Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of four. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.
European Starlings are pretty good mimics, and this short video proves that they do a decent job of imitating coyotes. The location was an abandoned house with a ravens' nest above the back porch, barn owls roosting in the attic, and coyotes denning in the crawl space that was also occupied by mountain cottontails.
European Starlings seemed to occupy every hole in the wooden walls, and were fond of perching on the ravens' nest. They were already nesting in February, and they photobombed most of the clips that we recorded -- until a red-tailed hawk perched on the camera and tilted it downwards. When the ravens started to nest, the camera was out of commission.
The yodeling starling was the silver lining in this story. There was at least one songster, and maybe more. We couldn't see it or them in the video clips because they performed on the camera or right next to it -- out of view. Thus, the recordings were pretty good, but the songsters performed off-stage.
We were driving up the slope from Chico yesterday when I informed my wife that I was going to pull over at the next turn.
"I think I saw a dead badger here yesterday, and I wanna check it out. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, but if IS a badger, it'll be an interesting record."
She is used to this sort of thing.
I slowed down, and when the "badger" came into view I had a momentary decision dilemma. A highway patrol car was parked only a few yards away. The officer was my oldest granddaughter's age, and I could read her mind.
"What the hell is this old bugger up to?"
"No problem officer", says the bugger, "I just wanna check that dead animal for the UC Davis roadkill database".
A moment later I was looking at a black-tailed deer fawn. Boy had I been wrong.
It was not an occasion for a jocular remark about finding free taco meat, so I snapped a photo as an official act.
It was a close call, but she smiled when I said, "I'll bet this doesn't happen very often."
In the fall of 2022 our foursome of camera trap enthusiasts set a camera at a coyote den in Sierra Valley. It wasn't an active den at the time, but setting a camera there in October gave the coyotes a few months to adjust to it. We lucked out. The local breeding pair settled into this den to give birth and raise their litter.
The camera recorded over fifteen hundred clips, and it took a couple of weeks to review them. Our YouTube video below chronicles the main happenings at the den over six months. See it HERE
Several years ago we found a strange structure in a large willow thicket in the northern Sierra Nevada. It looked like a derelict wickiup or wigwam -- one of those Native American dwellings I learned about in grade school. Several dead willows had fortuitously collapsed and formed a natural dome shaped shelter. Which begged the question, did wild animals use this "wickiup" as a lair?
We set trail cameras there in the fall of 2020 and 2021 and waited until the spring thaw to find out. This movie tells the story.
One of the reasons I disappeared a few years ago was to find the time to finish this book. It's been finished for several months now. I've been too busy having fun to make a fuss about it. So here it is, my humble contribution to the science and practice of camera trapping. It is largely based on the lectures and exercises of my camera trapping workshop which was given for several years at San Francisco State University's Nevada field campus. Along the way, I had many camera trapping adventures, and these stories are contained in the sidebars (or text boxes, as some call them).
If you want to read some reviews or order a copy, here is the Amazon link. You can also order directly from the printer, BRG Scientific.
Many years ago the late Robert T Orr told me he had trapped flying squirrels at Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada. "I was trying to trap martens," he said, "but I kept getting flying squirrels. They were attracted to the meat I was using as bait." [Dr Orr was the curator of birds and mammals at the California Academy of Sciences and I was a teenager who hung around the museum.]
It is not uncommon for herbivores to deviate from their diet, especially when plant protein is low or pregnancy demands it. That's when innocent vegetarians like deer and rabbits shock us by dabbling in carnivory.
Carnivory probably also explains why Acorn Woodpeckers raise hell when adorable big-eyed Northern Flying Squirrels show up at their nest cavities. The squirrels are known to feed on eggs and nestling birds.
My goal to film acorn woodpeckers at their nest cavity was sidetracked when my trail camera recorded visiting flying squirrels. Rocky is such a photogenic charmer! I filmed "the pecker gang" for a year and a half on my neighbors' property, and eventually I recorded three hostile encounters with the inquisitive "Rocky". Such are the rewards of camera trapping! Have a look!
