Trail cam pics and a walk in the January woods.

In late December I placed my trail cameras in the woods for the first time in nearly a year.  Today I went to switch out the memory cards.  Although I managed to get pictures of red fox, raccoon, squirrels, and deer (including several bucks) I was disappointed by the results and ended up moving both cameras.

A fox runs in front of the camera

Part of a herd of deer, including two bucks, passing by the camera

After moving the cameras I used the opportunity to take a walk through the woods and take some photographs.  There was no snow on the ground, but lots of ice.  My favorite photos of the day were probably those showing leaves locked in ice.  Here are a few of the images that I captured.

Bright sunlight has been a rare sight in recent days

This picture was not planned - the plane flew over just as I was taking the picture.

Flowing water carved this channel down through the ice

Many shades of brown

Living and dead trees stand bare in the winter swamp

Oak leaves trapped in ice

Coyote scat on top of a pile of deer scat

Water levels have dropped several inches since this ice formed

Eastern Hemlock

Silt covered leaves, topped by a single clean oak leaf

A boardwalk crosses an eroded area on the trail

Northern White Cedar

The bright trunks of aspen trees glow in the sunlight

A highway in the woods

Logs are irresistible to kids.  They want to sit on them, roll them over, and above, all use them as a balance beam. 

This desire to walk on logs seems to cross the boundary between species.

These three images were all captured over the course of a single night. 

This log seems to be a highway for young Virginia Opossums - more than ten pictures over the course of a month.

The Red Fox also is a regular (although less frequent) user of this log.

The Northern Raccoon uses the log as a walkway, but much less frequently.

Wild Canids of Mt. Pleasant

Michigan is home to four species of wild canines (Family Canidae):  Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Coyote (Canis latrans), Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), and Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).  Of the four, three can be found in Mid-Michigan; the Gray Wolf is currently found only in the Upper Peninsula.  Although I have seen Gray Fox in Isabella County, I have yet to see one in the city of Mt. Pleasant.  I have also not personally seen a Coyote in Mt. Pleasant.  (I have seen at least two in Alma near my house.)  I have witnessed Red Fox in Mt. Pleasant on several occasions.

Red Fox and Coyote have both become infrequent, but regular, sightings on my trail camera.  On the most recent batch of pictures (14 June - 10 July) a Coyote showed up on two separate dates and a Red Fox appeared three separate time.

Coyote pictures:

Although a Coyote showed up on two separate dates, I have only included pics from June 20th.  The Coyote passed through in low light at approximately 4:30AM and then either the same animal (or possible a different one) returned at a little after 7:00AM.
 

Red Fox pictures:

The Red Fox showed up on camera three times (June 29th, July 2nd, and July 10th). 

 

I really like how these photos show the size difference between the two species.  If you look at these next two images, the Fox and the Coyote are standing in essentially the same place.  

The Coyote is 1.5 to 2 times the height of the Fox (23-26 inches vs. 14-20 inches).  It might be two or even three times the Fox's weight; average weight for a Coyote is 18-44 lbs vs. 5-30 lbs for a Red Fox.  

Both animals are omnivores and often compete for many food sources.  Despite their size difference, it is rare for a Coyote to kill and eat an adult Red Fox.  They will however eat Fox pups on occasion.

I've finally gotten them to walk in front of the camera during daylight hours, now if I could just get them to turn and face the camera once in a while.

Trail Camera Pictures (29 May - 14 June 2017)

Yesterday I retrieved memory cards from my trail cameras.  Here are pictures from one of the two cameras.

As always, there were dozens of pictures of squirrels on this camera.

Black phase Grey Squirrel

Fox Squirrel

There were also many White-tailed Deer of all ages and sizes.

One morning a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) showed up.  Frustratingly, it was too close to the camera so only its ears and the top of its head showed up in the picture!

Red Fox (just the ears are visible at the bottom of the picture)

A pair of fawns showed up on camera several times, both with their mother and on their own.  I assume the mother was just off camera when the fawns appeared on their own.

White-tailed doe and fawns

White-tailed fawns with no doe in sight

In addition to fawns, bucks showed up on a couple of occasions.  At this point their antlers are just developing.  One of the bucks (last year's fawn) had just little buttons, but the second buck (shown below) has antlers that are already beginning to fork.

White-tailed buck licking its hoof

The lighting in some of these photos is pretty incredible, especially in the early morning and evening when it slants in at a fairly low angle, lighting up the more open background and leaving much of the middle-ground and foreground in shade.  This combination of light and shadow adding depth to an image is know as chiaroscuro.  In Italian chiaro means "light" and scuro means "dark". 

Portrait of a Fox Squirrel - this image demonstrates the principle of chiaroscuro.

I did have one new species appear on the camera during this time period - a Woodchuck (Marmota monax) showed up on two consecutive days.

A Woodchuck crosses from right to left

A woodchuck perched on a log at the center of the frame

My favorite photos this time are this series of six pictures of one a fawn (one of a pair).  I really like the chiaroscuro effect of these pictures - it adds a feeling of drama as the fawn advances from the dark toward the light.