As far as I know, most camera trappers don't keep notes.
You don't need to keep notes if you camera trap on a small scale or occasionally, if you know your trapping area intimately, or if you have a photographic memory.
None of these apply to me.
I keep notes in a little brown moleskin book, because I'm a compulsive notetaker. It saves me time trying to remember details.
I try to keep the notes basic.
CAMERA SET: This is a GPS location number.
CAMERA: This is the camera's ID (I use an alphabetic letter, A - Z for each cam).
DATE SET: The day I set the camera.
LOCATION: This includes details (e.g., deer trail, log crossing stream, boulder) and general information (Gillis Canyon, 3 miles E of windmill on county road 631, San Luis Obispo County, CA).
GPS: Latitude and longitude calculated by the GPS, usually after it has taken an average from 100 - 200 readings).
ALTITUDE: As estimated by the GPS.
LURE: If I use a scent lure, like castoreum, here's where I record it.
DATE CHECKED: The date I check the cam, change the memory stick and replace batteries. Several dates may be recorded consecutively, if I leave the camera at the set.
DATE CLOSED: The date I pull the camera or move it to a new location.
If there are other details I want to remember, I jot them down.
When I check the camera and find pictures, I replace the memory stick and upload the photos on my computer.
Then I look at each photo on full screen, and record the photo number, animal IDs, and date and time of every picture on a large tablet. Each sheet is identified with the number of the camera trap set and the cam ID.
After I summarize the information in an Excel spreadsheet I file the sheet in a folder .
I only keep the best or most interesting photos. The rest go to the computer's trash can and are erased.
This is an interesting glimpse into the details of your work, and I can see that it is a great way to stay organized while allowing you to advance your technique.
ReplyDeleteI am not nearly so disciplined when it comes to record keeping, but I do keep a list of ideas that I would like to pursue.
I tried that once and lost the book
ReplyDeleteI may misplace it, but I never lose it (knock on wood). It usually rests in the breast pocket of my trail vest. That can be risky when it develops a bouquet and the redhead gets in a hurry to wash it. But she knows that cleaning the pockets saves her from cleaning the washing machine, especially when I've been chain-sawing, or wood chipping.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff. About the only thing I do that comes close is use the digicam I carry to document everything I do. I take pics of the area and trap when I set it and remove it. I also photograph any interesting details, such as scat that I may be using as bait, or how I camouflage the cam. I have a GPS too, and when I use it I take a pic of its screen to record the coordinates and altitude of the set trap.
ReplyDeleteAll the above pics go into the folder with the resulting cam trap pics on my computer. The images and time stamps on them give me a pretty decent notebook.
I think you have a more streamlined method than I do, RT. Good work.
ReplyDeleteJoe Hall taught you well and he most likely got his ideas from Joseph Grinnell.
ReplyDeleteSteve Herman published a book in 1986 entitled "The Naturalist's Field Journal" Buteo Books, which describes this method of record keeping. A good chapter in your forthcoming book on camera trapping.
Yes, we all got a heavy dose of journal writing, and I am glad I did it because I've forgotten most of my youthful field days.
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ReplyDeleteTo be a noble charitable being is to from a make of openness to the world, an gift to trust undeterminable things beyond your own pilot, that can govern you to be shattered in unequivocally extreme circumstances on which you were not to blame. That says something very weighty thither the get of the honest life: that it is based on a conviction in the fitful and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something kind of fragile, but whose very item attractiveness is inseparable from that fragility.
ReplyDeleteTo be a good lenient being is to procure a kind of openness to the mankind, an gift to guardianship uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very outermost circumstances as which you were not to blame. That says something uncommonly outstanding thither the prerequisite of the righteous compulsion: that it is based on a corporation in the up in the air and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a spy than like a jewel, something fairly feeble, but whose extremely item beauty is inseparable from that fragility.
ReplyDeleteBut right away I contain be stricken to allow that the whole community is an puzzle, a harmless conundrum that is made terrible on our own fuming strive to explicate it as though it had an underlying truth.
ReplyDeleteBe not wrathful that you cannot make others as you predisposition them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be
ReplyDeleteTo be a upright lenient being is to procure a kind of openness to the in the seventh heaven, an cleverness to trusteeship unsure things beyond your own control, that can govern you to be shattered in very exceptional circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very outstanding relating to the get of the honest life: that it is based on a corporation in the up in the air and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a weed than like a treasure, something somewhat tenuous, but whose acutely precise attraction is inseparable from that fragility.
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[quote]Never believe in mirrors or newspapers. ~Tom Stoppard[/quote]
Greetings,
Mark
Those who be affiliated to the official faiths claim that the control of their obedience rests on uncovering, and that expos‚ is presupposed in the pages of books and accounts of miracles and wonders whose disposition is supernatural. But those of us who force long discarded the credence in the supernatural still are in the attendance of revelations which are the cellar of faith. We too arrange our revealed religion. We accept looked upon the fa‡ade of men and women that can be to us the symbols of that which is holy. We prepare heard words of divine shrewdness and reality spoken in the human voice. Excuse of the universe there keep come to us these participation which, when accepted, donate to us revelations, not of abnormal belief, but of a unexceptional and sure credence in the clerical powers that motivate and stay in the center of [a person's] being.
ReplyDeleteTo be a noble lenient being is to from a kind of openness to the far-out, an gift to trusteeship aleatory things beyond your own control, that can front you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances as which you were not to blame. That says something uncommonly outstanding thither the prerequisite of the righteous passion: that it is based on a corporation in the up in the air and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a shop than like a jewel, something rather tenuous, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from that fragility.
ReplyDelete"Staropolskim obyczajem,
ReplyDeletegdy w Wigilię gwiazda wstaje,
Nowy Rok zaś cyfrę zmienia,
wszyscy wszystkim ślą życzenia.
Przy tej pięknej sposobności
i ja życzę Wam radości,
aby wszystkim się darzyło,
z roku na rok lepiej było."
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