It sure is nice to see the Great Outdoors in a cycle of rebirth, and there is no better time to witness this transformation than during early summer.
Spring is often referred to as the time of rebirth and rejuvenation in the animal world, but this isn’t entirely true. The actual fruits of labour tend to come to fruition during late June – the early summer period.
The Wild Turkey, for example, is one of those creatures with a birthing period which falls around this time of year. Sure, the breading is carried during the spring, but following a 28-days gestation period the poults are born (all within 24 hours) and join the hen on a great new adventure.
This year, I was very fortunate to capture some images of new-born poults on my property no more than a couple of days following birth.
In this trail-cam image the newborn poults are barely recognizable scattered around the ground below her feet. If you zoom-in, you get a better appreciation of their size and appearance.
I find the newborn poults look like small woodcocks, actually, with a dull light brown-grey mottled appearance.
Wild turkeys are not the only animals having babies at this time of year. Although I am not a huge fan of raccoons, I did capture these night-time trailcam images of mom coon and her two young ones.
The below images of a doe and fawn in my back field were taken about 4 years ago, and remain some of the nicest wildlife pics I have taken personally. Unless you’re a full-time wildlife photog who spends days on end in the field, capturing images of a nursing fawn is a rarity indeed.
Although I have not captured any images this spring/summer of does’ and newborn fawns, I have seen a couple. One on my way to Cornwall a couple of weeks back, and the other morning I spotted a doe feeding on a nearby property, and as I watched her through the binoculars; her posture and mannerisms seem to indicate she may have a fawn hidden nearby( I will be watching her more closely over the next few days)
Without going into another long drawn sermon on the merits of trail cameras, I honestly don’t think I could live without them! Keep an eye on the Outdoors Guy Blog as the summer progresses; I will be testing out some new Bushnell Trail cameras. One revolutionary new model has all the features of the top surveillance cams, but retails for just over $100 from what I understand.
Thanks for stopping-by and have fun in the Great Outdoors this summer!
Oh yeah, and please feel free to send-in your early summer wildlife photos!
Outdoorsguy
Here’s one of Rick’s pics of a nice Tom turkey strutting his stuff for a nearby hen:
Here’s another one of Rick’s recent pics of some nice ‘twin bucks’. (This image is an exlusive for the Outdoors Guy Blog)
Here’s the photo(& story) of Bobcat Rick saw in NB back in 2008:
Jeff this is the only Bobcat I have been lucky enough to get on film. The picture was taken on July 27 2008 in New Brunswick. I have never seen a Lynx.
Here’s an incredible Lynx image( & caption) sent in by GPG….man, some guys have all the luck!! (Is it me or does that photo look like a classic painting??)
“Here’s a picture of the Lynx which was watching us from shore. We were on our way back from the evening hunt so it was taken at dusk. ”
Here’s another Bobcat pic sent in by Rick. This one was taken in Kemptville-area December, 2009. If I hadn’t known it was a Bobcat, I’d have said it was a Lynx…goes to show how similar they are.
nice pics great to see nature in a pure undisturbed form like this
tks Mike…hope the fishing has been going well?!
Outdoorsguy
Great photos and timing! I just saw a big tom all fanned out this morning in front of 2 hens and thought he was cheeky to be still going after them.
The scene was lit up all perfect in the early morning light. I turned around to get a photo, but the tom laid down in the field. wanker. 🙂
Hey Keebler, guess this guy wasn’t the romantic type..hehe. Oh well, still nice to witness a scene like that…even if it goes nowhere.
Seen any deer (or coyotes) around town lately?
Rick, have you seen an out in the fields these days??
Outdoorsguy
I was out Sat. evening and Sunday morning to check out what crops are in my favourite fields. Saw about 20 bucks in total and 1 turkey still strutting his stuff. I’ll send you a picture of the turkey although he was a ways off.
Some pictures of the bucks can be found on the Ontario Hunting forums.
Tks Rick..send me any and all of those pics and I’ll post them here!
Sounds like they’re starting to show their faces!!
Outdoorsguy
Ok..I just posted a pic(above) Rick sent me of a nice Tom doing his thing for a nearby hen. (show-off!)
Outdoorsguy
Nice pictures.
Wife and I went to Lake Placid, NY this weekend for our 23rd wedding anniversary.
Apart from seeing the dead blowted (4 legs up in the air) deer on the road shoulder, we had to stop at two other occasions for others deers slowly crossing the road through the Park (ADK). One of them, just stood there, while I slowly brought the Dodge Ram MegaCab to 30 feet from it. Had to honk after coming to a slow stop to make it move. That deer was not afraid at all, just looked at us. No survival instinct, for sure.
