Trailcam – August 7th

What have the kits been up to?

You will remember that we have critter “neighbors”, a family of raccoons in particular. A few weeks ago I got a “trailcam” to try to get some better pictures of them. After the initial photos, I left the camera to run for a couple of weeks (i.e., I got too busy to climb up onto the roof and retrieve it) which didn’t work quite as well as I thought it might.

I did get some reasonably nice pictures over the next couple of nights.

The family, mom and her three kits, were active almost every night, usually where this drain pipe from the air conditioning unit emptied out. Their very own watering hole.

So I moved the tripod over to where it was nearer that spot. One doesn’t need much of a close examination to determine that one’s mom, a mammal…

…and nursing her kits.

After not seeing or hearing them on the roof for nearly a week, they were back. Let’s do a tail count here. We have visitors, since I count five tails.

There was the usual roughhousing (“Kits will be kits!”).

Mom and the family look good.

And then something happened. This was the last picture with this view.

Then there was this. Obviously, someone had knocked over the tripod.

Then they sat on it. There are a LOT of pictures that look just like this, nearly every night. The IR flash going off and either being totally overexposed because there was something directly on the camera, or showing blurry, close-up fur like this.

When the camera wasn’t being sat upon by critters, it was looking at the trees above. Those would be the trees above that sway in the slightest breeze. In front of a motion activated camera. With night vision capabilities.

Not that it needs the night vision. The trailcam is perfectly capable of taking pictures at any sign of motion during the day as well.

You see what I’m getting at here?

Following the great tip over of July 24th, over the next 11 days I have 24,755 pictures pretty much all like the two above. That averages out to one every thirty-eight seconds. FOR ELEVEN DAYS.

I know they’re there every couple of days because the tripod’s tipped over near their watering hole and across their normal route of access.

One one occasion only, they were late getting home. Given their nocturnal nature and the fact that mom would have been herding and protecting her kits, I’m very surprised to see them passing by after sunrise.

I’ll see what shakes out and if they’re still hanging around in a week or two. Maybe next time I’ll lash the tripod to some of the HVAC ducting or pipes up there.

I hate it when the critters are demonstrably smarter and more clever than I am.