DefinitelyDressage.com

wow snow you have a very robust, active property.

was that an armadillo?

Yes, there is an armadillo on that December set at about 20 sec mark. I like to see them because they're on camera much less than the other small critters (skunks, possums and raccoons).

So, it's next month, and I'm about to start compiling the next set of videos from February.


In the meantime, I just remembered I was asked if a non profit nature organization (Center for Humans & Nature) could use some of my youtube trail cam footage for a short video for a new book. I just looked up the info, and I found it - if anyone's interested -

Walking the Way of Coyote

https://youtu.be/nqlw3IV6psA

It's a 3 minute video and it has a little over 20 seconds of my trail cam footage on it - I guess this would be a shameless plug, huh?

So, here's the compilation from February - starts with the bobcat, too!


https://youtu.be/IqL_Kk4S8N8

Got a mama opossum carrying her babies a few nights ago - it looks like a set of flashlights or party lights on her back!

https://ak5.picdn.net/shutterstock/vide ... n-the.webm

(I put this clip for sale on Shutterstock, but thought y'all might appreciate it, too!)



March compilation --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqOLmo ... e=youtu.be

Snowhorse!! DH must know what model Brownie you use for these amazing videos, he's gotta have one!

Our latest:
DH took down upper rail on fence to facilitate elk jumping in an out on their animal highway.




And the first bear of the year this weekend, which is always exciting!

Wonderful

snow did the red-tail have a young turkey? grouse?

I love these... thank you so much for posting them! We put our much more basic one out for the first time this weekend--it will be interesting to see what we capture!

Koolkat - the "better ones" are with Browning Recon Force Advantage - I LOVE it, although I know it sometimes misses stuff. The quality is quite nice.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your bobcat shot, its' super!! The bear is magnificent The deer are silly Thanks for sharing!



Acheyarcher - it was a chicken that something (skunk, I assume) had killed and partially eaten in the barn. I could have tossed it in the trash, but I figured wildlife could make good use of it. Never expected a hawk, though!!


**Edit


Mountaineer - I'm looking forward to seeing your wildlife, too!

Second Easter we have had a bobcat(s) viewing in our back yard/woods. DH got video this time, but have not downloaded it yet. We were visiting with family in our kitchen/eating area and my BIL noticed a rabbit high footing it across the yard, I looked out to see the bobcat looking for his/her lunch. So cool to see this wildlife literally in our back yard. I'm sure if we had a camera set up no telling what we would see!

So far we have seen coyote (brazen ones too, peeing in our front yard!) wild turkey (as many as a flock of 30), raccoon, armadillo, possum (almost stepped on one doing night check) bobcat, great horned owl (the coolest was when they raised chicks and the chicks were hanging in our front yard/woods) red tail hawk, deer, quite a few timber rattlers (Rip's dam was bitten by a big one while in foal with him, figure that is what gives him his extra PIA!) copperhead and several non poisonous snakes. I also looked up to see a dog/goat in our back yard no idea where they came from. Had 3 horses free roaming, 3 calves that had escaped.

khall - that sounds a lot like what we have here, down to the horses (2) and somebody's bulls (!!! 3 of them, and WILD!). No timber rattlers, though, only a pygmy rattler - so far. I have seen great horned owls (one was on that March footage, plus a tiny saw-whet owl), but never chicks.

Skunks and Road Runners, too.

You should put a trailcam out, you'd love it!

Finally, here's the April compilation -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwb3EjZ ... e=youtu.be

Here are two latest compilations -

May

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0yDkDC ... e=youtu.be


and June


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZLOvH ... e=youtu.be

Snow horse, I am going to watch all the footage later, but wanted to say that I love the roadrunner clips!! Also that coyote with the stripe on its back fur is so striking.

The Roadies are pretty cool, but they will eat anything they can catch, including songbirds.
And yeah, that coyote is easy to tell apart, I wonder if it's normal for them to have markings like that, of if something caused it?

This month the coyotes have been absolutely demolishing the apples from our trees in the backyard. I have some 30+ videos of them every night (and some during the day) eating all they can reach. Right now the older dog is barking her head off, and no doubt she's either seen them or smelled them. The trees are about 110 feet from the house.

