Coyotes and Harriers On The Sudbury River

 

While driving to set up a trail camera, I crossed the sudbury river on an old concrete bridge, about to enter Wayland, MA. The white ice was disrupted by a speck of dark. It looked like a crow was picking at a carcass...

                                       

Of course I pulled over and approached the carcass. From closer up, I could tell this was some type of hawk, eating a bird.

I quietly approached, sticking to the edge of the grass at first. I made it to about 50 feet from the bird before I realized I was going to have to lie on the ice to get closer. This was not only to avoid spooking the bird but also to disperse my weight to avoid falling through the ice and drowning. I then spent about 10 minutes gradually army crawling towards her. She acted cautious after i moved and I decided to pause every few feet to snap some photos.

Another harrier passed overhead, deciding not to create conflict with the original I guess. She failed a hunting dive in a nearby flooded section of the bank and continued flying, disappearing over route 20.

I soon decided to leave her alone, quietly standing up and walking back to my car. I used the SD card from my camera on my brand new Reconyx HP4W 4K trail camera. The camera cost me $450 but I think it was worth the money. The Reconyx has comparable quality to a DSLR camera trap, but with far more reliability. My old DSLR setup had a battery issue, flash issue, or fallen tripod every single time I set it up.

When I picked up the camera 2 days later, there was a mess of animal tracks.