I am grateful to neighbors Ted and Judy -- the indulging hosts who made possible this little film and "Bruin Ate the Hornets' Nest".
This short video is Part 2 of the "The Hanging Jug". When I realized that this title may disappoint YouTubers seeking a different genre of entertainment, I gave this sequel a different title.
If you haven't seen Part 1, you missed out on the different ways various species reacted to the jug, and you don't know that bears won the curiosity contest. That is why I devoted this video just to bears.
With this video, I can scratch one camera trapping project from my bucket list. Some years ago I figured out that black bears hit the hornets' nests rather hard in late summer. The few nests that I found were a little too lively for camera trapping. I owe this adventure to my neighbor Ted seems to have a knack finding tame nests. Anyway, the video tells the story, and I hope you enjoy it.
Here's a new video showing how some of our common mammals reacted to an empty plastic detergent jug suspended over a game trail near our house.
I had a couple of reasons for doing this. One reason was to see if a harmless jug interested the critters as much as my trail cameras. I really don't think it did, except that the jug was suspended. This imbued it with movement, depending on the breeze and how the animals treated it. Have a look.
Watch this YouTube video production. It's about a vicious mountain lion attack on a man and a bear that saved his life. It happened here in Butte County fourteen years ago, so it's one of those stories that grew legs. The video was published less a month ago, and it's been viewed 320,000+ times, and 21,000+ viewers liked it.
I didn't believe the story. So I surfed the net, and learned that the event took place the last week of March, 2012. A week later at least fourteen media had published the story. Most of them tweaked the title but repeated the original account.
Reporters found Mr Biggs, a self acclaimed "naturist", to be a woodsy story teller. This was the third time he had been attacked by a mountain lion. He had also survived a dangerous fall in the canyon. He told the folks at Animals and our Changing Planet that he was almost 100% sure that the mama bear knew him and wanted to save his life. He had mingled with bears in the past and had high-fived a yearling cub while its mother looked on.
NBC news, Paradise Post, and SFGate questioned the story, noting that the Department of Fish and Game was "unable to substantiate the attack".
The game warden who interviewed Biggs and looked at his wounds, concluded the injuries were inconsistent with those inflicted by mountain lions. Biggs's confiscated back pack was subjected to forensic analysis and no bear or lion DNA was found. The case was too weak to justify the Department's culling of a mountain lion.
Other Doubting Thomases came forth from the blogosphere, including a jolly Aussie (GrahamandFriends) who spoofed the story while donning a happy bear cap.
SF Gate's Tom Stienstra reported it "was the biggest hoax pulled off in years - or the wildlife story of the century."
To wrap this up, I decided to sample a few YouTube videos about mountain lion and bear encounters. This raised even more questions. I conclude there is no shortage of nature fakers to entertain the gullible.
