Holy Grail

What I really want from a trail camera is an image indistinguishable from one taken by my DSLR. Until my newest 8-megapixel Reconyx gives me an image to work with, the next-oldest Reconyx (3 megapixels, vintage 2018) is as close as I can come. Upon close inspection it doesn't have the detail of a DSLR image. I usually run my images through Camera RAW in Photoshop, even if they are JPG, and this is not a bad result. I usually don't crop off the trailcam borders, but in this case I did. I might even try to make a large print from this one.

The Woods (other)

Besides the moose pair from June 6, my recent trailcam check revealed a different moose, a very busy coyote, the usual deer, elk, and a bobcat. The new Reconyx #19 mixes video and stills, with the best video being a couple of elk.

I have my five best cameras out there, two Browning and three Reconyx. However, the oldest Reconyx #2 which dates to 2011 can't quite pull its weight when shooting at distance at night. There was one image of the moose pair (see other post from today) that would have been good if it wasn't so grainy. Two other nighttime images are shown here from #2, one of an elk which was much closer to the camera, and one of a deer at twilight when there was plenty of ambient light.

Moose

June 6 south of Red Lodge my various cameras captured a moose pair. The little one is all legs and makes people go "Awh." The newest Browning #15 got the best shots as the pair lingered in front of it for more than 10 minutes, then Reconyx #7 on the reverse side of the same tree got some images. There is one shot from Reconyx #2 which is too murky to post. They were too far away for the flash to be effective.

Yard

The previous three years, a deer with lopsided antlers has frequented the back yard. I haven't seen him yet this year, so perhaps there has been a generational change. The past few days there have been two young bucks hanging around, and today I chased one of them away from our tree by the front door. The lopsided deer used that tree once to rub the velvet off his antlers, breaking some branches in the process. The two new ones aren't at that stage yet as the antlers are still growing.

Over at the other birdbath, there is a constant stream of flickers, bluebirds and sparrows. I've seen the swallows at the nest boxes every once in a while, but I don't think either swallows or bluebirds are nesting there this year. We were in Ireland for a few weeks so I haven't had the melted Browning watching the boxes. I haven't gotten the remote trigger for the DSLRs out yet this year. Maybe next week.

Guzzlers

It's called a birdbath, but the deer seem to think it is a drinking fountain.

Where did all the water go?

Meanwhile at the nest box, the bluebirds are in their never-ending struggle against the tree swallows, and against egg stealers. And the camera also captured some more fence leapers.

Surprise

I put the ancient #6 on the bluebird box just to see if the bluebirds are around. They are, but the camera was too close to the box and the images were blurry. However, it was the perfect distance to get this:

Earlier that morning the camera also captured this. At first I thought the two dots above the deer's shoulder were some other critter watching from a distance, but the dots are there in other nighttime images and I think they are lights in a distant house.

This is one of the least-blurry bluebird images.

Here's something the bluebirds have to worry about. I find this neither cute nor funny.

Meanwhile, just a few feet away at the little birdbath, I set up the closeup camera Guardepro #14 to see if the flickers are coming around. Not yet. I have seen a skunk a few times in the past few years, but the appearances seem to be getting more frequent.

As I have said many times before, I do not use the infostrip on the Guardepro images, but this is from the day before the fence jumping. And no flickers, but plenty of magpies and blackbirds.