The Woodcock GoPro Adventure.

 

"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Rowdy and I achieved a goal today.  I got a great video of Rowdy and I flushing a woodcock.

The Woodock at Apogee

 

I have been trying to use my iPhone’s camera to do this for several years, but using the phone with gloves while in the woods is at best a clunky procedure.  Couple this with my experience that I'm only going to see 1 out of 3 or so of the birds Rowdy locates - I actually hear most of his finds - and I knew it was time to change my methods.

 I needed better equipment to be successful.  So, Jaybo and I gave each other a GoPro for Christmas.  He just took it with him on his snowmobile trip to the Rockies and got great footage.

Here in Wisconsin, it’s finally late Mar and the first woodcocks are returning to the area on their annual migration north.  Some stay and remain residential.  We can’t shoot them, but we can hunt ‘em, flush ‘em and take videos. 

I have a GoPro cap, so today we mounted it up, turned it on and Rowdy and I went for a walk in the grouse woods. 

As you watch this video, first a disclaimer.  I noticed that the camera’s microphone really picks up breathing.  It sounds like I’m about to have heart failure and die.  But I’m really fine and having fun.  Don’t read too much into that heavy breathing.  

I see Rowdy starting to get “birdy”, he dives into some dense cover and just that fast, he’s flushed a bird.  Amazingly enough, it flies over close to me and lands out in the tiny honey hole pool.  I have a few seconds to look at it closely.  The video shows this poorly but I picked up feather details, eyes and the long beak.  Then Rowdy charges over, the bird flushes again and I’m astonished when it flies right over me.  I concentrate on watching it all the way out until it disappears, hoping that I’ve really got the camera running correctly because times like this are seldom.

It happens fast.  Here are some frames that I like.  

Rowdy second flush.

Coming at you.

Uh, I'd better turn!

Classic Woodcock Picture!

 

I get to stay up here for another couple of days and the weather will only get better.  If I get any more video, you know I'll share it.

On that happy note, I remain, 

Dad/Geoff
 

 

 

The Fox Scream

 "Neither a maidenhead nor a fortress will hold out long after they begin to parley."                       ~ Benjamin Franklin

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I was drifting off to sleep last night....suddenly Ann is shaking me.  "Come here and listen!  The Fox is screaming."  So, I stumble out of bed, blearily insert my hearing aids and shamble to the back deck door.  She's holding it open and listening to the night.  Rowdy has his nose right up against the door opening and from his posture would be gone into the night if allowed.

We could clearly hear the screaming out across the lake.  Had I been a functioning adult, I would have turned on the video on the phone and captured the sound, but I didn't.  However, a little google-fu and the internet saves me.

Here's a link with videos of what we heard.

I'm sure you are as curious as we were why the fox screams.  These articles do a good job of 'splainin'...

https://northamericannature.com/why-do-foxes-scream/

https://animals.mom.com/red-fox-scream-5833.html

I am applying logic here as I continue the discussion which is a sure way to know that I about to be wrong.  It is late March.  Everything I read says that it is way late for the fox to be mating.  On the other hand, it was a dern cold, snowy and brutal winter and this last week has seen an abruptly warm season.  I reckon the Fox could be just now "deciding" that there will be enough resources to produce kits.  Nature moves in mysterious ways. 

I plan to go over and recover whatever videos I have later today.  We will see what they have.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

The Fox Den 5

  "We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything." ~ Thomas A. Edison 

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Yesterday was a fairly propitious day in my quest to violate Miz Fox’s privacy. 

Ann and I went out a couple of hours before sunset yesterday to walk the dogs and put the camera back up.

We have across the lake two different neighbors about to make an unnamed appearance in this post.  Their lots are adjacent to each other and one of them ‘owns’ the fox den.  One was out walking her dogs as Ann and I went across the lake to put the cam up and we had a nice conversation in the freezing wind. Rowdy loves the winter because he can run across the lake to visit her dogs. She is now the second newest reader of the blog. 

We put the cam in a shaky growth of Buckthorn plants a little to the left and about 3’ further away from where we mounted it on Fox Den 4.

Right before sunset the fox came out into the bright light and was all foxy for a while.

 

Then she came back out and it looks like she yipped at the camera. 

Later, around midnight, the action picked up again and Miz Fox came out to survey her demesne.

 I found this next video interesting because she froze motionless looking at something off in the distance.  Rowdy does this all the time hunting grouse and I can never figure out what it is he’s looking at.

 Then she started hauling carcasses away from the den.  I have yet to capture many videos of her bringing a carcass into the den.  My complete puzzlement over her behavior here is why I used the top quotation that I did.  She’s doing what appears to be taking out the garbage but I don't know why she's so nervous.

 

She keeps staring at the camera and looking hinky.  I have no idea what this about.
 

 

One of my fears is that I will get a video of somebody’s dead pet.  I thought for a moment that’s what I had here.  But I went frame by frame and I think it’s a dead rabbit.  Please watch this one all the way to the end.

The owners of the house lot the den is on went down this morning to investigate.  The camera caught Milly who is either Rowdy’s sister or cousin – I’m unclear - sniffing the hole.

 Then late this afternoon, Ann took the dogs over to recover the cam and get these videos.  First, we see Sterling sniffing it up.

 Then Ann recovers the camera.  It was around 0F when she did this, so she's totally bundled up.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff