When the People Are Away
This week I am going to cheat be creative with my 1 Day 1 World Project entry, for 1:00 – 2:00 am.
I didn’t do anything at all last week, and here is why – I couldn’t think of anything new to do. I am often up til 2, and I could go outside and walk around and take pictures of toads and spiders and munching caterpillars, but I’ve already done that.
I hesitated to use these game camera photos, because they’re not from this week (and they’re not the most exciting game cam pictures I have, either), but to me the big picture of this whole project is to see what is going on around the world at a certain hour, so they fit that bill. Here is what goes on out in the Hill Country of Texas between 1 and 2 in the morning.
When we go to visit our ranchito, it’s not uncommon for there to be over 700 pictures on one game cam. We don’t have TV up there – instead we pop the camera chip into a laptop and go through all the pictures to see what animals have been taking selfies in our absence. Some of the other species we get are gray fox, porcupine, feral hog, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, cottontail rabbit, and elk – going through the pictures is more fun than Christmas.
Sadly, it’s also not uncommon for some 4-legged someone to investigate the game camera and break it. Here are some of those famous last shots.
I love how these wildlife cams give me an effortless glimpse into these animals’ lives.
Could be our place!!!!!!
Cool! What kind of animals do you have up there? Bigger deer than here in Texas, that’s for sure.
Yup, the “White Tail Deer” are definitely bigger AND, since we live in extreme SE MN—-corn/soybean country–they are very well fed and great tasting!!! Also, I don’t share the road well with the possum…….have only ‘hit’ one and DH thought sure I was goin’ down! I distinctly remember saying (in my head and repeating) “I’m NOT goin’ down”!!! Tons of ‘coon and Timber rattlers (lots…..surprises me in my flower garden in dry August during their molting time!!!).
Those are great!
Thanks, it is always amazing to me to see how many critters are roaming our place – I bet we see less than a tenth of them when we’re out and about in the daytime.
Maybe you have the makings of a new reality show. The animals could make cute comments like, “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.”
That is a show I would watch! I always watch Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl during the Super Bowl – I think it is time they branched out into wild creatures! 🙂
Great pics – what a neat idea to have a camera out at night. I so enjoy looking at those deer exploring at night. Earlier this week I passed right by thee bucks in velvet – beautiful sight and only about 4 feet from road. They were gorgeous. Keep us posted on future critters.
I keep hoping we’ll see a mountain lion out there, or a ringtailed cat, or something really exotic! But it has been so much fun seeing the variety of animals there, that I would have sworn were not around!
This is really fun–like Candid Camera for wild things! I imagine them breaking the camera on purpose, so they can engage in illicit activities, like standing on their hind legs and talking!
Ahh, the Farside cartoons that are forming in my head! Teenage deer standing around smoking, turkeys drag racing in all-terrain vehicles…
One time we did catch a giant feral hog standing on its back legs to eat out of the deer feeder! I added that photo to a post back in Sept of 2012 – https://textileranger.com/2012/09/13/generous-awards/. You have to scroll down quite a bit but it is a great photo!
That post is wonderful–all those animals and animal stories!
Good idea! I was thinking about pulling out the trail cam too although I doubt I”ll have near as many visitors as you!
Well, when I cheat on a challenge, I cheat good! I keep all the photos, and the pictures that I posted this time are from 3 different cameras, over a period of 5 years. (The one that says 2008 is really from 2010, I didn’t set the date on that camera when I put it out.) If you do it, I’ll be interested to see what you get!
What a fun approach to the hour’s challenge!
I’ve been plotting to make use of these photos since I joined in on the project! 🙂
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That’s so interesting! What a lot of wildlife you have around you.
I’d love to see our night visitors. We have deer, raccoons, opossums, and coyotes around, at varying times and in varying quantities. Surely there are others we don’t know of, too. Thanks for the photos.
Before we put up the cameras, I would have sworn we hardly had any animals around. It has been fun to see not only the types of animals we get, but how regularly they visit! I always tell myself I will go camp out in the dark and wait for them, but the camera is so much easier. 🙂