Puddle Of Dreams

Sometimes I find a location for a camera trap that really gets me excited, but then fails to deliver...


The puddle... (I don't know what the proper word/name for this sort of thing is)

I stumbled upon this little natural puddle. It forms in one of the small streams that runs down the hill towards the dam near the main entrance at Tygerberg. I think it makes a very pretty backdrop. I have camera trapped Water Mongoose and Cape Clawless Otter higher up on this stream. I even found some freshwater crabs living in the puddle.


This crab was walking along the bottom of the puddle


My hopes where running high. I decided to leave the Cuddeback behind to monitor the puddle. I knew that the Cuddeback wasn't the perfect camera for this sort of location. It has a very narrow detection zone, but compensates for it by having a fast trigger time. It works best when pointed across a trail. The factor that made me choose the Cuddeback was its natural/white flash. With the Moultrie out of action I only have one white flash camera. I was hoping for some awesome nighttime photos of otters, etc.

You might have noticed by now that none of my hopes or dreams materialized. But it was not a total loss. At least I got some photographs. Two birds a Helmeted Guineafowl and a Black Sparrowhawk (new).


Black Sparrowhawk (Swartsperwer - Accipiter melanoleucus) visiting the puddle


Yet, despite the bad luck with the Cuddeback a very observant reader might have noticed that the first photograph shows a Bushnell Trophy Cam pointing towards the puddle. Well, I'm just not ready to give up on the spot yet. I'm hoping the Bushnell's wider detection zone will stand a better chance recording the action that might, or might not, be happening at the puddle. Beggars can't be choosers and IR images will have to do :)

On a slightly different note: A few posts ago I mentioned having never seen a baby Leopard Tortoise at Tygerberg. Well, I stand corrected. This little fellow rocketed off into the roadside cover when I started pointing a huge lens in its face. I prefer not to interfere to much with the animals for the sake of a simple photograph and I almost never pickup tortoises. The result is that on a warm day these guys move quite fast and I only got a few shots at it before it was gone.


A baby Leopard Tortoise (Bergskilpad - Stigmochelys pardalis) at Tygerberg Nature Reserve in Cape Town

 

Bulldozing his way to peace and quiet

Tunnel Travelers

It can be tricky to find a good location for a camera. Although I'm not much of an expert and most of what I know is self taught, I'll try and talk a bit about how I go about picking camera trap locations.

The most common area used to place a camera trap is a trail (natural or artificial). Trails can be anything from a gravel road used by vehicles, to a faint path going through the vegetation warn out by the repeated passing of animal feet. The thing to remember is that, in general, if the trail makes it easier for you to get around, then it will make it easier for the animals as well. Animals will tend to follow either the least difficult path or the most rewarding one to get from point A to B.

Caracal (Rooikat - Caracal caracal) using a tunnel to pass underneath a road that intersects the Tygerberg nature reserve

Another thing to look out for is evidence of recent animal activity on the path (such as scat, remains of a kill, tracks and disturbed vegetation). For the above photograph I found plenty of animal tracks in the dry mud inside the tunnel and also a lot of other signs of frequent traffic along the rest of the path.


A Leopard Tortoise (Bergskilpad - Stigmochelys pardalis) also uses the tunnel to get around

You can increase your odds of trapping an animal along these trails by looking for natural funnels and forks in the road. The tunnel is a perfect location because it forces the animals to pass through the small bottleneck to enable them to cross the road and enter the linked section of the reserve.

The Caracal didn't even seem to notice the camera thanks to the infrared flash

I had another camera about 200m down the trail and 1 hour and 43 minutes later the same Caracal walked past the second camera. The second camera was placed in an area where the trail runs close to the fence. The leave litter clearly indicate a well worn out path (mainly thanks to the vigilance of the Helmeted Guineafowls).


Helmeted Guineafowl (Tarentaal - Numida meleagris) eyeing the camera

Trails are by no means the only good places to find concentrated wildlife activity. There are many other "places of interest" that attract animals.

A Ninja Mongoose

I recently photographed two Small Grey Mongooses at Tygerberg. This is the first time that I've captured more than one of them in the same photo.

Is the one Small Grey Mongoose (Kleingrysmuishond - Galerella pulverulenta) trying to sneak up on the other mongoose or the camera?

I don't know much about the inner workings of the mind of a mongoose, but is the mongoose to the left trying to hide behind a single blade of grass?

From The Flats

Two weeks ago an opportunity came my way to do some camera trapping at the Cape Flats Nature Reserve at the UWC (University of the Western Cape). It is a (very) small reserve about 6 km from my house, in the opposite direction as Tygerberg.


Cape Dwarf Chameleon (Kaapse Dwerg-verkleurmannetjie - Bradypodion pumilum) barely managing to stick around on the slippery bamboo

 All of my cameras are currently occupied at Tygerberg so I decided to bring my Moultrie out of retirement. I bought some fresh batteries and set it up. Unfortunately nothing was photographed the first week. I moved the camera to a new spot, but the batteries where already starting to run low. On day two at the new location I got a Cape Francolin passing by.


Some Cape Francolins (Kaapse Fisant - Pternistes capensis) were the only visitors at the camera before the batteries 'were no longer with us'

 On day three the camera 'left us'. I'm very disappointed with the battery life of the Moultrie these days. This time round it didn't even last 10 days!! In short the Moultrie is back into full time retirement. The only reason it is not in the dumpster right now is because I have a sentimental attachment to it (it was my first trail camera). I'm thinking instead of turning it into a display piece on the wall, a door stop or something along those lines...


A student gives this fellow a helping help back to the bush it came from

 I was fortunate enough to see this Cape Dwarf Chameleon two weeks ago when I went to set up the camera. These little guys are incredibly charming and very pretty. It was my first time seeing one in the wild.

I'm thinking of temporarily moving a Bushnell down to the flats to shoot some Grysbok and Small Grey Mongoose action...

1 Year 1 Day To The Day

It has been exactly one year and a day since I took the first step and posted my first entry on this blog.


I felt I had to add some colour to this post...


This isn't a big/popular blog, but I never thought it would grow so fast. I'm not doing this blog for the number of visitors/subscribers. I would probably still do it even if I only had one or two readers (like a year ago when I started). Still, it is great knowing that there are people out there that also enjoy the results from my camera trapping escapades and I enjoy sharing it with you.

I would like to thank all the readers, form the new comers to the few that followed the blog from early on.
Also a spacial thanks to all the people that comment regularly on the blog - none of whom I've met in real live (sadly).