Saw also a wild turkeys coming down the hill beisde the highway.
Wife was happy with the mallards coming to her feet while we were having a few drinks on the Motel’s lawn patio (from our room) facing Mirror Lake.
LeGrand, we have camped and stayed down in LP many times..the Adirondacks always remind me of home…a little bit higher though.
Seems the wildlife in that area are doing ok too..we drove thru there on way to Lake George this spring..always a nice drive!
Outdoorsguy
Was up in North Bay this weekend for a family wedding and my uncle said that he saw a cow moose with twin calfs on his way down from Haileybury. Got us all talking about the fall season pretty quick.
Hey Mark W, that’s neat! Always nice to see twins in the wild…it offers greater likelyhood that at least one will make it to adulthood.
Funny how our thoughts turn to fall at this time..only 4-5 months away ya know!
Outdoorsguy
I should be able to get some good pics now, just got my Moultrie back from the US. Had some electronics issues and I sent it back, although it’s out of warranty. They fixed it with new electronic guts for 39.95 and couriered it back and even paid to courier . I know this isn’t one of your companies Jeff but I like to brag about good service. So I’ll set it up soon and start getting my videos.
I love getting videos even more than pictures, what I’d really like to get is one of the Bobcat I saw at camp a couple years ago
Well Iggs, that sounds like great service indeed..and hey, I know there are other great manufacturers out there..once you find one you like, stick with it. Feel free to send me some of those Moultrie pics anytime!
Man, I’d kill to get some images of a Bobcat or lynx..or even a sasquatch for that matter…hehe
You sure it’s a Bobcat you saw, they’re pretty rare around these parts. Probably more likely to see a cougar than a Bobcat, not that you’d ever get the two mixed-up. My buddy who worked at several QC Outfitters used to Lynx quite often..but we’re talking 8-10 hours north of here. Down east in NS, actually, Bobcat are a fairly common occurence.
Outdoorsguy
Last year during the moose hunt, we canoed up to this beautiful Lynx. He was sitting on the shore just watching us. I got to maybe 5 feet from it and took a few pictures. I realized that we were actually in striking range should he decide to jump at us so we backed off a bit. He was there for about 10 minutes and finally turned and slowly walked away.
I got some great shots of Deer this weekend. Saw 5-6 on the Quebec near Bryson. One of them stared us down for a good 2-3 minutes from about 30 yards away. Went fishing in the back channels on the Ottawa and caught at least 20 channel cats and about 6 bass. We saw two nice Longnose gar, and one huge (20lbs?) Sturgeon. He was lingering far back in a weeded bay. We were canoeing in maybe 3 feet of water and he swam right up to the canoe until we scared him off with our jigheads. What an awesome fish.
GPG, that’s awesome…if you’d like to share those images I would love to post them here?!
Regarding lake sturgeon in the Ottawa river, I have heard stories over the years of 8-10′ sturgeon basking in the sun around Petrie Island…and given that the world record lake sturgeon is around 200 pounds, I suppose it is possible. Not probable though…prob more common in the 3-4′ range.
Oh, and congrats on the cats..they give ya a darn good pull, eh?
Outdoorsguy
Jeff, I saw the Bobcat on my way out of my watch, when I got back to camp I told everyone I saw a Lynx but they all said it must have been a Bobcat because the Lynx are farther north and Bobcats had been seen in our area. This wasn’t a cat on the run, it was just sitting there, 10 or 15 yards from me, watching, when I saw it I stopped and it stared at me for a few seconds, then bounded away, in all I saw it for more than a minute, so I know what I saw and it wasn’t a cougar, a cougar is bigger, and longer, the thing that threw me off was it looked like tufts in the ears but when you look at a Bobcat picture, it is exactly what I saw
Well, you’ve got me there Iggs…never seen one, but I would love to. I wonder why these guys are hanging around in that area? This is your deer camp bush??
Well, as they say…it’s something you won’t soon forget! An old member(now passed on) of our hunt camp swore until the day he died he saw a cougar while deer hunting, about 20 years ago, near the Morrison homestead in QC. This was long before the cougar sightings we have around here now…which leads me to believe it was a bonafide eastern cougar. One of the last remaining of a remnant population from eastern Canada. I don’t believe the cougars people are seeing around central and eastern ON these days are true eastern cougars.
Rick, any thoughts?
I’d still like to see one though..oh yes, and a Bobcat too!
