January 2019 Game Camera

The game camera photos from January (and late December) proved to be full of variety with some really great shots captured. You think that I might get bored with this routine, but I seriously can hardly wait to retrieve these SD cards and review the images. While the primary purpose might seem is to track the wild game to improve hunting success, I think I often get more excited about the non-target animals caught on camera.

The Buck

First I have to comment on the photo above. This large, messy antlered buck has been captured numerous times over the last year on camera. He is an older buck with a smallish body, and sometimes doesn’t even seem healthy. Even with countless hours spent in the stand and walking the property, none of us have positively seen him in real life. So I had to laugh when this image appeared. The buck seemed to be sticking his tongue out at us, posing for the camera in broad daylight during the final weeks of archery season. Of course none of us were hunting that day. I believe Mother Nature has a sense of humor.

Turkeys

We have turkeys that frequent the land, but with such irregularity that they are not expected on a typical visit. When they do show up on the game cameras, it is typically for a few days then they are gone again for a bit. It was the same thing this month, with a group of large gobblers strutting around for a few days and then they were gone again.

The fighters

We actually had 3 different sets of bucks sparring on camera over the past month. In all cases, the bucks were relatively small. Still fun to watch them battle it out.

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The Predators

December proved to be a busy month for predators on the game camera. Several different coyotes were observed, always passing by quickly. A few different photos of foxes appeared, although none of them very clear images. Still looking for a return visit from the bobcat we captured last year. We have seen a few while hunting, but they have avoided the cameras.

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The Scavengers

As always, we have a tremendous number of photos of raccoons and opossum. The raccoons often hang out in family groups, and linger on camera for a long time wearing out the batteries. The opossum are always solitary and pass through on their way to who knows what.

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The Birds

We were fortunate to capture a fair amount of songbirds this month, the cold and snow seemed to have them bunched up a bit more than usual. Typically the photos are not very good but the Wildgame Innovations cameras had some nice captures of the small targets this month.

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Summary and a few more cool pics

The snow created the opportunity for some neat photographs. It was also neat to get the one-antlered buck on camera to let me know it was time to get out looking for sheds. But for now, I can barely wait for next month to see what surprises the game cameras will reveal. Will the bucks still be holding antlers? Will the bobcat return? Did the turkeys survive the heavy snow and freezing weather? I am out of town quite a bit this month so more than usual I will have to rely on the came gameras to see what is going on in the MO-Outdoors.

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