Trail cams see it all

Everybody with a trail camera has a crazy picture to share.

Some are pretty amazing. You just never know what you’ll photograph in the woods.

Don Osborne sent this picture of a squirrel, along with the owl shot featured as today’s Picture of the Day.

Steve White of Vermont sent us this picture of two bucks from last September. He writes, “Thought you might find this shot taken on my trail cam back in September of interest. I’m betting that these guys are twins since they are so buddy-buddy.”

Chad Schieler got these wood duck pictures from a Cuddeback Motion Camera set up near Weldon Springs in central Illinois.

Schieler also got this shot of a coyote.

Kyle Hartwell offered up pictures from Williamson County that he said appears to him to be a black coyote.

Ken Carey offered this one of a doe and her two fawns.

And last but certainly not least is this from Jean King in Fulton County. Writes King: “The trail camera in my family causes a lot of excitement to see what has been recorded. Even the lady at the photo lab was amazed! Jeff Keefauver’s comment ... “Either that’s Mom or we have a problem.”

Tales from the Trail Cams: Bucks

Here are some more trail-cam shots from various central Illinois trail cameras submitted by PSO readers.

The first is a cool-looking drop-tine buck photographed at 3:05 a.m. near a food plot. Writes Chuck McDaniel: “No one has ever seen him in the flesh. The lines across the photo is a spider’s web.”

The next is a nice Illinois 8-pointer.

Here’s one of two bucks fighting in late July still in velvet.

More tales from the trail cams

Here’s the latest in what is becoming a regular feature: Tales from the Trail Cams.

Pictured above is Don Osborne of Mattoon, cutting weeds. Why is this significant? Because the picture below is from the exact same area about one hour later, taken while Osborne was about 100 yards away running his weed eater. As Osborne writes:

“This buck is the same one all of us have seen running away in the distance if you so much as cough when you are in his neighborhood in hunting season. One of the trail camera pictures shows a buck in velvet in the off season on July 19th 2009 while I was still weed eating about one hundred yards away. The other picture is one of me taken by the same trail camera at the same point about one hour earlier. The buck stuck around long enough to have four pictures taken of himself eating the weeds I had just cut. Then he posed for the camera. It was not like he didn’t know I was there. I was using a large noisy commercial grade weed eater and was covered in deep woods off bug repellent leaving my scent all over the place.  I had no idea he was around until I looked at the pictures the next day.”

Next up is a more generic picture from Chuck McDaniel proving that trail-cams aren’t exactly invisible in the woods. “I’m not sure if this deer is licking the field cam or sticking its tongue out at it,” writes McDaniel.

Finally, here’s one from July 20 proving that young bucks are already feeling their oats in some parts of Peoria County.