Scamper Rats

You know it was a slow camera trapping week when I'm posting TexWisGirl's favorite critter.....scamper rats as she likes to call them. Not much action again last week. We had a wild temperature swing with highs in the upper 20's on Tuesday and then low 60's by Friday. But as always hope springs eternal as I hope for better luck this week. Some of my fellow trappers say they're experiencing the same winter slowdown as far as getting pics.

I'll apologize now for not being a good follower the next four or five weeks. I began replacing an old binding line at work last week with a "newer" used line. Unfortunately this involves getting a half dozen different pieces of used equipment to take the pages of a book, put them together, and come out the end of the line in boxes on a skid ready to load on a truck. Getting all of the equipment to play well together is something like trying to herd cats through a dog kennel. So I'm going to have my hands full over the next month or so.

Look At Me

I had to laugh when I saw this series. If I didn't know better I'd swear the squirrel knew it was getting it's picture taken.

Flirtin' With Disaster

I was going through the pics from the mountain pond today and I kept getting some of  a squirrel running and sitting on the log in front of the camera. And I kept thinking about the Molly Hatchet song "Flirtin with Disaster". Then BAM there it was sitting in the middle of the log.....a Red Tail Hawk. Those of you that follow the blog remember what happened to a Scamper Rat a while back. It became the Hawk's lunch. I don't know if the Hawk missed it's prey this time, just stopped in for a look around, or if it came for a drink. I just thought it was funny I would be thinking about the song and the Hawk would appear. Maybe I'm psychic ;). Now that's scary. LOL!

Skittish Bucks

Got this interesting series of shots of two young bucks. In the first pic they are calmly browsing away. Then SWOOSH. They are heading for parts unknown in the second pic. Three minutes later they are back again calmly browsing and have been joined by a scamper rat as texwisgirl over at The Run*A*Round Ranch likes to call the squirrels. I suspect the scamper rat is what spooked the bucks. This camera is very quiet so I doubt it's what bothered them. Looks like they both have just about finished shedding their winter coat and have their bright red summer coats.

Squirrels

I moved all of my cameras on New Years Day to new locations. One thing I was hoping to accomplish was to get away from the squirrels. At one set I was getting as many as 6 squirrels on camera at the same time. But as you can see below the squirrels still found me. Just not as many of them. I thought they were pretty good pics so I decided to go ahead and post them. Maybe they're like Dawson and just want a little face time on the blog :).

As I mentioned I move all of my cameras. One new location was at an open gate coming from a power line and going into a rye field. My farmer buddy said he had been seeing two shooter bucks using the open gate to enter the field the week earlier. So I set up with high hopes. When I checked the camera Saturday I found that some how I don't get the memory card seated properly and had no pictures.....&@%#$#@!!. To top it off my buddy hasn't seen the bucks in the field any more since I got the camera working correctly. Just my run of luck lately. Oh well, enjoy the squirrels :).

Bushy Tails, Blue Jays and Crows

Well I'll start with the bad news first. I shoot a big 9 pointer on Thursday morning and couldn't find him. I had a good blood trail from where I shot him for about 100 yards and then nothing. It just completely stopped. I spend over two hours trying to pick it up again but never found another drop to tell each way he went. I finally just started searching the woods hoping to either find him or jump him up but never had any luck. I take a lot of pride in my marksmanship and getting a good quick and clean kill shoot on whatever I'm hunting. Just makes me sick that I hit this one and lost it.


On a brighter note we had a fantastic week of weather. Clear skies, light winds, and nice temperatures. Afternoon temperatures were a little too warm and really slowed the deer movement down until about dusk each day. I'm always having people ask me what I do in a tree stand to past the time while I'm waiting on deer to past by. So I posted a few pics on what you can watch to past the time. There is always something going on the woods. Squirrels and Chipmunks foraging, all types of birds fluttering around, Raccoons on the prowl, and on and on. Even had a Barn Owl land on a tree limb beside one of my stands last week. It was looking for any Squirrels that may have been out foraging a little too late in the day. Having a cookout at the cabin tomorrow so I won't get to post anything from last week. Hope you all have a great week. I'm off another week before I have to go back to work for a couple of days.

Box Turtle and Squirrel

One of my favorite things about the trailcams is you never know what you're going to get. Below are pics of a Box Turtle triggering the camera and then 15 minutes later a Squirrel looking for acorns comes into view. The Turtle is right above the temperature readout. The Squirrel doesn't notice the Turtle until the second pic it's in. Then it gets curious as to what the Turtle is.