Brown Creeper, turkey, raccon

Last Saturday night was Earth Hour, when people across the world turned off lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. to vote to stop Global Warming, before December's Copenhagen Global Climate Change Conference.

At 7:45 p.m. we turned off the lights and hiked up to the top of the mountain to watch the Woodcock displays, but they have already stopped..at least three weeks early. So we sat in the grass watching the sunset fade while the constellations appeared, listening to the persistent hoots of a Long-eared Owl and screech of a Barn Owl.

Today I sat around in the woods watching a Pileated Woodpecker couple dash from tree to tree. I took photos of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Brown Creeper,

From 3-23-09, Spring

but they didn't turn out well as the tiny, fast moving birds were high in the canopy.

The Cuddeback game camera got a few photos over the past few days

3-31-09, Farm pond, Eastern Cottontail, 11:37 p.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

4-3-09, Farm pond, wild turkey gobbler, 5:39 p.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

4-4-09, Farm pond, raccoon, 1:20 a.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

Haven't had a photo of the male bobcat for over a month-it's wise to the camera now and avoids the flash. His front foot tracks are 2 3/4" wide, 2 1/2" long..big sucker!

3-1-09, Pond trail, Bobcat, 7:46 p.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

Louisiana Waterthrush

I took some blurry photos of the Louisiana Waterthrush Tuesday so I tried again this morning since it was sunny. The male was singing up and down the creek, swinging his tail like a pendulum but I got a couple of slightly better focused shots

From 3-23-09, Spring

From 3-23-09, Spring

So far the new infrared game camera has been too slow to video anything, and all the Cuddeback cam has been getting are rabbit and turkey photos (sigh). We'll bring the infrared cam in tonight and try again to figure out how to program it.

3-31-09, Red Fox, Wild Turkeys

I just retrieved the infrared card and despite our efforts last night to leave the new cam in "camera mode", we got a series of short videos-all of which were just red screens except for the last video which was of me passing to get the SD card from the other camera.

I still can't make heads or tails out of the directions, so I'll just leave the infrared cam as is for the moment.

The Cuddeback cam had several critter photos on it-all familiar faces by now:

3-30-09, Gray Squirrel, 3:03 p.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

3-31-09, Eastern Cottontail, 4:01 a.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

3-31-09, pond trail, female Red Fox, 4:58 a.m.

From Cuddeback trail camera photos-wildlife on Picazo Farm pond trail

To see a slide show of all the Cuddeback camera photos, here's the link to the Picasa Web album, or click on any of the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelbro3/CuddebackTrailCameraPhotosWildlifeOnPicazoFarmPondTrail#

I tried to get photos of the Louisiana Waterthrush this morning but it was cloudy so the shutter speed was slow. I also had trouble using manual focus through the branches, so I'll try tomorrow for sharper photos

3-31-09, Farm creek, male Louisiana Waterthrush, 8:59 a.m.

From 3-23-09, Spring

3-31-09, 9:02 a.m.

From 3-23-09, Spring

9:04 a.m.

From 3-23-09, Spring

9:14 a.m.

From 3-23-09, Spring

Sept-Nov. 2007

I decided to switch to a Google blog to see if it is easier to post photos