Raccoon Pair At Landham Brook (Trail Cam Results)

    About a week ago, I was exploring a new location that I found along a rail trail, in Sudbury, Massachusetts. It's called "Raymond Reservation." It's based aroundRaymond Reservation looked promising: I saw tracks of many different mammals, including eastern coyotes, foxes, and even a new find for me, AN OTTER! I'll let you know right now that no otters actually visited while my camera was up, despite my efforts. If I had captured otter footage, the title of the post would read something like "Otter Footage At Raymond Reservation - Trail Cam Results."

...I attached my infrared camera to a thick red maple tree, which was growing in a small wooded peninsula, which reached out into the river. The peninsula's soil was very wet, and was only supporting the growth of invasive buckthorn saplings, moss, and the occasional maple, like the one the camera had been tied to. I Intentionally put the camera in close proximity to a natural path, where the vegetation had clearly been trampled, by a mix of otters, raccoons, and other wetland animals. I set up the camera on March 5th, and after 4 days of recording, I checked the camera...

                                                         

                                                      WHITE FOOTED MOUSE

The first animal to visit the site was a white-footed mouse. This is the same species of mouse that New Englanders have in their attics, walls, and basements. In their natural habitat, they don't hibernate. Chipmunks, and many other of their competitors will seal themselves underground for the winter, but not the mice. All winter, my cameras (mainly ones near water sources), have been triggered by the little reflective eyes of climbing mice. Below you can see how good mice are at climbing, effortlessly scooting up and down the buckthorn trees. It liked the bait, too, because it returned for meals nightly, once the mouse  discovered it...

COMMON RACCOON

...The next night (March 6th), A cautious raccoon took a quick peek. It's eyes glow in the infrared light. I'm pretty sure it was repelled by my scent, as raccoons are nocturnal, and don't see humans much. Almost every single time raccoons have been on camera in the past, they have made sure to give it a good sniff before going to the bait. Sometimes they will fog up the lens with their breath, sometimes they nudge the camera to the side while gnawing at it.

The raccoon returned the next tight with backup. (second video below). I'm guessing the second raccoon was either it's mate, or last year's young, because raccoons are solitary and competitive, and almost never feed in groups. The duo was very thorough. One ran off with the bait, and one got curious about the camera. They were so thorough, in fact, that when I returned, the site was clean, and my lens had been fogged up.

 

I'm using a screenshot from one of the videos as the post's cover photo:

While i'm disappointed about the otter situation, I'm going to keep checking, and I will hopefully get one this summer. On my walk out of the woods, afterward, The snow picked up, and the woods turned white...

Thank You For Reading!