There is a bewildering variety of game cameras, or trail cameras as they’re sometimes known, available on the market today, and some of the most common questions from consumers regard the camera’s resolution. I would like to take a few minutes today and go over with you some of the more confusing aspects of pixels, mega pixels, etc.
I’d like to, but I’m not going to.
The resolution I am referring to is one I am making for 2013, and it is to use my game camera more.
One of the least expensive models at the time of purchase, it is very basic, but the first night I set it out it captured a few shots of a fisher snooping around not far from the chicken coop.
Since then, it has recorded the perpetrators of unauthorized construction activities …
even under cover of darkness.
It has also caught some unexpected images, like the heron in the picture below, just above the date (click to enlarge):
On the other hand, it has also taken quite a few “candid” pictures like this:
But I see herons when I’m out walking.
Sometimes I see the otters …
or a mink hunting along the shore …
so with all the wildlife I see each and every day, it’s not like I need to see what they do when I’m not around; they pretty much go about their business when I am.
I had an idea this summer, for a really creative use of my game camera, which I look forward to trying again in 2013. Mice can be a real issue in the camps around here and when someone finds mouse turds in their Doritos™ you can be sure who they’re gonna call. Other than put away their food for them, there’s not a lot I can do about the mice while they’re here, but I do set traps when the camps are empty and the game camera seemed well suited to documenting my trapping prowess, proving that I do my part to keep the mouse population down.
Someone suggested sharing the images I got, via the internet, as some people might find them entertaining, but I argued against that idea on the grounds that only sick, twisted people with black hearts would find such things amusing. Unfortunately, an accident occurred during set-up and, while serious injury was avoided, the project was abandoned for safety concerns and no mouse deaths were recorded.
Two previous posts regarding mice:
“If You Think a Mouse in a Bag of Chips Makes Noise …” from June of last year,
and
“Mouse Pie” from August, 2010
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 
Good for you Quill and damn those underhanded Doritos thieves. I hope your hand gets better soon.
Sometimes, when people leave stuff out at night, it’s like laying offerings at the altar of the mouse gods.
I play with mouse traps all the time and wonder why people are so scared of getting snapped. Maybe because, in the backs of our minds, we associate them with death? I’ll admit they can sting a bit,but not that much. I dance very carefully with my big conibear beaver traps, though.
Quill, I really enjoy looking at the pictures you take of the camp’s surroundings and the numerous critters that inhabit them. As disappointed as I am that I didn’t get to visit this year, I can quickly be immersed in the camp’s tranquil setting from one of your photos
Thanks, Derrick. If it makes you feel any better, a couple of rods you built made it and we talked about you. I hope you get over here in 2013.
Pretty darn cool.
Nancy likes eye candy.
There’s a trio of aspen by my cabin that some bears were using for a scratching post this fall…never saw them, but it made me want to get a game camera! Cool captures you have here. And I had a pack rat in my basement recently….was stealing fishing nets right out of the frame. Why? That I’d like to know. Glad that wasn’t a rat trap. ooof.
I can’t think of too many better reasons to get one than a bear scratching post or thieving pack rat. I’m thinking the nets were to make rat hammocks.
Rat traps will for sure leave a mark.
What? No Chupacabra?
It does seem blasphemous to use a game cam to capture images of field mice, but i’d look at the pictures. Was thinking of setting one up in my mother-in-laws bedroom. She’s been having running dreams. This from a woman that lays in bed most of the day. That could go viral on YouTube.
I came across the Chupacabra files the other day. Might make a good post to fight the shack nasties in January. You have a good memory for an old guy. You’re a bit twisted, too.
Hubby and I found a game camera while we were hunting on public land the other day. While not illegal, we thought it was unusual. I wanted to make the shot a little more entertaining by flashing the game camera, but hubby vetoed that idea.
I suppose hubby thinks he’s right, but I think that’s the kind of thing that would make someone’s day.
I think it would have least surprised the camera owner; unless you get within 5′ feet of me, I look like a teen-aged boy in my hunting get-up. Not the kind of rack he would have been expecting on a trail camera.