You're Never Too Old to Learn

I was disappointed in the performance of the plastic clip on the tree strap that came with the Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam. Disappointed in the way it broke in the cold. My solution was to use an old kayak tie-down (left). OK, confession, it wasn't old, but it was available and I could replace it by the time it was warm enough to kayak in Vermont.

It is generally a good idea to question your own cleverness. The new strap was great and it did a phenomenal job. I wondered why Bushnell® was so "thrifty" as to not include such a fantastic strap initially. Unfortunately, man-genius here never got past what a great solution I'd come up with to consider other issues, such as why Bushnell® include a strap that was a little less visible.

After I reattached the camera to a tree, I left to run some errands. When I was driving up the driveway on my way home I spied a bright yellow ribbon around a tree. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we weren't praying for the return of a loved one, or Tony Orlando. I guess you can attach your game camera to a tree using a bright yellow strap if you'd like for the game cam to be stolen. I'm sure the raccoons had a great laugh that night.

I took the camera down and ordered a dark strap from Amazon. Now it is securely attached, easy to adjust, and won't be broken by the Vermont weather.

I chalk it up as an ultimate win, but I had to laugh at myself for overlooking the obvious. Of course, once the obvious was mounted on a tree, it was easier to see.

I was also educated a couple weekends ago. Every Sunday at 8 AM a group meets down at a park in Virginia to bird. I decided to go to the same spot on Saturday to try out a "new" spotting scope I was renting for a couple days. I was slow getting out, but 8 AM seemed too early on the weekend anyway. I decided to hit Huntley Meadows Park first. It was pretty much a bust as far as seeing a variety of birds, but there were a lot of Mallards and Canada Geese. What I learned was how difficult it is to identify ducks when they are all resting with heads tucked under wings. I also learned that, at the right angle, a Mallard drake's head looks purple - not green. I confirmed this observation at the National Zoo the other day on a noon-time walk.







My final observation and lesson learned is that it is really quite difficult to take an iPhone photo through a spotting scope (right). It is hard to line up that small lens with the small scope eyepiece. At least you can see the ducks with their heads hidden. There must be an easier way to line up the iPhone camera and the scope...perhaps a bright yellow strap would work. I have one that I'm not using and is now far too short to tie down a kayak.

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here; To watch his woods fill up with snow.  (Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening, by Robert Frost)

"Whose woods these are I think I know" is a fitting title to my first blog entry since July 2013. It is the feeling I get when I'm driving home from the Burlington airport; driving up our road, looking through the trees, across the meadow to our house. For more than a year, I have traveling considerably for work.  Being home for any stretch of time is a treat.

In November 2012, I started this blog. As part of this great endeavor I thought it would be fun and interesting to try out some new gear and write up a review or two.  One techno-toy I really wanted to try out was a game camera. I did some research and settled on the Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam.  I wrote to Bushnell and told them about the blog (then with regular postings) and that I wanted to review their Trophy Cam. They were kind enough to send me the HD Trophy Cam to evaluate for a year. An unintended, but very welcome benefit of evaluating the Trophy Cam was being able to stay connected to Vermont when I was away - specifically to Vermont's changing seasons and its domesticated and wild critters.

wild critter

The Model 119537C HD Trophy Camera took 8 mega pixel photos (after a year I still haven't used the video option). The camera takes very good to great quality photos. The photos ranged from vivid color during the day to black and white at night. The color quality depended on the lighting. The only poor quality photos was when the angle of the sun washed out the picture...or when Cabot-the-wonder-dog sprinted by the camera and all that was captured was a blur.

domesticated critter - Cabot

One of the nice features of the camera is the date, time, temperature stamp on the pictures. From this information I was able to determine that standard alkaline batteries worked down to about 4 degrees. Lithium batteries were good to at least 4 below - the coldest recorded. 

I made several other observations using this feature. One observation was that my wife clearly stretched the truth when she told me she always keeps the dogs on a leash when she lets them out. I could correct her by reminding her that on June 16th at 18:30 hours she, in fact, had Cabot off the leash as she walked up to dump kitchen bio-hazards in compost!  She was most grateful for my gentle corrections. (Every parent of teenagers should run out and get one of these game cameras. Just strap it to a tree and focus it on the front of the house. Your children will think you have supernatural powers about when they broke curfew or what boyfriend came to the house and when. If only I knew then...hindsight is 20/20 they say.)

partially domesticated

Another observation I made, more in keeping with the purpose of the camera, was that the only time I recorded our resident fisher cat (near the composer) was when it was less than 10 degrees outside. (See photo below.)

