This and That and Goldenrod

Got a lot of variety at the Cedar Ridge set this week plus the goldenrod really started blooming at the end of the week. We usually have this bush hogged down by this time of year but we've just never had the time this year. I think the big bear is the one I've gotten several pics of at the Mt Pond this year. He's hitting the cornfields fatting up for winter now. Love the expression on the little bucks face in it's second pic. I don't think he likes getting his pic taken. The artistic limb in the last two shot are the courtesy of mother nature. A limb above the camera broke and hung down in front of the camera.

Fawns

We have really had a bountiful fawn crop this year. It seems they're everywhere. Got this group of five together last week. They all look big, strong and healthy. I'm sure the doe in the pictures isn't the mother to all of them but she is the only one in any of the pictures I got with all five fawns in. I'm guessing the other does were off to the side.

Growing Like Weeds

 It has always amazed me how quickly the fawns grow. My Grandma always referred to it as  "growing like weeds'.

I'm also still fighting the ants. I thought they were only in the battery compartment but they managed to get in the main part of the camera also. So I have it in my shop torn completely down and ant free at the moment. Going to leave it apart a couple of days the be sure none are hiding anywhere. My wife just thinks I'm angling for a new camera :).

Bear Rub

Before I get to the bear rub I had another little adventure last week. I moved a couple of my cameras after one of my buddy's and some of the neighbors spotted an unidentified creature roaming around. My buddy saw it right at dusk one evening in the cabin pond and at first thought it was a beaver but when it came out of the water it wasn't a beaver. While looking somewhat like a weasel everyone thought it was much too big the be a weasel. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it on camera and no one has seen it since. After researching it appears to be very similar to a Fisher. Only problem is Fisher range is far to the North of us. Hopefully someone will get it on camera if it reappears.

Anyway back to the bear rub. I've seen standing trees used by bear to rub and scratch on but this is a first one I've seen rubbing on a down tree. It'll be interesting to see if he comes back and uses it again. Also got a couple of more good fawn pics at the Mt. Pond.

Doe and Fawns

After a week of miserable weather we finally had a beautiful day today. I took advantage of it and zeroed in a new scope I put on my muzzleloader and rechecked the zero on my rifle. After that chore it was off to check my cameras. It's hard for me to find anything much more relaxing than walking through the woods on a day like today. Unfortunately I'm still having a dry spell on the cameras. Didn't get much to get me excited again last week. Seems the big bucks have gotten camera shy. Probably going to move a couple of cameras next weekend and see if that will change my luck.

I did like this set of pics of a doe and her twin fawn. The spots are all gone and the fawn will be on their own in another month or so.

Fawns

The fawns are really getting big but they're still nursing off of momma. The does should be weaning them before long.

Fawns

As you might expect most of my pics last week were at the mountain pond. We're getting really dry here. I helped my farmer buddy drill four post holes yesterday and it was nothing but powder 3' down. The little pond has dropped about 6" in the last two weeks. So a lot of animals are coming to the pond for water and a cool dip.

Here's momma and a couple of fawns at the pond.

Twin Fawns

Had a really good camera trapping week last week. Got a ton of good pictures of a wide variety of animals. I'll start out with a set of twin fawns. In the first three pics they're nursing and then they came back by the set the next day just browsing through. I hope to get two or three more sets posted this week. Our temperatures have dropped a little bit but I still don't think I'm going to jump into any major outside projects.

Covert Reveal Review

I’ve had several people ask what I thought of the new camera I got to replace the flood damaged one so I thought I’d write a little review. Besides it’s too hot outside to do anything else. So let me begin by saying I’m in no way connected to the DLC Covert Company  nor receive any monies from them. This is just my personal views and experience with one of their trail cameras.

The first thing I thought when I opened the box was wow this thing is small. It will pretty much fit in my hand. The actual size is 5.5”x3.5”x2.2”. It has a nice camo pattern and is well built.

I’ve had the camera out in the field since early May and it’s taken over 1500 pictures. The battery life is a three bar indicator on the remote control unit that plugs into the camera for setup. The first week it dropped back to two bars and I was thinking oh no the battery life doesn’t look good. But it has held on two bars ever since so I’m pleased with that. The camera will run on 4 or 8 AA batteries.  I’m using the 8 battery set up.

One the main reasons I went with this camera is it has a white flash that gives you color pictures at night.  This is one feature that I have been very pleased with. The flash really lights up a big area and I’ve gotten some great night time shots with it. Another thing that pleased me is the sensing range. It’s picking up animals at least 35’ to 40’ out if not a little bit more. One thing I have noticed is the sensing field is wider than the camera field of view. I played around with it a little by walking past it at different distances and the first shot usually just had me walking into the picture frame. Now the trigger speed could be that fast but I don’t think so. The camera technical data says the trigger speed is 1.2 second but I’m guessing it’s more like 1.5 to 2 second. Again I don’t do a controlled test and that’s just my observation from the pictures I’ve gotten. But 1.5 second isn’t bad for a camera in this price range.

I’ll let you form your own opinion on the picture quality from the pics I’ve posted but overall I’m pleased with the quality and color. I attached a few pics from last week at the end.

Another concern I had was whether the camera was quiet. By quiet I mean does it have a filter clunk when it takes a picture. I’ve found that the animals in my area are much more affected by the loud clunk than they are by the white flash. I’m happy to say that this camera is quiet. I haven’t noticed any pictures of the animals staring at the camera as they do with another camera I have that does have the clunk.

I haven’t needed to deal with Covert’s customer service so I can’t help you with that. But I count that as a good thing also. The cost of this camera is around $120 and I got mine on sale for $99. With the security box and python lock cable (highly recommended in bear country or high people areas) you can get a very good trail camera for around $150 if you shop around. All in all I really don’t have anything I don’t like about the camera and I’ve become a big fan of the Covert cameras. To the point I’m thinking about getting another one.  YES, I’m totally addicted to this camera trapping thing.  If the pay wasn’t so bad I’d quit my day job and do it full time ;).

If I missed something and you have questions please don’t be afraid to ask. You can email me at jsmith0359@gmail.com.