The camera at set 340 managed to take 100 images before the mysterious impostor filched the batteries 3 weeks into the venture.
But let's forget the impostor and talk about the others who visited our set.
A handsome Heermann's kangaroo rat was an active visitor.
It even ventured into the log.
Of course there were deer mice,
and a fit looking cottontail also explored the inner architecture,
which just proves something we already knew -- fallen logs are attractive features to small mammals.
But in addition to the log's natural allure, some bumbling biologists had stuffed a perforated can of cat food down a ground squirrel burrow right behind that grass.
This might have attracted a bobcat with nicked ears,
that waited patiently for that smelly can or a small mammal to appear.
A few days later our old friend with the crumpled ear showed up with those jade cat eyes.
He's a poker-faced veteran of the range.
And we know he's an old rambler, because this is two miles from the hilltop where we clicked him last fall.
With a range that large the chances are good that this cat is a male.
