Camera Trapping Workshop--July, 2010

Deadman Peak and Deadman Lake, near the Sierra Nevada Field Campus

My camera trapping workshop has been scheduled once again at San Francisco State University's Sierra Nevada Field Campus.

For information about the field campus and its course offerings click the website here.

You can also get registration materials at the website.

Regular readers of this blog have seen how much fun camera trapping can be, so I hope some of you will be interested in enrolling.

If you are interested, read on.

CAMERA TRAPPING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE 

SIERRA NEVADA FIELD CAMPUS, SIERRA COUNTY, CA 

July 18-23, 2010

Sunday, July 18

• Arrive: noon through late afternoon.
• Dinner: 6:00 PM. 
• Evening: Class introductions, workshop goals, and participants voice their special interests. 
• Power Point presentation: History of camera trapping.

Shadow chipmunk at the field station -- a good teacher 

about the topic of framing photos

Monday, July 19 

• Breakfast: 7:00AM (make your own bag lunch) 
• 8:30 AM: Topic: Making camera sets. “Macro sets” near camp (close–ups of golden-mantled ground squirrels, shadow chipmunks, chickarees, and mountain beavers): hollow log, burrow entrance, and natural feeding stations--like seed and cone middens. 
• Activity (mid morning): Collect cams at Red Fir Ravine (car pool to site, short hike up into ravine) or stay in camp with own cameras. 
• Lunch: in field or in camp
• Afternoon: Return to field campus, download photos, compare results from morning sets.
• Dinner: 6:00 PM 
• Power Point presentation/discussion: Camera trap sets (trails, waterholes and natural and artificial attractions); special sets: arboreal, hollow log, and subterranean; Predicting behavior and pre-visualizing images. 
• Other Topics covered: Camera attachment (trees versus posts, telescoping poles, bungies, cables, special attachments, hardware), camouflaging cameras, camera security (people and bears), PIR sensors (strengths and weaknesses), “GPSing” locations of sets. 

 We'll set some cams at Deadman talus slope for pikas

Tuesday, July 20 

• Breakfast: 7:00AM (make your own bag lunch) 
• 8:30 AM: Use of baits and lures: legal restrictions, visual, scent and sound lures.
• Activity: Set cams on talus slope/rock slide (pikas, marmots, weasels) (car pool to site.
• Lunch: in field 
• Afternoon: Return to field campus, check cams near camp, download photos, compare results. 
• Dinner: 6:00 PM 
• Power Point presentation/discussion: Passive infra-red sensors and other triggers, using white flash of infra-red illumination, using external flash, reducing eye shine, etc.
• After sunset: Owl calling (car pool to site) 

A spring in Red Fir Ravine, 

where saw whet owls bathe, and mountain beavers forage.

Wednesday, July 21 

• Breakfast: 7:00AM (make your own bag lunch) 
• 8:30 AM: Topic: camera trapping databases (inventory of sets, spreadsheet of camera trapping results); image database software; digital darkroom software, GPS mapping software. 
• Activity (mid morning): Hike to Deadman Lake and scree (optional, but a chance to see pikas).
• Lunch: in field (or in camp). 
• Afternoon: Return to field campus, download photos, compare results from morning camp sets. 
• Dinner: 6:00 PM 
• Power Point presentation/discussion: Animal psychology for camera trappers, species differences in behavior and movement. 
• After sunset: Flying squirrels: observations and photography. 

Marten photo taken the night before the course in '08; 

the cam had been there a month.

Thursday, July 22 

• Breakfast: 7:00AM (make your own bag lunch)
• 8:30 AM: Topic: Making your own: General guidelines and links for hacking cameras, i.e., “homebrew” trail cameras. 
• Activity (mid morning): Collect cams from outlying sites (talus slope, ravine springs, mountain beaver burrows). 
• Lunch: in field 
• Afternoon: Return to field campus, download photos, compare results.
• Dinner: 6:00 PM 
• Power Point presentation/discussion: Wildlife surveys presense-absense (single species versus general surveys), population indices, and special research applications. 
• General discussion: Topics of class choice; hand out evaluation forms (questionnaires); copy and share photos taken during course. 

Golden -mantled ground squirrel in a hollow log

Friday, July 23

• Breakfast: 7:00AM (make your own bag lunch) 
• Activity: (1) collect cams and pack, (2) return evaluations (3) class photo 
• Farewell and Departure