News Reports
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/bear-saves-hiker-from-cougar-in-butte-county/ "Man Says Bear Saved Him From Mountain Lion Attack In Butte County" March 29, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adi4Pm47Ins, "Man Attacked By Mountain Lion, Saved By Bear" KRCR7
@KRCR7
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/man-says-bear-stopped-lion-attack/ "Man Says Bear Stopped Lion Attack, CA man claims mountain lion retreated" March 29, 2012
https://kdvr.com/news/california-man-says-bear-saved-him-from-mountain-lion-attack/ "California man says bear saved him from mountain lion attack", by Richard J. Ortner, March 31, 2012
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/man-attacked-by-mountain-lion-saved-by-bear "Man Attacked by Mountain Lion, Saved by Bear" By Ashton Marra, March 29, 2012
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bear-saves-man-from-mountain-lion_n_1388219 "Bear Saves Robert Biggs From Mountain Lion Attack In California. AWESOME: Man Says Bear Saved Him From Mountain Lion Attack" By
Andy Campbell, Mar 29, 2012, Updated Dec 6, 2017
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/california-officials-mans-claim-bear-saved-him-lion-attack-not-flna605865
"California officials: Man's claim bear saved him from lion attack not substantiated" By U.S. News, March 30, 2012
https://www.petersenshunting.com/editorial/bear-saves-hiker-from-mountain-lion-attack/273176 "Bear Saves Hiker from Mountain Lion Attack" By Dylan Polk, April 2, 2012
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/man-attacked-by-mountain-lion-saved-by-bear "Man Attacked by Mountain Lion, Saved by Bear" By Ashton Marra, March 29, 2012
https://www.9news.com.au/world/bear-saves-man-from-mountain-lion/dda290f1-58c1-4a82-ab47-7f3058db96fc (Sydney, Australia)"Bear saves man from mountain lion" Mar 29, 2012
https://fox4kc.com/news/bear-saves-man-from-mountain-lion-attack/ "Bear Saves Man From Mountain Lion Attack" Michelle Pekarsky, Updated: March 30, 2012
https://news.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/man-saved-mountain-lion-bear-says-151626879.html "Man saved from mountain lion by bear, he says. By Dylan Stableford, March 29, 2012
https://www.news.com.au/world/bear-saves-california-hiker-from-mountain-lion-attack/news-story/2ca7e0ab37ccc17c646abe6e8d2ac5d4 (Australia) "Bear saves California hiker from mountain lion attack" March 29, 2012
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/man-claims-a-bear-saved-him-from-mountain-lion-attack.1351469/ "Man claims a bear saved him from mountain lion attack" By MacNut, March 31, 2012 (Community Discussion)
https://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/attacked-by-a-lion-saved-by-a-bear-is-it-true-3450540.php "Attacked by a lion, saved by a bear - is it true?" Tom Stienstra, Outdoors Writer, April 1, 2012
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpu71l "Bear Saves Man From Mountain Lion!!!" (Video Spoof by GrahamandFriends)
https://theworld.org/stories/2016/07/31/robert-biggs-man-attacked-mountain-lion-and-saved-bear-video "Robert Biggs, the man attacked by a mountain lion and saved by a bear (Video)" NewsDesk, July 31, 2016
https://www.paradisepost.com/2012/03/29/ridge-man-sticks-by-story-despite-fish-and-game-skepticism/ Ridge man sticks by story, despite Fish and Game skepticism. Paradise Post, By Trevor Warner, Updated May 16, 2018
Video Productions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtkIzCzdH0 Bear Saves Man from Cougar, Real Facts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxtkIzCzdH0, Bear Saves Man from Mountain Lion, THe World@theworld549 (video short in Asian language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vPKG0KDfaw, Mountain Lion Horribly Mauls Robert Biggs But Then This Bear Arrives, Fierce@Fierce.official
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZzllN7jPVI, Bear saves California man from mountain lion attack219, Julienne Buse (animation video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN0G0urSXZ0, Bear saved Robert Biggs' life while being MAULED alive by Mountain Lion, Wildlife@animalstorytelling (this video refutes Biggs's claims)
I hope you enjoy this video showing coyotes encountering trail cameras. You'll see they don't all act in the same way. Sometimes they don't see the camera, or at least they act like they don't see it. At other times their body language screams "get me out of here".
As I edited and studied these clips I always thought there's more here than meets the eye. Deciphering behavior is an enlightening part of our addictive hobby. As our subjects ponder their camera encounters we have to wonder about their thoughts. Sometimes their actions tell us exactly how they feel.
Ever since the Paradise Fire in 2018 my neighbors and I have been cutting down trees to make our property more "fire-safe". Some of those trees contained cavities, which are often a limited commodity for hole-nesting birds and small mammals. My neighbor Ted and I rehabilitated a fallen nest cavity in December 2021. Getting a 20 lb chunk of log up into a tree is not a big deal if have a front-end loader and a master heavy equipment operator like Ted, and a camera trapper who isn't acrophobic, like yours truly.
