Monday, August 11, 2014

Bobcat Babies

Bobcat family- Linda Bower
One of my favorite technologies is the game camera.  As the field has advanced, the capacity to take videos opens up new opportunities to the naturalist.  Linda Bower MN (Master Naturalist), has a Youtube channel full of observations from her land east of Springfield.  Her pond and trails are a virtual zoo of activity, as seen in this bobcat video.

Turkey family - Linda Bower
We see lots of turkeys and their poults this time of year, the young-ens now the size of Cornish hens.  While we find them scrambling to escape, Linda's game camera has filmed a video of this charming family scene.

Raccoon at play before eating tomatoes - REK
As we survey the half eaten tomatoes in our fenced raised garden, I have to remind myself that raccoons can be as cute as they are destructive.  They consider the five foot mesh fence a handy ladder, built for their convenience and the live trap for packrats a toy.  They turn them on the side before teasing out the veggie bait.  Linda's raccoon video shows their cute side.

You can see more at Linda's Youtube Channel.