I had this brand new Reconyx Hyperfire 4K waiting to be deployed and the weather was decent today, so I made the trek out to the woods. This camera (designated as #19) seems to have the capability of doing stills and video at the same time, so I set it for that. Reconyx are not prone to false triggers so I hope the 32Mb memory card is adequate, but it shouldn't take as long to get back out as the six months it took this time. I now have five cameras out there, Reconyx #2 in its traditional location by the (falling) bridge, Reconyx #7 moved to the same tree at the midpoint as Browning #15, the new Reconyx #19 at the hotspot formerly occupied by #7, and Browning #11 replacing Browning #5 on the post monitoring the trail heading down to the road. There are no images posted from #5 this time. There was one blurry coyote sequence and lots of distant squirrel pictures before the camera apparently got twisted by a hit from falling snow on Jan. 8 and spent the next three months taking closeups of tree branches. But I still think it is a good location, and I tried to lock down #11 as tightly as possible to keep it from getting jostled.
Has it really been six months since I checked the cameras in the woods? I should have gone around New Years, but I procrastinated and eventually the snow accumulation made it impossible. Anyway, I'm burying the lede, which is this huge mountain lion that came by Nov. 26. (Seeing this made me realize that I forgot to carry bear spray on my hike today.)
A month later, a much smaller bobcat followed the same path.
There were lots of coyote images, most of them at night. There was this one during the day of a coyote trudging along when the snow was deep in early March. The nighttime images are among the first I've gotten with my newest Browning #15. I have to say I'm not overly impressed with nighttime images from it. The detail is very blocky, probably oversharpened, similar to what the Gardepro #14 does. Compare that with the lion images from the Reconyx, which are grainy but not blocky/oversharpened. In my opinion, the dedicated camera for nighttime images which are in the newer Brownings #11 and #15 are not effective because they are combined with excessive in-camera processing that can't be bypassed. I prefer the Reconyx with its single camera and a lighter touch.
There was one motion-blurred bear image, and lots of evidence of moose but no great photographs. One problem is the perfect camera height for a coyote or a deer is much too low for a moose.
My home cameras are now three ancients (Primos #4, Browning #5, and the famous Melted Browning #6) and the closeup Guardpro #14. My first inclination is to put #5 on the shed and #14 at the birdbath. I also want to do some remote triggering at the bird houses with the new Canon R5 Mark II (#18) and the equally new 100mm macro lens. Tomorrow might be good for that before the weather deteriorates later in the day.