I can't emphasize enough that when we moved into this Idaho valley in 1951 when I was six, there was very little wildlife, or else it kept well-hidden.
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Not caught by the trail camera, but photographed down at the old house by the creek
where I leave left-over cat food. Mom fed raccoons for 40 years. |
We have the trail camera strapped to a pine tree, focused on Anna Spring. A small grove of wild purple plum trees is just across the spring. A large apple tree sits on this side of the spring, the branches of which will be visible in some photos.
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The elk come through in the spring, calve, and then leave the valley in the autumn. |
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Every now and again the camera's eye gets a perfect photo of an elk cow. |
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The whitetail deer are ubiquitous on our 66 acres, sometimes eleven or twelve being visible in the pasture at any time. |
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But a young buck is always nice to see. They don't stay around the does and fawns during spring and summer, but head up valley, to return in the autumn. |
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But they're cute - especially the fawns. |
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They will rear up to reach apples in the tree. |
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The bronze wild turkeys were introduced a while back, and sometimes in the autumn there will be a hundred or more in the pasture. They sleep up in tall pine trees at night. Protecting a clutch of turkey chicks is difficult for the hens. |
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Lots of cat-killing and turkey chick killing coyotes. But they sound so wild and free when they whoop it up at night. |
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It was exciting to get a photo of the black bear under the apple tree one night in October. |
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Yes, apples above my head. |
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Just pull down the branch |
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And two apples are mine. |
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A porcupine up in the wild plum tree, caught with Jay's camera. Dad would shoot them because they killed small pine and fir trees by stripping the bark; but we leave them alone. |
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A quail on Jay's slash pile. Sometimes a covey will fly out. Now rabbits are using it for the winter, so Jay has put off burning until spring. |
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Jay crawled through a fence to take this photo down by the creek. The cow moose in lying down, her calf standing up.They are not the same size. She's enormous. |
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Leaving the best for last. This young bull moose caught by the trail camera in November. |
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It's not the camera he sees. |
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It's the apples that have fallen just in front of the camera. |
These are fantastic. What a treat! Do you think there are more wildlife now, or just that you are seeing them?
ReplyDeleteFollowed you over here from Ron's Buddies blog. Couldn't help myself as I am a retired teacher from Laramie High School. Your photos are terrific, i am jealous would like to try one of the wildlife motion cameras myself.
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