I’m always astonished by a forest. It makes me realise that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn.
~ Gunter Grass
Things have slowed a bit on the trail cameras out back, but we still get some nice surprises from time to time. Here are a few of them from the past couple of weeks.
In all my years here, I have only seen one Wild Turkey in the neighborhood, and that was years ago, walking down our gravel road. But, in the last year, the trail cameras have captured three, two of them in the past two weeks.
Late note – after writing this, Melissa saw a turkey out back late yesterday afternoon, just beyond our deer fence!
— Wild Turkey strolling through our woods
— A different Wild Turkey wanders through the same spot a week later
I moved a trail camera to an area with a log on the ground that had a few interesting looking holes along it that might be some sort of burrow entrance. I left it there over a week and never saw anything going in or out of the holes. But, it was a regular squirrel highway, and one day, this hawk dropped in, perhaps thinking it might partake of a rodent snack, but no such luck.
— An adult Red-tailed Hawk surveying the scene
After a few weeks absence, the Coyotes have made a reappearance on three cameras. Here are two clips. Pause this first clip and look at the Coyote – either a big meal or perhaps soon-to-be pups in that belly?
— A quick day-time glimpse of a Coyote – note the full belly
And this guy looks a bit smaller, maybe a youngster from last year?
— A smaller Coyote on the Opossum log
Looking forward to what other hidden gems the cameras show us in our woods.
Roads End Naturalist 
Beautiful captures. Great color in those videos. I hope you get footage of that coyote with her pups later on. Fun woods critters. Thanks for sharing, as always.
Thanks, Deb. You guys got some cool ‘possum video as well!
What kind of cameras do you use?
I have a couple of types of Browning cameras but my favorite is a
Browning Trail Cameras Spec Ops Elite HP4 22 MP Full HD Video Trail Camera. The detail is amazing, especially in day-time images.
Thanks, they do look great.
Turkeys! Not sure why, but that surprises me. Would love for them to wander down the road here. Have you heard any call?
No, no calling as yet. That would be cool.
Yes. The only real contact we had with turkeys was at Zion. We were thrilled to see them while hiking, but then found they were resident at the cafe patio. Talk about noise!
Four or five years ago, we were on Picket Rd maybe 50 yards from the Forest, when a wild turkey flew across the front of the car. We were shocked to say the least. We were on our way to Northern VA for Thanksgiving, so it did seem somewhat appropriate!
I agree, they can really surprise you, especially when they fly! I saw one once trying to cross the 6-lane highway at Crossroads.