Tracking Trails to Noah

Posted On September 17, 2024

A 2024 Wildlife Trail Camera Chronology

When thirty-four years ago I began my overgrown farm lot reclamation endeavor, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that what I was in fact doing was creating my own private wildlife area.

I have previously penned pieces detailing those efforts and how I have integrated trail camera technology into them (“Tricks of the Trail”, “A Forest for the Trees”, “A Wildlife Investment: The Hidden Value of Brush Piles”), so I won’t go into any further detail on those subjects here.

Instead, what I thought I might here share is a spring to fall 2024 trail camera chronology.

My wife and I (it’s a family effort, which makes it even more rewarding) normally pull all our trail cameras in early January for battery charging/replacement and equipment maintenance. We have found that midwinter wildlife traffic is generally slow anyways, and pulling trail cams in midwinter saves them from the wear and tear of winter ice/snow exposure and subzero temperatures.

We did, however, capture these images just after New Years.

No matter the season, coyotes are always out prowling.

I also thought this January trail cam owl pic was rather unique.

We generally re-deploy trail cameras in early March, timing our efforts off of early spring’s first return sightings of ducks & geese once the ice lets out on our ponds.

Each spring’s early trail camera focus, however, generally isn’t on waterfowl, but wild turkeys.

Flocks of them!

Our family just loves watching spring turkeys.

Especially the gobblers.

I think wild turkeys are greatly underappreciated. I can fully understand why Benjamin Franklin might have wanted to make them our national bird.

Their plumage is iridescently beautiful.

For such a large bird, their colors provide surprisingly effective camouflage.

Fanning gobblers are a joy to watch strut.

And for anyone who has never witnessed it up close and in person,

wild turkeys are impressively magnificent when they take flight.

Of course, concurrent with March’s influx of turkey trots were early spring’s returning waterfowl flocks.

Our family’s ponds attract primarily wood ducks, mallards and an occasional hooded merganser or two, as well as the aforementioned Canada Geese.

Of course, as one might imagine, all that spring pond activity frequently caused quite the feathered kerfluffle!

In case anyone was wondering, in a showdown between goose & gobbler, despite the weight differential, (A mature gobbler weighs over 20lbs, an adult Canada goose weighs in at about half that.)

Goose Wins!

Hands down.

Every time.

And as might be expected, all that commotion attracted a who’s who rogue’s gallery of nest raiding egg stealers & predators.

Another thing early spring trail cameras allowed us to track, was the post winter health of our resident deer herd.

Which, after 2024’s mild winter,

appeared to be quite good.

While everyone anxiously awaited the spring season’s newborns, there was a lot of jockeying for attention via trail camera selfies & close-ups.

2024’s goslings hatched first.

The next trail camera attraction was the tale of spring’s whitetails.

2024’s fawns dropped a bit later than usual.

While we all awaited 2024’s Bambi birth. I got this nice series of trail camera photographs of a great blue heron.

Finally, though, this year’s fawns did drop.

By my count, we ended up with two single fawns born as well as one set of twins.

Of course, all the while, predators lurked.

Despite the predators’ presence, tracking 2024’s spring trails to Noah was proceeding without incident. Then suddenly all trail routes changed with a beaver’s arrival. I won’t go into further detail on beavers here. Folks interested in reading more about that experience can read all about it in my story:

“Relentless”.

One positive thing the beaver’s advent did accomplish was to cause my wife and I to relocate several trail cameras.

As with everything else, to capture trail camera action, location is everything. One new key spot became the camera overlooking this series of bridges. I’d never put a camera there before.

It turned out to be quite the wildlife hotspot.

Three stars quickly emerged on this trail camera wildlife show:

Raccoon

Porcupine

These recurring porcupine trail camera images made me wonder:

“Why hasn’t anyone ever created a superhero based on a porcupine?“

Well, now someone has.

Folks can read all about him in:

“Enter: The Warden”

Then in early September, along came this interesting fella:

I think that now when today’s kids go into the hair salon seeking this cut, they should just tell the stylist: “Give me the Green Heron”.

That bridge cam has captured images of a veritable who’s who of wildlife.

As fall’s season approaches, spring’s promise matures.

And with that comes...

“Antlers”

And just to keep everyone in line.

As summer reached its conclusion, along came…

“The Sheriff”

If the rest of 2024’s weather is anything akin to the wet, wild extremes we’ve experienced thus far, my next Monroe Wildlife Area project just might be building an ark.

**********

Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO