Reub's journey

27 January 2014

Game cams

 In the area where we live, on the edge of a small town in the foothills of Oregon's Coast Range, there are lots of critters. There have been glimpses of a bobcat behind our house, and from time to time there are dragged-and-fed-upon-deer that seem to be cougar kills. Coyotes howl at night. Who knows what prowls past the back fence in the wee hours of the morning?


I was musing about this with the neighbor a couple of months ago. They have a pond in their yard, and I commented that it would be great to have a trail camera to capture their visitors. "Oooooh, I dunno know if I want to know," she said.

Guessing that I would have fun with this toy, at Christmas my daughter gave me a game camera from Cabela's. It's a tool that hunters use, I guess, but here its purpose is purely fun.

 After finally accumulating the right number of batteries and an SD card, it was time to set it up. This is the first picture: the woodpile! Heh, I had no idea it was taking pictures: no lights, no clicks, nothing.


 
 Second shot: my finger! Obviously I forgot that the camera's motion sensor was instructing it to take a pic every time something moved.



 
 Third shot: John's back as he kindly cleared some brush in front of it.




 
 Would it work at night? I didn't know, so I went out and stood in front of it, trying not to look scary in a sweatshirt and Davy Crockett jammies. The infrared glowed for a second, and sure enough it took a picture.



 So now I possess a zillion photos that look like this.




 
 Or this.



 But we do have critters, honest. A flock of 19 turkeys invaded yesterday.




 There's a small doe who passes by before daylight.


 Here she is again, at about the same time.  She has a routine.

I haven't mentioned it to the neighbor (who doesn't yet know I have this gadget), but dang,  I'm dying to aim the camera at their pond.

On Sunday there was a voicemail message from the neighbor. She wanted us to know that they had bought themselves a game cam as an anniversary present, and had just installed it next to the pond, and if it bothered us, well they would get rid of it... whaaat? Hahaha! We are COVERED. If they see a cougar and we don't, I'll ask for a pic.

28 comments:

  1. ha ha. great minds...great neighbors. :) loved seeing the turkey and deer and your pajamas. :)

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    1. Makes me wonder how many people have these! (Cameras, not jammies.)

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  2. I guess this means you will get to see the aliens.

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    1. Now there is a truly AWESOME thought upon which I will continue to dwell.

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  3. What a fun idea. Hubby bought a camera that is on all the time and the resolution was awful. We could not see anything in his garden or elsewhere. The box collapsed and it now sits somewhere in his office!

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    1. I bet the technology has improved on these things. I wouldn't say the resolution is super good on this camera, but it's not terrible and it shoots in the dark. So maybe you should try again, with a new camera.

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  4. I think you've got the situation well covered now. :)

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    1. Yes! Now if we can just get some interesting animals to parade by once in awhile.

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  5. hmmm....bait? we were just watching beloved david attenborough last night and he'd rigged up a night camera to catch a glimpse of a leopard in a village in India, and realized he was watching it pausing at the door of the very hut he was in!!! it was very cool. i'll look forward to the cats!!

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    1. A leopard! Wouldn't that be something? David Attenborough has all the luck.

      A salt lick would definitely attract deer plus the predators that follow them, but I guess I want to avoid that scene. The neighbor's pond is a huge attraction & I'm hoping we'll get a little of their traffic. Last year I think they had a cougar kill there.

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  6. Great pics. Nice to see that you captured Turkeys and a doe !

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    1. Turkeys and does may be the sum total of what I capture. We'll see!

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  7. OMG, I gotta get one! I don't think we have Cabela's here, but we do have Dick's Sporting Goods...I'm so excited! I've never even thought of doing this! All the time we encounter wildlife on the way home and wonder what's going on in these woods that we don't know about...

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    1. Right? It's pretty cool. The prices range from $149-$399. This camera is the $149 one.

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  8. I have four surveillance cameras around my house basically for the purpose of being able to see who in approaching...be it friend or foe. In the meantime I have caught a lot of critters like deer or dogs, including a tiny dog that usually takes a tour of the property between 11:00 PM and Midnight. Tomorrow I am going to post a predator who got up close and personal the other day to my delight and surprise.

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    1. Granny if enough of us have these cams, we could all post an Animal of the Week! I haven't tried the video option yet.

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  9. Those critter cams are awesome. Our local park got one and that's how they discovered they had a gray fox. I need to get one of these for my yard!

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    1. A gray fox! Those are rare. You should get a camera; maybe you have a gray fox too.

      At night every shot looks all gray: my jammies are light yellow and the sweatshirt is navy blue in daylight. And my hair isn't that gray.

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  10. Neat! I hope you snap a lot of critter shots!

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  11. Oh my gosh! I got $150 burning a hole in my pocket. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I'm on it!

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  12. This is hilarious! Ha ha!. Love the pictures.

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    1. I didn't realize how many selfies this camera would result in. Sometimes now I avoid the back gate altogether!

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  13. How fun is this! I love you goof shots.. and the real ones, of course. It's tempting to do similar around here but we're lucky enough to see deer through the day. But who knows what passes by through the night. Hmmm.

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  14. A friend of mine in one of the other small towns over has one of those in his backyard. I forget how many acres he has. Says it's very entertaining.

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Talk to me.