Here's just a very short one of them I made a few days ago - I will have better footage after I moved the camera some days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXmGD6CRpg8

We haven't caught anything of note on ours yet--DH goes and moves it periodically--he's trying to get the elk herd.

We really haven't seen much wildlife at all this year. Normally we eat dinner on our front porch in the summer surrounded by wild critters. I wonder if it's because the fire this time last year wiped out so many of them and so much of the near-by habitat. We've also had a very wet year so far so lots of forage and water further up the mountain. It will be interesting to see what the fall brings.

Having said that, we were treated to a fly-by and aerobatic display by half a dozen owls last night. Must have been the whole family fledged at once, I guess.

reated to a fly-by and aerobatic display by half a dozen owls last night

Wow, that must have been awesome!

Maybe the fall will bring you all kinds of great sightings of wildlife

No new monthly compilations, but here's something definitely different - coyotes cleaning out my apple tree of apples - turn the SOUND ON and it's twice the fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0VFYb7 ... e=youtu.be

Jump, coyote, JUMP!

Love the jumping for apples coyotes!

I need to move our camera to the fruiting persimmon trees, as they tend to be a font of action this time of year.

I enjoy your videos.

piedmont - yeah, that's a good idea. we also have a few (wild) Persimmon trees in the yard, and the coyotes come get the fruit as well when they ripen. Also, some butterflies love drinking the juices out of the very ripe / fermenting ones, such as Viceroys, Red-spotted Purples, Question Marks, Commas and Red Admirals!

Chisamba - Thank You!

SnowHorse wrote:No new monthly compilations, but here's something definitely different - coyotes cleaning out my apple tree of apples - turn the SOUND ON and it's twice the fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0VFYb7 ... e=youtu.be

Jump, coyote, JUMP!

That's great! I do believe you have some Twitter viral material in there. . .

We've seen coyotes eating apples on the ground, but never going airborne for them. The bears, however. . .

Koolkat - Thank You, and -- I've had a Twitter account for 10 years but I *might* have five entire posts there

Airborne bears? Uh-oh

Well, at least they stand on their tippy toes, or if that doesn't work, climb it.


This big fellow showed up earlier this week:


And our latest exciting news, twins!

Koolkat -- awww the babies! Great pics!

The coyotes did try to climb the tree, too, but it's so small there's no room to get a foothold without "climbing gear" (like cats or, say - raccoons). I did have a raccoon climb up two or three times, but I didn't put those in the coyotes' own video

I had no idea that coyotes like apples! I think you should leave a step ladder under the tree and see what mayhem ensues.

Love the bears! This is the kind of time (drought, fall, adolescents leaving security) that we see black bears or signs on our property, but none so far. We have seen plenty of bears at higher elevation this fall (hiking).

Persimmons are now quitting fruit and trees are struggling due to drought. Wildlife is congregating at ponds and creeks just outside our property. We do not have year-round natural water at our place.

Canyon wrote:I had no idea that coyotes like apples! I think you should leave a step ladder under the tree and see what mayhem ensues.

Too late for this year, apples are all gone! Maybe I can try it next year

Ok I think we really need to get a trail cam or two to set up. Our neighbor who is just through the tree line apparently has seen a black cat about 100 lbs or so on our property line between his property and ours. I talked to one of our farther neighbors last week and he has seen it as well. We are in such an agricultural area with large tracks of land all around us. They believe it might have been a pet that someone turned loose. I know we have large bobcats here and I'm sure black bear as well and of course fox and coyotes, but a big cat?!

Canyon wrote:I had no idea that coyotes like apples! I think you should leave a step ladder under the tree and see what mayhem ensues.

I had the pleasure while riding on trail to stop and watch a coyote eating blackberries off the bushes.

YOu can tell in late summer the coyote scat as they are full of seeds from the blackberry, which is a rampant invasive here

khall - a big black cat? Whoah! Indeed with a trail cam you could at least get a glimpse of what it is. Besides, it's fun to see all the other critters as well.



acheyarcher -- yeah, they'll eat everything that's easy to get, the opportunists that they are!

We've had a large male bobcat hanging around this past spring/summer (at least), some of his pics are above. We may have a new sheriff in town, we're getting photos now of a slightly smaller male and he is much less reclusive than the previous bobcats we've had around. We are getting a lot of pictures of him, and have seen him numerous times, unusual for these cats. We got a great look at him yesterday from the back porch, the pictures do not show how intensely/brightly rust red he is. Spectacular!







