I’ve finished reviewing my trail cam footage from this permission and I have seen some very interesting things that I’ve never witnessed in person. I got a chance to see herons and egrets fishing, eating, and squabbling, a hawk capturing water fowl and flying off with it, a sounder of hogs cooling off in the pond, rooting around the bank, shoats establishing dominance, and various animals doing other animals things. It’s like a personal National Geographic channel. Two things that are missing from the footage:
1) How our last big storm looked on film. My cameras didn’t pick up anything in all of the wind and lightning from that night.
2) I have not captured any footage of beavers in the pond or on the dam.
If anyone has captured trail cam footage of beavers, what worked for you? How can you situate a trail camera so that motion in the water triggers the sensor? That’s a bit frustrating. All of this time and I have no beaver footage aside from NV hunting footage amd footage of me toting a carcass across the dam.
This has been a learning experience. I will definitely return to this permission to hunt other animals as I now can see how the beavers have benefitted animals within this ecosystem. Strangely enough, they only plugged the holes that I made to stop the flow of water. Their patch work is just that, it’s not a rebuild. They didn’t level off their patches with the top of the dam, so now the pond holds less water. Evidence of this can be seen in the last phot I posted of the pond. When viewing it, you should be able to see a lot more plant growth around the water and in some areas that were previously under water. When the pond fills, its level is not nearly as high as it was when I spotted the water level close to the bottom of the bridge and feared that the bridge may wash out under a deluge that could create flash-flood conditions. Another thing, I never saw evidence of a state trapper getting involved. I also haven’t noticed signs of anyone from Bridges and Roads come to repair damage from erosion, burrowing, or do much of anything to preempt further damage. At this point the property owner seems more concerned about the hogs than anything else. To my understanding, various species of animals I’ve seen at this permission have been here for years. With that said, I think it is unrealistic and irrational to expect to eradicate any of them. This is a management job which is a part of the purpose of hunting. In conclusion, I believe that I was able to provide some sort of service to the benefit of the property owner and the public when I had time to do so. While I did not accomplish all that I set out to, I learned valuable lessons in the time that I worked this permission.
Photos:
Me toting beaver #2 across the dam. I forgot to turn off my IR torch on my rifle.
A red-shouldered hawk flying off with captured water fowl. This is one of my favorite photos from my footage. By the time this hawk triggered the camera, it already had this bird in its talons. I remained in the frame for 1 second. In that amount of time it flapped its wings three times while carrying this bird off. The bird extended its neck up towards the hawk’s body and when it flapped its wings, the left wing hit the prey bird im the head and knocked it down towards the water. Such power!! The feathers that came off this prey bird were in the air several seconds longer than the hawk was in the camera frame. They are swift creatures!!
Hogs trying to keep cool during the dog days of summer.
Approx 7-9 hogs visible on dam and in pond at night. Look towards the center of the photo in the area between the tall grass and brush.
The heron below is trying to figure out how to swallow what appears to be a perch that it caught. These birds eat from this pond
every day, multiple times per day. This guy is a sniper! I’ve seen him catch several fish. If you look in the background, you can see on of my dam breaks that has been plugged and patched. You can also see that the top of the patch is lower than the dam, thus altering the water level in front of the dam.
It’s always a pleasure to watch deer browse.
She didn’t tarry either. If you can zoom in, you may see the heron in the background crouched down (to the left of the pine tree in the middle of the pond) behind the brush waiting to catch a fish or frog swimming by.
This raccoon frequents this pond day and night. Look at the right right side of the photo in the water. Look for the reflection of the eyes. I’ve encountered it in person on a couple of nights out there. It has very keen senses. One night I caugh a faint image of it in my thermal scanner. It was about 70 yards away. By the time I put the IR scope on it, it was on its way away from the pond. On this particular night in the photo, my trail cam caught it in the water fishing.
Edited to add photos of some of the things and animals that I posted about seeing around this dam and pond.
wonder if the hog will mess up the dam; ensuing a beaver vs hog fight