Outdoorsguy
I wouldn’t be surprised if the cougars are the real thing and not realeased animals. As you know, animals will move back into areas if the area can provide food and from what I’ve read about cougars, they roam a huge territory, so I think they probably slowly moved back, found enough food and stayed. Food I think is what drives them and our bush has lots of food for a cougar.
Where I saw the Bobcat was the Dacre-Griffith area, I have no idea what would keep a Bobcat in the area, I don’t really know what they eat but I would assume rabbits and grouse and there are plenty of both, as well as wild turkeys in the last few years
One thing that I find odd about the cougars, if there are as many as the sighting suggest, why don’t we have pictures on trail cams, hair, scat and paw prints
Thats right Iggs, why havent we seen more images of these rare creatures?
Outdoorsguy
Jeff I think cougars have been seen in the wild in Eastern Canada but I would question their origin. I personally knew two people who had captive cougars one who lived in Manotick.
I sent you a picture of a Bobcat I was lucky enough to get pictures of.
OK Rick, I just added your Bobcat pic above..nice photo btw!
Outdoorsguy
Be sure to scroll to the top now and again, I keep adding new images including shots of Rick’s Bobcat and GPG’s Lynx!
Outdoorsguy
the big rideau this year is really on fire most of the fish are being caught on the famous gangtroll the thirteen bladed type once the fish is on your arm gets a hell of a workout a friend of mine caught a 9 pound rainbow up in calabogie at a secret camp spot very hard to get to but worth the effort it is truly a canadian spot makes you proud to see the beauty of this area anyway jeff hope your fishin has been good will try to upload and send you some pics
Jeff do you know the way the OMNR tells the difference bewtween Bobcats and Lynx for the purposes of reporting for trappers? It is the colour of the tip of the tail.
Lets see if anyone other than trappers know the answer.
Maybe a good question for your triviia quiz.
Oh Rick, good idea I know that..we all about learned the ‘key ID feautures’ in College.
I’ll give people a hint…one of the animal’s tail has black markings on top only, while the other one has black which continues all the way around.
Any ideas??
Outdoorsguy
I know there are Bobcats in the Grifith Dacre area because I have seen their tracks in the snow. I have never been lucky enough to see one. That is a beautiful photo — it looks like a Robert Bateman painting.
Hey Hunting mom, I believe that’s the same area where Iggy said he saw one….of course, it does beg the question as to whether these are Bobcats or Lynx. As Rick pointed out, there are very difficult to tell apart. Sure would be nice to see one up close!
My father reminded me of story from our town in QC near Tremblant..about 40 years ago, a rabid lynx came into town and they had my father put it down. They said that animal was a lynx; which is likely I suppose as the town is over 2 hours north of here.
Outdoorsguy
That is the area I hunt Hunting mom, off the Teepel Haley Rd, and that’s where I saw it.
It was quite close, and sat there for a bit watching me watch it, it was almost like it had never seen a person before, and I was down in a watch called The Hole, deep in the bush, but there is enough human traffic in the area that I’m sure it’s seen people before, probably just surprised to see a person in that deep
After looking at pictures, I’m pretty sure it was a Bobcat, when you see the tufts on a Lynx they are quite different than a Bobcat.
Great shots! I hope I get the chance to see one in the wild some day!
Iggy
We hunt fairly close to Teeple Haley Road, but on the other side of highway 41 near Morrow Lake Road. You were so fortunate to see it. I saw the tracks in the snow on the ice a couple of years ago. When I first saw them I didn’t realize what I was looking at. I went home and looked it up on the Internet and realized they were lynxbobcat. Perhaps some day we will be fortunate enough to see one.
Swim with sharks anyone:
http://blogs.canoe.ca/outdoorsguy/strange/swim-from-cuba-to-florida-with-no-shark-cage/
Outdoorsguy
Thanks for the compliments on the lynx pic. We had plenty of time to take a few at different settings. I had the same experience as Iggy, it seemed like it was struggling to figure out what it was looking at but remained very calm! lol
From my quick online research, the bobcat has shorter tufts of hair on the ears. The bobcat has more of a spotted coat were the Lynx more of an even grey-white coat and is slightly longer. The bobcat is seen in southern Canada and the lynx is more northern. The lynx has bigger paws to travel in snow and has a black tip tail and the bobcat also has rings around the end of its tail.
Info: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/mammals/bobcat-vs-lynx.htm
These shots are superb. Especially the pictures of fawn and doe, and bobcat are my favourite. I wish i could watch these great views in real with my opticron binoculars.