Joining the Aplodontia Club

This post is a long time coming ...

Struck out on the elusive Mt. Beaver two years in a row and on my third season in the Sierras I finally got the little guy. Fairly decent pictures of him too, but I wish more images were in full-frame. Now that I got him I can concentrate on getting the perfect picture next year.

Smile for the camera!

I was so busy right after picking up this cam at the Codger's annual camera trapping workshop that I didn't get around to processing them several months later. The nice part about that though was going back through the images was almost like going through them the first time.

Early afternoon Mt. Beaver. Also looks like he is going through a molt. Not sure what is the new coat and what is the old coat though.
Check out that human-like ear

Early evening Mt. Beaver

NOM NOM NOM.  Look at those claws!
No wonder they are able to build such elaborate tunnel systems.
Cropped image

A few more pictures, because, well why the hell not. Keep going to the bottom of the post for a short discussion on the set.

Great look at the ear

Sniff ... Sniff ... Sniff

Go! Go! Go!
A bit blurry but this guy was hauling down the tunnel right at lunch time

This set took pictures for only 6 days. A following post will discuss the flash-activating battery destroyer.

However, every photo of an Aplodontia was taken during daylight hours which is very surprising to me.  The flash still fired during many of the day photos because the camera was situated in a dense alder thicket that did not have a lot of light.

It took roughly 24 hours to get the first Mt. Beaver shot. A Mt. Beaver then visited the camera every day (+5) until the batteries died.

• Day 2: 1:45PM and 2:31PM (considered 1 visit)
• Day 3: 11:03AM
• Day 4: 4:54PM, 5:16PM and 5:24PM (considered 1 visit)
• Day 5: 6:32AM and 7:13AM (considered 1 visit)
• Day 6: 7:11AM and 1:48PM (considered 2 visits)

I think these are likely all the same individual even though the amount of red/brown looks a bit less in some images than in others. I think that might be just an artifact of the camera, but maybe this is more than one critter.

UPDATE:  Per RT's suggestion in the comments another cropped, image.

Natural History Museum

I visited NYC for the first time this April.  I have to say it was a wonderful city and I had the greatest time.  Granted, about the only thing you are going to camera trap are rats, hipsters and cougars, but there was still some wildlife to see.  I saw my first Blue Jay in Central Park for example and a rat that would have given Zara a run for her money.

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend of mine from college who graciously gave us keys to his apartment so we could come and go as we pleased.  My favorite coming and going outside of some excellent food was to the American Museum of Natural History.  Museum photography never turns out well so I will only present you with a few photos.

Dinosaurs of course are awesome, but fossil salamanders are even cooler.

Someday when I am a rich man I will have a slab like this in my personal library.

I also really enjoyed the old diorama style exhibits.

But imagine my surprise when I saw the diorama of this little rodent.  The background is not quite right for the habitat we have found them in nor do the burrows look right, but it certainly brought a smile to my face.  There were maybe 30-40 North American mammals on display but our friend Aplodontia was one of them.  Maybe the Sterlings were fans of this curious critter or maybe they just threw their name on any old display.  Either way, these made me think of our mentor.  Thanks again Codger.