Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road

Wrapping It Up In Our Woods

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Mike Dunn Avatar
Mike Dunn

Departure of a year welcomes so many new memories.

~Munia Khan

Our woods offer a lot of things to us – a quiet soundscape, a canopy of huge trees that help cool our landscape in summer, majestic gray forms that stretch to the winter sky, and a source of nourishment and shelter for the countless wild neighbors that share our land. I try to observe as much as I can in my wanderings in the yard and on our forest paths, but I am not out there all the time. When I am not present, I have other eyes to record the comings and goings of the wildlife. In the final two weeks of last year, the trail cameras recorded the usual activities of the herd of deer (still munching on the abundant acorns), the scampering of squirrels, the nightly forays of the Raccoon family, and even some neighbors enjoying the woods. But there were also some nice surprises. Here are a couple of new memories from the final days and nights of 2022…

— The bucks are starting to hang out together now that the rut is about over. One of these looks like it has a broken antler.

Less than a minute after the broken antler buck left the scene, another nice buck entered.

— Another nice buck enters from the left while the one keeps chowing down on acorns.

I re-positioned a different camera to a more ground level view and was rewarded with some new camera critters…

— I had seen a chipmunk at this site before so I put the camera down low and captured some close up behavior

— A male Northern Flicker lands and probes a few times for its favorite food, ants, before taking off

The Raccoon den tree had a nice clip of two of its residents during the daytime for a change…

— Two Raccoons head back to their den in the hollow of the giant Tulip Poplar early one morning last week

I am always delighted to see some of the predators that call our woods home (or at least part of their foraging area).

— A nice-looking Coyote trotted by this camera twice, going in each direction, one night

— The biggest thrill is when the cameras see a Bobcat wandering through the forest. This large one angled down off a ridge and then followed the dry creek bed.

— Another camera downstream along the creek bed caught the Bobcat a few minutes later as it trotted through. This is the fourth time my cameras have recorded one of these secretive animals in the past two years (three times at night, once during the day).

That’s a wrap for trail camera adventures for last year. Looking forward to many more glimpses into the lives of our wild neighbors. Now, if only a wandering bear would stop by…


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Comments

9 responses to “Wrapping It Up In Our Woods”

  1. krmdgin Avatar
    krmdgin

    Very cool videos. Still waiting for a bobcat here. The turkeys were pretty cool the other day…

    Reply
    1. roadsendnaturalist Avatar
      roadsendnaturalist

      Your bobcat will come, especially if you have a camera along your creek. And yes, those turkeys were very cool.

      Reply
  2. Deb Hanson Avatar
    Deb Hanson

    Beautiful videos and critters. That is a healthy looking bobcat! Fun to see the raccoons in the daylight. Thanks for sharing, as always.

    Reply
    1. roadsendnaturalist Avatar
      roadsendnaturalist

      Thanks. And I agree, both the Bobcat and Coyote look like they are doing well (actually, all those critters look pretty healthy).

      Reply
  3. Mary Kay Coyle Avatar
    Mary Kay Coyle

    I was wondering about bears in the woods around here myself as I watched your videos. They seemed to be more plentiful in eastern NC when I lived in Edenton than here in the Piedmont. It’s always fun to see what is happening in the woods at night when the rest of us are sleeping. Thank you for these interesting videos!

    Reply
    1. roadsendnaturalist Avatar
      roadsendnaturalist

      Thanks, Mary Kay. Bears are a rarity here in the Piedmont although they do occasionally travel inland from the coast in search of territory, especially along river corridors. There has been a cluster of sightings of a bear(s) in Chatham County this winter. Unfortunately, they almost never do well here due to population density of humans, roads, etc.

      Reply
      1. Mary Kay Coyle Avatar
        Mary Kay Coyle

        Thank you. Fortunately there is still quite a bit of open space in eastern NC.

  4. Ann Avatar
    Ann

    Excellent post! Thank you for sharing your videos of this peaceful kingdom. What a joy to watch all these beautiful creatures. More please!

    Reply
    1. roadsendnaturalist Avatar
      roadsendnaturalist

      Thanks, Ann. I’m sure there will be more soon as I just checked the cameras again this morning and it looked like some more interesting stuff once I have a chance to view on my laptop.

      Reply

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Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road

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