The camera is quite sensitive.  It captured birds at the feeder, the movement of squirrels, and lots of raccoon activity at night - including the whole raccoon family climbing down from a tree that we had always walked by, never knowing who its residents were.

fisher cat hunting English Setters

I am hopeful that my writing hiatus is over and that I will once again be adding routine posts.  A lot has happened in over a year, some of it even good.  No matter where your travels take you, the outdoors has something to offer. There are new trails, new animals, renewal of old interests, new encounters with animals, etc. New sporting opportunities also bring new gear. One future post has to be "Confessions of an Outdoor Gear Whore." I was going to use addict, but "whore" is much more dramatic, even if inaccurate.

Remember, a bad day afield is better than a good day at a regular paying job, although the regular pay is awfully nice.

Jericho Wildlife

...or wild wife. I'm back in Vermont for a few days from Babylon on the Potomac, as Fr. Rick refers to DC. Back home, time to check my Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam game camera to see what exotic wildlife it captured.

The rarely seen Vermont wife

The camera took 22 photos since the second week of July. Twelve of the photos are of some nut dog named Cabot racing through the woods after, most likely, squirrels. Squirrels were the stars in 4 photos. One photo was of me setting the camera.

Karen beat out the squirrel photos with 5 featuring her going to and from the compost bin.

I have to admit that I was hoping for something a bit more, shall we say, exotic. I should put out a mineral block. My luck, Cabot will consume it and require a visit to the vet. Maybe I'll leave it be and just let the camera take photos of my country wife.

It could be worse. There could have been a picture of my wife walking in the woods with a new, secret, illicit...horse!

A Quick Spring, Family Fishing, Hiking, and Bullwinkle (the moose) Permits

(as published in the Mountain Gazette, June 6, 2013)

I saw spring come to Jericho all in a couple of minutes. While my statement is true, it was with the help of my Bushnell Game Camera. This past Monday I retrieved the memory card from my game camera. There were only about 500 photos on the card, but I was able to see the trees leaf out and the ferns come up right before my eyes. It was pretty neat to see how quickly everything happened over the span of a few days.

                                                           

The first week in June I’ll be joining my dad and brothers for a fishing trip on the West Branch of the Ausable River in New York.  While we try to get together every year, it seldom works out that way. This is our second year on Ausable, and we hope to have the full complement this year.

We tried, several years ago, to fish a couple of different rivers in Vermont, but the trout seemed to be too intelligent to be caught in any number. Being the opportunists that we are, we figured we’d have better luck out of state where the fish weren’t so educated. This year my younger brother was thinking of bringing his son Jack.  Jack is almost 11. It would be wonderful to have Jack participate in our fish-trip tradition. That and we can tell him stories, some real about his dad. Unfortunately, Jack has never fly fished and where we are going you can only fish with a single hook, artificial fly – no bait. So…now Jack isn’t going because my brother thinks he’ll be too bored – which is probably right (and Jack’s friend is having a birthday party, which is more attractive than fishing with old guys). How do you get kids interested in family outdoor traditions and keep them from going crazy with boredom?

It seems to me that you first need to get your junior outdoor partner interested in the activity or event. This begins by building up anticipation for what will happen. Talk up past trips and stories. This gets them excited about participating. Involve them in the planning. Ask them what they want to do, within parameters of the trip. If the trip involves certain skills, make sure the child has mastered the basics before you leave. Once they have reached some level of proficiency, consider treating them to a new or upgraded piece of equipment – some new tackle, reel, fishing vest, or fishing boat. OK, start small. No boat.

Encouraging kids to get involved in outdoor activities can take some time and patience, but it can be rewarding for years to come. It is also important to recognize that hunting and fishing isn’t for everyone. You don’t have to hunt or fish to enjoy the outdoors or to participate in some way in family traditions. Be content if you can get your child to accompany you fishing, even if she wants to sit on a rock and watch the birds eat the hatch, rather than match the hatch.

So let’s get your kids outside.  Why not start with participating in National Trails Day^®? American Hiking Society's National Trails Day^® is the country's largest celebration of trails. Mark your 2013 calendar for June 1^st to make sure you don't miss out on the thousands of National Trails Day^® activities happening all over the country. Events include hikes, biking and horseback rides, paddling trips, birdwatching, geocaching, gear demonstrations, stewardship projects and more.  There are 11 events planned in Vermont this year, with four just a short drive away.  For more information, please see  http://www.americanhiking.org/national-trails-day/

Time to sign up for your moose permit. Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department has proposed 355 moose hunting permits for the regular October 19-24 moose season and 50 permits for an archery moose season October 1-7. More information and an application can be found at http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/hunttrap_mooselottery.cfm.

Happy days afield. Please visit www.sportingafield.blogspot.com for more news, musings, and interviews or to leave questions or comments.