We bolted that nest hole log 16 feet up on a live oak tree and set a couple of trail cameras. After 3 years we had accumulated 2,221 video clips of animals. Acorn woodpeckers were the undisputed camera hogs, but there were cameo appearances by flying squirrels, western gray squirrels, and several species of birds.
This video shows how the project got sidetracked, and gave me an excuse to snoop on woodpeckers using a homemade nest cavity with a built-in camera.
At last a new video. I have wanted to make this movie for a long time. Ever since I started camera trapping here "on the ridge", black bears have toyed with my cameras. The clips have accumulated over the years. The film is a record of the ways bears have photo-bombed my videos.
At the moment five deer are pawing snow looking for acorns next to the house. Not far from the bird feeders. I can watch them from the kitchen window. They also enjoy browsing the herb garden, but that's under a snow drift.
Of course, there are no pumas in sight, but I know they're around too, as you'll soon see.
Occasionally female pumas make forays into our community on "the ridge" in search of Mr Right. The caterwauling of a lovesick lady puma is a wonderful sound, but it rouses the dogs to bark up a storm, and it makes the neighbors a little testy.
My advice to my neighbors is step out the back door and enjoy the dogs sounding off in sequence as Ms Lonely Heart moves away. Rest assured that an estrous pussy cat isn't interested in eating.
What goes on in a junk pile of old fence posts, broken gates, wire, and corrugated tin roofing overgrown with willows? We got a glimpse when we set a camera inside.
What creepy thought comes to mind when you find a tooth-punctured canister of bear spray deep in the woods? Yes, some poor sod made his last stand against Bruin and lost. In this case the poor sod was me, but my can of bear spray made the ultimate sacrifice.
Last June I absent-mindedly left my bear spray behind when I set a trail camera beside a seasonal creek. A bear visited 2 hours after we left, and during the next 3 months the camera video-captured bears on 50 occasions.
Unfortunately, I don’t have video proving that Bruin got the big surprise while munching the canister. My lost bear spray was not in the camera’s field of view, at least not initially. But after it presumably exploded in the jaws of a bear -- it became a bear toy. I have video sound tracks to prove it. You can hear bears rolling it on the rocks and crackling the metal in their jowls.
The canister mysteriously appeared at the edge of a video clip on day 53, and remained in view of subsequent clips until a yearling cub retrieved it from the water 11 days later. This bear -- I call him Napoleon -- seemed to make a statement. He walked up to the camera and dropped the can there.
It didn't stay there. I found it several yards downstream in the dry creek bed, and how it got there I'll never know. It didn’t smell like pepper spray, but its remaining chemical taint gave me a coughing fit.
The crumpled bear spray canister now resides in the clutter of my garage and workshop – a souvenir of another adventure with a happy ending.
For three years I've photo-captured bears climbing this rubbing tree. It 's about 14 inches in diameter and leans a bit. Cubs zip up and down the trunk, even on the underside, and adults occasionally tackle it too. It was a tree made for an arboreal camera trap, and promised a head-on view of a bear shimmying closer to the camera.
After hauling my aluminum extension ladder to the site in two pieces, I bolted two cameras on a 1" pipe lag-screwed to the tree with a threaded flange. With neighbor Ted passing the tools to and fro the installation wasn't life threatening. Here's a bear's eye view as seen from near the base. The cameras (a Browning and a GoPro) are 11.5' from the base and a vertical drop of 12'.
I used to fit arboreal cameras with bungee cords. If an overly curious bear ripped a camera loose, the bungee would prevent a crash landing. Mischievous bears might play with a dangling camera, and could bite through the bungee cord, but a bungee could save the camera. Nowadays I believe most bears are loath to lose their grip while batting at a camera.
Bears visited the site 18 times, but only three looked up at the camera, and only the camera inspector climbed the tree.
To see the video copy this link https://vimeo.com/463652759 and paste it in your finder.
