I've been setting up trail cameras in the forest for about five years, beginning with just one and purchasing a new model when I felt like I might need a back-up camera; I now have four (and am wondering if I should get another one as a back-up). I'm not greedy, just passionate and obsessed. I've learned a lot from my mistakes over the years and have gotten pretty darned good at finding promising spots, yet I still pull major bloopers like forgetting to turn the camera on.

Among the thousands of videos my cameras have recorded, only eight have featured mountain lions, and each one has thrilled me. Some only gave a fleeting glimpse of that unmistakably long tail; others showed the whole cat but only for about two seconds as they passed through the frame. I have always wanted to get a really thorough look at a cougar.

Yesterday I went out to check on a camera (my favorite, a Browning with one lens for day and one for night), worried that I would find I hadn't turned it on, or that the batteries went dead within a few days because of a leaf dangling from a spider web in front of it (this happened once: 700-plus videos of that leaf). Due to an extended stay in Tucson because of my mother's death, and because my business partner tested positive for
Covid and we were shut down AGAIN, this camera had gone unchecked for five weeks.

I was happy to see that there were only 74 videos, meaning not a lot of bird and squirrel and chipmunk activity--no disrespect to any of them--and likely no blowing vegetation videos. When I started looking at what was on the card and got to video #33 (recorded on December 30), I was stunned: A good-sized mountain strolling down the canyon and stopping to survey his (I think it's a male but invite speculation) domain before sauntering out of the frame, triggering a full 18 seconds of capture.

I am sharing with you these snapshots from the video, enhanced a bit, plus two others of a coyote and a small buck, for size comparison. Had the video been captured during the day the quality of the still shots would be even better, but I'm not complaining! Actually the cat appeared before the camera right around 6 PM, but it was dark enough that the camera used its night sensor.

I hope those of you who view these will feel the same charge that I did. We all deserve some healthy excitement right about now!

I've been setting up trail cameras in the forest for about five years, beginning with just one and purchasing a new model when I felt like I might need a back-up camera; I now have four (and am wondering if I should get another one as a back-up). I'm not greedy, just passionate and obsessed. I've learned a lot from my mistakes over the years and have gotten pretty darned good at finding promising spots, yet I still pull major bloopers like forgetting to turn the camera on.

Among the thousands of videos my cameras have recorded, only eight have featured mountain lions, and each one has thrilled me. Some only gave a fleeting glimpse of that unmistakably long tail; others showed the whole cat but only for about two seconds as they passed through the frame. I have always wanted to get a really thorough look at a cougar.

Yesterday I went out to check on a camera (my favorite, a Browning with one lens for day and one for night), worried that I would find I hadn't turned it on, or that the batteries went dead within a few days because of a leaf dangling from a spider web in front of it (this happened once: 700-plus videos of that leaf). Due to an extended stay in Tucson because of my mother's death, and because my business partner tested positive for
Covid and we were shut down AGAIN, this camera had gone unchecked for five weeks.

I was happy to see that there were only 74 videos, meaning not a lot of bird and squirrel and chipmunk activity--no disrespect to any of them--and likely no blowing vegetation videos. When I started looking at what was on the card and got to video #33 (recorded on December 30), I was stunned: A good-sized mountain strolling down the canyon and stopping to survey his (I think it's a male but invite speculation) domain before sauntering out of the frame, triggering a full 18 seconds of capture.

I am sharing with you these snapshots from the video, enhanced a bit, plus two others of a coyote and a small buck, for size comparison. Had the video been captured during the day the quality of the still shots would be even better, but I'm not complaining! Actually the cat appeared before the camera right around 6 PM, but it was dark enough that the camera used its night sensor.

I hope those of you who view these will feel the same charge that I did. We all deserve some healthy excitement right about now!

I've been setting up trail cameras in the forest for about five years, beginning with just one and purchasing a new model when I felt like I might need a back-up camera; I now have four (and am wondering if I should get another one as a back-up). I'm not greedy, just passionate and obsessed. I've learned a lot from my mistakes over the years and have gotten pretty darned good at finding promising spots, yet I still pull major bloopers like forgetting to turn the camera on.

Among the thousands of videos my cameras have recorded, only eight have featured mountain lions, and each one has thrilled me. Some only gave a fleeting glimpse of that unmistakably long tail; others showed the whole cat but only for about two seconds as they passed through the frame. I have always wanted to get a really thorough look at a cougar.

Yesterday I went out to check on a camera (my favorite, a Browning with one lens for day and one for night), worried that I would find I hadn't turned it on, or that the batteries went dead within a few days because of a leaf dangling from a spider web in front of it (this happened once: 700-plus videos of that leaf). Due to an extended stay in Tucson because of my mother's death, and because my business partner tested positive for
Covid and we were shut down AGAIN, this camera had gone unchecked for five weeks.

I was happy to see that there were only 74 videos, meaning not a lot of bird and squirrel and chipmunk activity--no disrespect to any of them--and likely no blowing vegetation videos. When I started looking at what was on the card and got to video #33 (recorded on December 30), I was stunned: A good-sized mountain strolling down the canyon and stopping to survey his (I think it's a male but invite speculation) domain before sauntering out of the frame, triggering a full 18 seconds of capture.

I am sharing with you these snapshots from the video, enhanced a bit, plus two others of a coyote and a small buck, for size comparison. Had the video been captured during the day the quality of the still shots would be even better, but I'm not complaining! Actually the cat appeared before the camera right around 6 PM, but it was dark enough that the camera used its night sensor.

I hope those of you who view these will feel the same charge that I did. We all deserve some healthy excitement right about now!