January On Juniper Hill (Trail Cam Results)

     There is this little pine forest near Cherry Street which borders the Mass-pike (Route 90). It is near Block's Preschool which is also called "Juniper Hill School" by many. I'm honestly not sure whether the forest is owned by the Parks & Rec Dept, the school itself, or the cemetary. One thing was for sure though: the forest is home to lots of wildlife including Coyotes, Deer, Raccoons, Owls, Turkeys, And many more, which is why I chose that location to put my camera. I actually didnt end up putting it on top of the hill, as the title of the post suggests, but in a patch of young white pine growth in the valley, about 100 feet from the highway. I put the leftovers from a rotisserie chicken in front of it.

I checked and dismantled on the camera 3 days after I set it up. Results are below:

Eastern Coyote trots over to camera. It's head is down and is almost definitely following the scent of the chicken. I think it's cool when I get photos of coyotes in this position. They have evolved to be able to trot fast while still scanning the ground and sniffing. Some coyotes are capable of running at speeds of up to 40 mph, but will only go this fast for very short distances. This photo was taken at 2:00 in the afternoon, and while Eastern Coyotes are mainly nocturnal, they are occasionally active during the day.

                   

Photo of the Coyote finding & eating the chicken. This photo makes me suspect it has a mite-born illness called Sarcoptic Mange. I think this because of the lack of fur which does not look like my usual Coyote photos. You can literally see the tail itself, which normally is fluffy, especially during the winter, but at the bottom of all that thick fur is a rat-like tail. Sadly, I dont think this one will survive the winter. Hopefully the chicken will help.

Funny video. I don't know why it waves it's head from side to side like that but it is definitely curious about the camera. I wonder what is going on inside it's head. Is it interpreting it as an animal? simply scent evidence of humans? Ive gotten many coyote photos from here, so its most likely encountered/smelled a trail camera before. Hunger clearly overrided fear, though because the chicken was gone when I returned.

After the coyote leaves, a beautiful buck shows up. I've seen many deer in these woods in person, but my camera has only gotten raccoon and coyotes in the past. There were also deer tracks forming a meandering line which came down a slope nearby, went past the camera, and down to a little creek.

Well that's nice. Two high quality trail camera posts in a row. First the deer bed one, now the one you are reading. I hope the infected coyote survives till march. Here's a clip of it leaving to end the post: