Elk in a new spot

Getting a picture of an elk is not hard in some places. Big fat elk with giant antlers can be seen lounging on the lawn of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park or taking a dip at the Simmons Wildlife Safari near Omaha. But in the Black Hills and around my new home in Montana, they are more shy. For the first time my Reconyx trailcams got a few shots of elk in Custer National Forest south of Red Lodge, Montana. The first image on #7 shows one of what appeared to be about seven elk streaming past. The second image is a few weeks later from #2 nearby.

I set up the Primos #4 to try to get a closeup of the bobcat is in the area, but the image quality on a few bunny rabbits that hopped by was so bad that I replaced it with melted Browning #6. Brownings #5 and #11 are monitoring my back yard, and the Primos is just sitting idle because it sucks so bad. I might set it out overnight to take videos of deer eating my petunias since the only good images I have ever gotten from it were frames extracted from a night video of a badger.

Hawk

There are a couple hawks that swoop through the field behind me once in a while, a harrier and a rough-legged. Melted Browning #6 isn't triggered very often, but it caught what I believe is the harrier. The air is very smoky from Canadian wildfires. A few weeks later I was able to get a distant DSLR shot of the harrier.

Trash Panda

Haven't seen a racoon in the yard before.

Still in doubt

The bluebirds and swallows continue their contest for the nest box. I'm still pulling for the bluebirds. Meanwhile, red-winged blackbirds and others are taking advantage of the feeders and bath a few yards away. Last year there was one blackbird that came around, but this year there are a couple dozen at times. I'm more afraid of a swallow pecking me in the head than anything a blackbird might do, but still they look freaky sometimes when they are swarming in the yard.

These images were all taken by my newer Browning (camera #11), which is a slight improvement over my older Brownings (#5 and #6). I pulled #11 in from the National Forest and replaced it with the Primos (#4), moving closer to the location where a bobcat wanders by on occasion. #4 is so awful in sunlight and much better at night, so hopefully this is a good location for it. The bobcat usually comes through at night, and during the day the spot is shady most of the day.

The forecast says rain the next few days so I'll probably give the 1D (#9)/motion trigger a rest until Sunday or Monday. What I really want to see is evidence of nest building from the bluebirds. Last year at this time, the bluebirds were much further along with their nest building. I don't know if the delay is due to the weather, the competition from the swallows, or what. If it turns out the swallows take the box, I won't be so enthusiastic about that.

I haven't seen meadowlarks so far, but I have heard them. According to one of my Facebook groups it is time to put out the hummingbird feeders, so that's on the list for the next few days. I have suet feeders hung for the first time so we'll see if that attracts some woodpeckers. So far just the magpies have been going after those.

Update: About a week later, it is clear the swallows have won and the bluebirds have gone elsewhere. At least the swallows allegedly eat a lot of flying insects. The meadowlarks are visible but lurking just out of range, as they did most of last year. I saw a hummingbird at the feeder yesterday. No woodpeckers yet. And not even any goldfinches at the thistle seed feeder. What's up with that? Plenty of blackbirds, magpies, crows and the occasional raven, maybe the little birds are intimidated.

Bluebird with the moon over his shoulder.

Swallow squawking at bluebird.

Swallows

Old old old

Further evidence that the worst DSLR image is better than the best trailcam image. I set up the motion trigger with the 19-year-old 1D Mark II (camera #9) and a 23-year-old 50mm f/1.4 lens. The autofocus on the lens has broken a couple times and I didn't bother to get it fixed the second time, but it works just fine for motion trigger since I have to manually prefocus anyway. Due to windy conditions today, I think the motion trigger was fooled into firing off a few hundred blank images, but I found these representing the swallows in the morning and the bluebird in the evening.

I read on the internet today (so it must be true) that bluebirds are a bit bigger than swallows and should out-compete them if they both want the same nest box. I hope so.

Trailcam update

I went into the National Forest to see what the trailcams have gathered since January. The Browning (camera #11) got a few bunnies and bad coyote shots and none are posted here. The two Reconyx (#2 and #7) got moose, coyotes and one bobcat butt at their locations on the trail between the bridge and the miner's cabin. The April 7 images indicate there are two coyotes, one a bit bigger than the other. They weren't caught together but passed by within seconds of each other.

Bobcat butt

We have a situation

The two bluebirds may have to fight off a challenge from at least four swallows for possession of the nest box. There were a few squabbles today and we'll see how it goes. I would rather tape the hole shut than have swallows nesting there, but I'll give the bluebirds a chance to retain control. Photos taken with old 1D Mark II (camera #9), new 24-105 lens, motion trigger.

Bluebird in charge

Confrontation

Squatters

Nesting

The snow is gone, a bluebird couple seems to be tentatively bringing nesting material to the box, and I even got a really bad image (not shown) that seems to be the male bluebird driving off another male.

I am really starting to hate my Browning trail cameras (cameras #5 and #6). The image quality is terrible. The fourth image was motion triggered with the 1D Mark II (#9) and my new 24-105 lens.