Thinking Fellers Suburban Studies #7

In order to prepare my class for a camera trapping project with the Felidae Fund, we went out to the small oak-covered rise above our school that separates us from the industrial parks that litter the eastern portion of Terra Linda, San Rafael. Here we were to practice making a set and getting comfortable with the equipment.

The students made observations of animal trails, scat and other possible areas of interest to decide the camera location.

As we were leaving our set, a cry went out with an arm pointing to the trees -- above us, a large raccoon was napping! Truly a treat for the kids to see and even for myself this was a great first time experience. All of the time I have spent looking in trees for birds, while holding onto the hope for a gray fox or 'coon, had resulted in nada up until now.

The camera was in place for five days and all captures came from the first night.

 

gray fox

our napping friend?!

Before checking the cam, we quickly scanned the trees for the napper, but our glimpses discovered nothing. However, after unlocking the cam and then walking halfway out of the oak grove, another cry gathered our attention -- a sharp-eyed student had spotted the masked sleeper once again:

Camera Trapping with the Codger

Simple and straightforward. What RT said. If you have not read his post click through because he said it better than I can.

I will only add that this was an amazing class for all the reasons, RT laid out, but it was also one of those experiences that will change the way you look at natural history.  As great of a professor Chris is, the thing he left me with was his nurturing of your excitement about wildlife. It is so contagious that you will start to dream of small rodents and elusive mustelids even if you would rather not.

But really the most important thing is that you will have a mentor for life. Chris will continue to help you out with your camera trapping for years after the course with advise, encouragement, and questions if my experience is typical and I am sure it is.  I also met RT during the course I took two Summers ago and with him and the Codger I made two great friends for life that I have continued to have adventures with to this day.

I could not recommend this course any more highly and I hope to stop by and see some of you there in the Summer of 2012 for a little alumni reunion.

Flickr images from 2010 course.

More Mojave

I somehow managed to stretch out Mojave Desert pictures for almost a year. It was not really my plan, I just kept forgetting to post pictures. But it is time to start thinking of this year's trip and it reminded me that it was time to finish up these posts.













Here are two different Mohave Shovel-nosed snakes, Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis, with two very different color patterns. This is the first white shovel-nosed snake I have seen. Okay so it was the first yellow one I have seen too. This was a lifer species for me in 2011. That being said this was the first time others on the trip had seen a white banded shovel-nose too despite seeing dozens of yellows. They are much less common than the yellow guys.









A plant eating dinosaur in hand. Common Chuckwalla, Sauromalus ater. Not a very pretty individual. When let go, he dove back into his rock crack but was back a few minutes later standing tall looking out for invading males.










Lastly a Long-nosed Snake, Rhinocheilus lecontei. This was the most common snake we found outside of Sidewinders.  Turned up half a dozen or so Rhinocheilus. The lighting wasn't great for these images but I kind of like the long shadows.

One last desert post coming up that lacks animals but has some of that good ol' desert weirdness.

Fox Frenzy

60% of the time, it works every time

This set continues the exploration of the Mt. Tam Watershed, along a small tributary stream of Lagunitas Creek. I joined up with teaching cohort and fellow camera trapper, Ryan, on a glorious Sunday morning.

Three cams were placed -- one by myself and two by Ryan (guest post in the near future?) and were in operation for about 20 days.

While JK is scoring Bobcat tail on his cam all over Younger Lagoon, the Gray Fox continues to be my carnivore du jour.

Day 5 visit

 

Day 15 visit

 

                         Breeding Pair ?

 

A Grey Squirrel was the only other species to visit

Now, scents such as the top-pictured Fox Frenzy, are something of late that I have tried to use sparingly in my sets. 

This was not one of those sets. 

In this small clearing I found fox scat (near moss, left center picture) and dabbed some scent on a large rock (bottom right) and then again near the scat.

A curiosity runs through me. Is that a breeding pair? If so, will they be denning nearby?

Finally Comes Up Heads

Okay, so if you called heads instead of tails you had 1:12 odds of winning the toss. Not great odds at all, but better than I may have left you believing.  Yes one bobcat turned up heads. It came down the trail, stopped for a sniff, right about where I knelled down, but did nothing else, I swear.





After a sniff it turned around and found something good to check out. Maybe it was another bobcat's poop, maybe the skunk left something, or maybe it was just feeling a bit frisky.






And then it turned and hammed it up for the camera




I swear I did not use a ball of yarn above the camera as a lure.

This Bob' did not seem to be scared of the flash, but rather thought she was Angie on the Red Carpet.

The camera caught this silly kitty in good focus. Is that a tick on her ankle? Maybe she wanted us to remove it for her.

Overall, I am very happy I finally got a rufus to look into the eye of the homebrew.