Better than I expected!

Congratulations Rachel!

Graeat beautiful colors pictures and so many species.

It is interesting to see the time too.

Great. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Luc

Very impressive...how do you have yours set, I mean, how many shots taken every so many seconds/minutes?
I am not familiar with the digital cams and I am sure they are probably much easier and reliable than my old 35 mm. For every nice, centered shot like you have here, I also had butt shots, ear shots, and plenty of leg shots, as the camera would start firing as soon as heat/movement was detected within the activation zone.

I have the cam set at 30 second intervals-at first it was 3 ft above the trail, but has been lowered to two feet since it was shooting over the backs of animals that were too close

2-15-09, possible Pit Bull mix, 7:49 a.m. {{!gwi}}From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

A great advantage of digital is that I can crop the photos and enhance them. Here's the original Red Fox shot:

Digital photos can be retrieved, viewed, deleted, cropped, edited, emailed, and displayed at large sizes for "free" after the initial investment, as opposed to film photos where poor shots and wind movement photos still have to be developed to view. Even then, the 4 X 6 inch image is so tiny the subject would have to fill the photograph to see it well.

At $219, this particular camera is the best trail cam for the money, according to amazon reviews. Other trail cams at or below that price had wind movement photos, slow shutter, short battery life, poor quality photos, small scanning area, and even worse issues.

Reviewers mostly loved this model..a few complaints about inadequate instructions, but it was very simple to set up.

rachel, this is fantastic!!! I am happy for you that it has been such a success. Please keep posting the shots, it's amazing what goes on around us.

pretty neat stuff rachel. were are those big buck pictures?

Very interesting! I'd love to have one of those. I'd probably only capture rabbits, devouring every one of the plants I've put in the ground, though.
Robin

Thanks!

I ought to thank those huge, round tracks and that black jaguar report that pushed me into finally buying a trail cam. Now I wonder why I took so long, and want five more to put around my farm and house..maybe find out why my dogs are really barking at night..

By the way, I googled Appalachian big, black cat sightings and found websites filled with photos and indignant protests from people living from Appalachia to Florida against the disparaging Discovery Channel myth-debunking show.
There was a photo of an adult melanistic black bobcat crossing a street in Florida and one of a half grown jaguar that had been shot-but it had been previously declawed, so was an escaped pet. One website claimed that 10 percent of cougars are melanistic or the kittens have spots so close together they look black from a distance.

Years ago I saw a documentary filmed in England showing video and photos of many exotic big cat species living in the wild, even with kittens. They speculated that when a law was passed banning owning exotic big cats, owners turned their pets loose and now the big cats are breeding and staying out of sight. Most citizens were completely unaware of their presence even when they lived near towns, except when a leopard rubbed against an elementary playground fence during recess one morning, sparking the inquiry.

I began to wonder if the amount of sightings in Appalachia has more to do with the culture, since men are constantly outdoors checking up on livestock, riding horses, or hunting. The urban journalists who ridiculed the sightings are more likely to spend their outdoor time jogging on sidewalks, listening to their ipods.

The slender big black cat I saw was shaped and behaved like an escaped leopard..for one thing, a cougar would likely never stand boldly next to an interstate switching its tail, but the description my neighbor gave me sounded like he'd seen a jaguar.
One website theorized there were so many short-legged, square-faced, black panther sightings in this area of Appalachia that someone must have tried to breed black jaguars for the illegal pet trade and later turned them loose

I've seen so many unusual things from habitually staying outdoors, I'm glad I now carry a camera. Of course if there is a jaguar out there that fancies human, I'd never get a photo..hence the trail camera!

No luck today-when I downloaded my Cuddeback SD card, all I had was a Gray Squirrel photo. Dunno where all the deer are-I suppose their trails are too far away from the camera

There were two deer photos yesterday, but one was too close to the camera and filled the lense

2-19-09, deer, 6:08 p.m.

We set the camera even lower, and it should get Woodcocks if they are around. Usually by this time DuBois and I are on top of the second mountain at sunrise to watch their aerial displays, but it was 17 degrees this morning, and there's a little snow on the ground. I think I'll wait for warmer weather to sit on the ground for two hours.