Doe

In the collection of trail cam photos there were deer!

Photo description: trail cam photo of a deer during daylight hours, full side view

She walked into the camera view sniffed around a little, then left. She had a buddy in the background. Only the one sighting of the herd in three weeks at this trail cam location.

Not buddies

I collected the trail came videos from the last three weeks and realized that I need to collect them more often. There were 1,000 photos on one card and 4,000 on the other. Yikes. Mostly known cats, then a smaller percentage of opossums, raccoons, deer, and an armadillo.

I kept seeing pairings of raccoon and opossum photos, so I selected those for download.

Photo description: night vision view of a raccoon and opossum on a small wood porch

While not fighting enemies, these two aren’t friends either.

Photo description: same two animals, opossum has its mouth open

Still, they occupied the porch together circulating around the bowls looking for snacks for over ten minutes.

Odd couples

I’ve had a few interesting interactions caught on the trail cam of unexpected pairs.

Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of a raccoon on a bench and a tabby cat walking on the nearby porch. The cat spotted the raccoon and slipped on by.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of two opossums, which is unusual because they are solitary. As soon as the one on the ground noticed the one on the bench, the moment was over and it left.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of an opossum on the coop porch and a raccoon on hind legs looking at it. The opossum actually held its ground, but the raccoon didn’t care. The raccoon got onto the porch, checked for snacks, then left, all while the opossum huddled against the door.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of an opossum on the ground, and a short haired black cat stepping down off the porch. The cat carefully navigated around the opossum.

I have my trail cam set to take photos every three seconds when there is movement, so the shots on either side of the ones I selected above told me the story. I chose the most representative photo to share.

From this set of data, it seems the raccoons are top, then opossums, and then the cats come in last, giving the others wide berth.

Stocked

We went to the Fort Worth Zoo the other day and I got a kick out of seeing the wild heron fishing at the fish stocked hippo tank.

Photo description: slightly damp heron standing at the edge of the hippo pool, which is full of fish as seen through the glass on the bottom half of the photo

Fish are kept in the hippo pool as a natural cleaning crew for dung, algae, and hippo skin.

Together

We have a couple of raccoon buddies hanging out in the woods. Rather than the opossums, who arrive individually and leave separately, the raccoons show up and head out together.

Photo description: night vision view of two raccoons climbing the stairs on the back porch of the coop
Photo description: same two raccoons coming back down the stairs