BDF TWO :7

And a nice shot of the neighbor’s dogs having a bit of a romp. Given the time stamps I’d guess that they had pursued the deer from their own yard to our woods.

1911:061315:59F:BDF TWO :7

The Things You See in the Woods

For Christmas this year we got ourselves a couple of game camaras so that we could get a better look at the animals ( including neighbors) who are using the network of trails that goes through our woods. (People out here in the West usually call what we’ve got forest. But I’m old school and from the East, where the 20 acres that we’ve got would be called a Woods. So Woods it is for me.)

The cameras are a pair of Browning Strike Force (BTC-5). We got a two pack on sale. They take daylight color photos and nighttime infra-red. They can also shoot video but we haven’t experimented with that yet.

Each photo comes with a bunch of data at the bottom. Temperature, moonphase (useful at night) date and time, as well as a settable camera name. We have one that’s unnamed and one that’s named BDF TWO.

Pretty typical in the daytime photos are the deer. This was taken at the intersection of the two main paths to the immediate south of the logging road.

This spot at is at the intersection of two main paths.

Typical Deer Shot

We also get other people’s dogs. Anyone know this fellow?

Running Dog

The night pictures can be pretty — shots of the deer browsing or traveling to sleeping spots. I’m thinking that the next time we move the cameras I’ll try to find a frequently used sleeping spot for one of them.

This spot is off of the path back to the garage. It’s at the junction of two deer trails that can’t easily be walked by humans.

Tiny Steps

Looking Up

A few minutes later another deer comes by.

Night Browser

Late in April we had a new night visitor.

It’s the first sighting of the bobcat that we thought might be hanging around. (Look at the lower center of the frame.)

Bobcat!

Note the short tail with the dark tip.

Cat Butt

Parting Shot

We’ve had no sign of the bear that was here last winter. Maybe he and the bobcat aren’t amenable to sharing turf?

Well, we did find this Bear.

The Papa Bear Out Riding

And here Jim is walking the dog in the morning before it’s light enough for the camera to switch to daytime. (Yeah, it says 8:45 but I think the camera missed daylight savings time — besides it stays dark in the woods.)

Are You Coming?

For some reason (camera timing?) we get lots of butts.

Lots of These Butts.

Moto Butt

The two most common butts in the woods. Me and the Big G.

Let’s Go!

blackdog and magpie

animals, and bikes, and the countryside. oh my!