Now that hunting season is over, I like to run a camera over the bones and scraps from the deer I was able to kill during the year. I also recently acquired a road killed deer that wasn’t salvageable, so I put it in front of the cameras as well. I started doing these three years ago, and every year I look forward to it more than the last. This is a great way to utilize your cameras in the off season. This year has been different than the last few in several ways. First, there hasn’t been that much snow, which I think hurts the volume of pictures, since there is an abundance of available food for the animals. Second, I’m actually running two cameras hoping to get different angles and possibly a few close up pictures. Third, I’m running an Illuminator for the main camera, so my night time pictures will be in color, which I’m pretty excited about.
I moved the pile about fifty feet from where it has been in previous years hoping for a little better background and also since there is a little more cover around this area, I’m hoping more animals will feel secure enough to visit often. I originally had the second camera on a tree, but I didn’t like the angle. Now that the ground thawed enough for me to pound a stake in, I was able to move it down so I’m getting close up pictures. So far I’ve had plenty of skunks visiting, a few coyote, and some crows. I’ve also had a hawk or two, and just recently started getting bald eagles. Last year will be hard to top in the eagle category, since I got hundreds of pictures with some great flight and landing shots.