Snowhorse - Love your turkeys! Have you seen this documentary? It is outstanding!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=my ... ORM=WRVORC

Koolkat - gorgeous kitteh!!! I hope you get lots more pics to share!!


And yeah, I watched that documentary a couple of years ago. It's pretty wild!

The turkeys showed up again the other morning, a huge flock walked right by the camera. We rarely see them at the house, they like to stay away from people, but the cameras catch them every once in a while.

Koolkat nice capture of your Bobcat. I assume that is a squirrel he caught. great plush coat.

OMG, we've been waiting TWENTY YEARS for this!!!!!! Just showed up on Sunday night, captured him again last night!

AWESOME!!!!!!!! I have only seen live, once and it was a fleeting road crossing. Paw prints once.

Very cool!!

Cougar? Beautiful.

piedmontfields wrote:Wildlife is congregating at ponds and creeks just outside our property. We do not have year-round natural water at our place.

Would you consider putting out a water tank during very dry periods?

goldhorse wrote:Cougar? Beautiful.

Yes, cougar, mountain lion, puma, catamount, many names. There is something so very wild about the big cats!

From Wiki:

They are the fourth-largest cat species worldwide; adults stand about 24 to 35 in tall at the shoulders. Adult males are around 7.9 ft long from nose to tail tip, and females average 6.7 ft, with overall ranges between 4.9 to 9.0 ft nose to tail suggested for the species in general. Of this length, the tail typically accounts for 25 to 37 in. Males generally weigh 117 to 220 lb, averaging 150 lb. Females typically weigh between 64 and 141 lb, averaging 121 lb. The largest recorded cougar, shot in 1901, weighed 105.2 kg (232 lb);

cubs have blue eyes, adult eye color is a greenish yellow

You are right! Mea culpa! Corrected.

i think the big cats, their eye color is what makes them feel so menacing. Such an unusual color. You look at that color and note you are truly being looked at.

Archer - where did you have the mountain lion sighting? That would be a treat! We saw a lynx (not a bobcat) one evening on a forest service road driving out from the 3 Fingers trailhead. He crossed the road right in front of us, in 2 huge bounds. Magical.

Wow on the mountain lion sighting! I have seen one once while hiking in CA (pretty scary, but not an immediate threat).

Koolkat, seeing a lynx would be absolutely magical!

FYI, after complaining about dryness, we are over a foot above "normal" rain levels so far this year...and today it is again raining!

The cat is back! It's been a week, territorial rounds?? Hope he (?) keeps a low profile, I don't think most people around here would view him with the wonder we do.

Where, oh where, is Snowhorse?

Koolkat wrote:The cat is back! It's been a week, territorial rounds?? Hope he (?) keeps a low profile, I don't think most people around here would view him with the wonder we do.

Where, oh where, is Snowhorse?

HOLY SMOKES!!!!!!!!!

Catching a cougar on the trail cam is not just super awesome, but also scaryyyy, because you know they're OUT THERE.
But so so so super cool!



Wowzah!!!

What a pretty kitty, THANK YOU for sharing!!!!!!

Also, in the meanwhile, I had a skunk (?) kill and eat the head off of a rooster and leave it in the yard. So I figured I might as well put it under the camera and see what comes to get it. Usually, it's a coyote, possum or a raccoon.

This time, it was a Great Horned Owl couple! :O The best part was that one of them arrived during daylight! That made my whole week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfZrALO-2Z4

Beautiful videos and thank you for sharing!! The size of those owls are very impressive and TWO - WOW!! I love hearing them at night calling to each other and am very lucky considering we live in such a densely populated area.

Question - for those who live in BIG cat country. We love the PNW and have visited a few times the gorgeous parks. We did see the warning signs posted for CATS. I did wonder what would we do if we came across one - obviously don't turn our back or run but what if the cat did not move on? We had hiked in Praire Creek Redwood Park CA and later read of an attack on a elderly couple there. I know they are stalkers and have read of that issue too. That happened to a hiker somewhere in CA who was followed for several miles by an older hungry cat. Rocks and yelling did not work and hiker finally made it to a location with cell phone reception to call for help. Rangers got there just in time.