Bully Skunk of the water hole

I can always count on a few clips of a local striped skunk at the water holes on the creek.

This man-skunk tanks up at the same place practically every night, which makes for rather boring viewing.

Let's face it, striped skunks have neither the flair of raccoons nor the charisma of bears.

But they are amusing when their noses get out of joint.

Ringtail on the beat

Here's some night action on a seasonal creek in Butte County, California.

Gray foxes, striped skunks, and raccoons use the creek bed as a thoroughfare, and are the most frequently filmed camera-trapped visitors.

Bears and bobcats stop to drink and then cross it and move on up the slope.

When I get better video of these common visitors I will post it.

This is the only footage of a ringtail I've gotten on this creek, but it is one of the more satisfying clips.

This ringtail didn't want to get its feet wet, unlike its relative the raccoon with its underwater hand-jive routine.

As you can see, it's a good rock-hopper.

A nondescript spring

Raccoon hand-jiving for aquatic life

In August I set a camera trap at a shady nondescript spring a few miles from my house.

It's in a steep-sided defile, and it's choked with dead wood and fallen trees.

We looked like poodles wearing galoshes as we high-stepped over the sticks.

The bed of the seepage was filled with rock rubble, and the only place I could drive the stake was into the bank, looking down -- not a preferred vantage point.

I didn't expect any surprises, figuring we could count on lots of gray squirrels, wood rats, and deer mice.

But you never know for sure what'll turn up in a month's time.

The vociferous Douglas squirrel or chickaree

The raccoon was the only carnivore that showed, and it was clearly grubbing for aquatic delectables.

Both chickaree and gray squirrel came to drink.



Deer mice were everywhere and used the sticks as overpasses.

And the wood rats were no shows.

  

Steller jay, spotted towhee, and fox sparrow(? tell me if I'm wrong) tanked up from the same perch

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What I didn't notice right away was an incidental sally meditating by a riffle.

The peaceful amphibian was the Sierran subspecies of Eschscholtz's salamander (Ensatina eschscholtzii platensis) waiting for a passing insect. 

As the mice skipped about and triggered the camera Sally's image was captured several times on two nights.

She was always there peering into the water. 

  

Then the camera snapped her in a different position.

She actually moved, and I knew she wasn't a gumby toy.

Thanks to JK of Camera Trapping Campus for confirming the Sally ID.