Jericho Wildlife

As I mentioned in a recent post, I've been trying out a Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam game camera, provided courtesy of Bushnell®. This is the first game camera I have used and I am very impressed with the quality of the pictures over varying conditions. I am also impressed with how sensitive the camera is to movement. A small Red Squirrel climbing a tree triggers the camera, as does a dove landing under the feeder. Snow and wind doesn't seem to set off the camera, which is a good thing in Vermont.

Startled Deer

The camera records the camera name (useful if you are using multiple cameras), the temperature, the moon phase, the date, and the time the picture was taken. After viewing dozens of pictures, a certain repeated sequence of events has started to emerge: animals feeding around the bird feeder; startled animals flee; Cabot (the wonder dog) appears in the next picture frame. Needless to say, I have at least as many pictures of Cabot as I do of any "real" wildlife. Cal (the Brittany) is also in a couple pictures, but, at 13, he's a bit slower out of the gate.

I've also learned a thing or two playing with Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam game camera. First, if you don't push the camera on switch all the up, the camera stays in the set-up mode. If the camera is in the set-up mode, you get no pictures. Second, you can tell a lot from the sequence shots - where the animals come from, how long the feed or stay in the area, and how frequently they return. I've also learned that the dogs will chase anything off that little hill.

The infrared flash also works great. The benefit of an infrared flash is that you can take night photos without scaring off game.  Early this month I woke up to the smell of skunk. It smelled like it was in the house...just terrible. My wife didn't smell anything since she could sleep through Armageddon (or my snoring). I went up to the game camera a couple days later, took out the memory card, plugged it into my computer, and, sure enough, the camera caught the skunk heading off after its odoriferous ruination of my sleep.

So far the camera has taken pictures of an English Setter named Cabot, deer (lots of does), Red Squirrels, an English Setter named Cabot, Grey Squirrels, an English Setter named Cabot, Karen going to the compost bin, Karen returning from the compost bin, birds of all sort, and an English Setter named Cabot. I can't wait for spring and the possibility of getting photos of more game. I'm hoping to catch a bear when the weather improves. We've also seen Fisher and Barred Owls around the house.

Cabot, center of picture, stalking his shadow

I was talking with my friend Leo the other day about the game camera and he told me of all the wildlife he has seen over the years. Leo travels Brown's Trace Road four days a week to work and, as one would expect, Leo has seen quite a few critters. He has seen a great number of deer and several moose.  In one month period a few years ago, Leo saw a Fisher cross the road six times at the same spot and at almost the exact same time of day.  Just a couple weeks ago, Leo saw a bobcat about a mile past Clark's Truck Center, an animal he has only seen twice before, despite having been a hunter for over 60 years.  The last bobcat Leo saw was over 40 years ago.

I have to admit I absolutely love the Bushnell® HD Trophy Cam game camera.  However, I am wondering if maybe I shouldn't just strap a camera to Leo and send him on his daily commute!

Call me Bushnell

Back in the mists of time, the ancients would sometimes change their names following some momentous event - Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader, "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."  In the bible, God would occasionally change a person's name (and who'd argue) - Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter.  This custom continues in modern times.  For example, it is still customary for those elected to the Papacy to take a name, other than their birth name, to signify their reign as Supreme Pontiff.  Following receipt of a Bushnell® HD 8MP Trophy Cam from the Public Relations Manager at Bushnell, I briefly considered changing my name to Bushnell.  In the end, while receiving the trail camera was a momentous event, I thought changing my name would be confusing - to friends, to family, to me...to Cabela's®.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of writing for the Mountain Gazette and my blog is that I occasionally am able to try products from various manufacturers.  This past week I received a new Bushnell®  HD 8MP Trophy Cam to run through its paces for 2013.  I'm looking forward to testing its features and being able to add many pictures I otherwise wouldn't be able to capture to my blog.

The only downside I see is that the Bushnell®  HD Trail Cam may reveal that there really are a ton of big bucks all around me...under my nose!  I'm willing to take the chance.

rarely seen wife in kitchen

I hope to get the camera set up and mounted this weekend.  It would have come in handy when the girls were back in high school and my wife and I were out of town for the weekend.  I did once tell the girls that I had mounted several game cameras focused on the house right before Karen and I left for the weekend.  How do you spell PARANOID?  (It was not a real question, but if my mom uses "paranoid" in "Words with Friends" any time soon, I'll suspect she read this post.)

As you can see from the picture, I've progressed to setting up the camera.  It has more features than I'd normally ever use.  However, in the interest of being a good reviewer, I'll go through all the features in the upcoming months.  (I'm glad I have the Bushnell®  HD Trophy Cam for a year...it may take that long.)