Late night visitors and trail cameras

One of these days I'm going to get myself a good trail camera and set it up in my swamp. Judging by all the moose and bear tracks down there it's a busy place. My waterfront is in the section of the lake with no cottages on the water, so it has more wildlife traffic than most places on the lake.

What I think happens is that critters follow the brook until they hit the lake. Then they turn away from a camp on the west side of the brook and go into my little patch of swamp. Eventually they find my trail and follow it until they get near my house. Usually most critters must backtrack after that.

Except for the bears. They check out my house to see if I've left anything out there to eat. That's one reason I only put my trash out just before the town guys come to pick it up. Something would be digging in it if left out too early.

I'm no Daniel Boone, but I've been able to find tracks of turkeys, pine martins, and fisher cats. I bet a trail cam would be able to take some interesting pictures. However, I hesitate to send money on one. A guy I know bought a really nice one, only to find it smashed to pieces one day. He was able to retrieve the memory card. The last picture on the card was of the open maw of a large black bear, just before it chomped the camera.

-Sixbears