CAPTURED!

MISSION: Capture photographic evidence of native, migratory and invasive species of known, rare, exotic and unrecognized wildlife TOOLS: Handheld Sony DSC-H1 Cyber-shot 5.2 megapixel Digital Still Camera with 12x optical zoom lens, Mountable Stealth Cam STC-WD1 Advanced Digital Scouting Camera with a Passive Infrared Sensor configured to capture three continuous images with each trigger, Night Owl first generation night vision Fieldview Binocular with integrated infrared illuminator REGION: Upper valley of Deer Creek in northern Harford County, Maryland BACKGROUND: My home is decorated in death. On the mantle above my fireplace sit three skulls of locally-slain white-tailed deer. Another hangs on the front porch, welcoming visitors, and a half-dozen more adorn shelves and window sills through the house. A regiment of skulls of red fox, opposum, raccoon, muskrat, cat, groundhog and Eastern box turtle line the top of a bookshelf while pelts of raccoon and red fox are draped nearby. Snake skins, turtle shells, assorted bones of all shapes and sizes and taxidermy mounts of bobcat, coyote, beaver, Great Horned owl and wood duck fill the remaining spaces on my walls. I proudly display these items, but I am no killer. These relics of nature were picked up in the woods or on the side of the road, purchased at garage sales or inherited through acquaintences. Not one taken by my own hand. I do my shooting through the lens of a camera and my trapping with an infrared digital trail cam. I am a modern hunter and my quarry is the wildlife we know is out there, but rarely see, the animals we've heard rumors of, but could never verify and the legends, which defy logic, yet live on. Episode 1: Lessons Learned If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Easier said than done. I went through the motions in the days after Christmas 2005, all the while strategizing how and where I would position my new infrared digital trail cam. I was dreaming up all sorts of elaborate baits and lures I could set to draw in some of area’s more elusive creatures - bobcats, coyotes, Eastern Cougars, Appalachian Apemen. Excitedly, I set the camera up on a tree overhanging a creek in my side yard where deer, fox and other animals have worn a visible game trail. I promised myself I wouldn’t check the camera until they end of the week, but could barely contain my enthusiasm. First, Harford County had its first bear sighting an a long while and it looks like the ursine may have made its way to Forest Hill by way of Pennsylvania - meaning it likely followed the Deer Creek valley right past my house and camera. Then, as we sat on the front porch one night, we heard this unnatural screeching sound - not a fox, not a bird, maybe an injured or sick raccoon, maybe something unknown. On my Friday morning off, I rushed down to the creek to retrieve and camera and was amazed to see the camera had nine pictures on it. I was sure that I held in my hand’s conclusive photographic evidence of an undescribed animal specie. Hurriedly plugging the device into my television, to get a view of the images before downloading them onto my computer, I could make out a shot of the creek at night - brighly illuminated by the flash. But the picture was skipping on the screen and I wasn’t quite sure how to work the camera yet. I think you can see where this is going. In a frenzy, I frantically started pushing buttons and turning knobs until the television screen went blank and the display screen on the camera read simply: d-ALL. Yup, with a few quick fingerstrokes I had erased any and all evidence that I had even had the camera outside for a week. My scream could be heard for miles. I rebaited the site and set the camera up once more, but this week it took no pictures. Perhaps Bigfoot is camera shy? Sometimes in life you only get a single shot at something. My advice would be not to push the d-ALL button. After my blood pressure normalized and I had time to blow off some steam, I spent the next two weeks ensuring I would get some high quality photographs on the trail cam. I repositioned it perfectly along the creek game trails, baited it religiously each night and eagerly awaited the results. Let me clarify another misconception: good things do not always come to those who wait. On the next batch of pictures, only about one-third of them even turned out - the rest were either pitch black, stark white, simply showed a great view of the leaves and rocks in front of the camera, and nothing else, or captured the image of one of us lumbering in front of the devise at we baited the trap. I was amazed, however, at the rate at which our bait of leftover carry-out food was being devoured - there must be a ravenous beast in these woods. Then I saw the beast with my own eyes. It was sitting next to me on the sofa and licking my hand. That's right, less than a month after having a $2,500 wire mesh fence installed to keep her in, our German short-haired pointer, Luna, was leaping the four-foot barrier in a single bound and making her way to the bait trap where she filled her belly with bait and filled the camera with evidence of her escapes. Time to resecure the home base, rebait the trap and hurry up and wait all over again. Words and Pictures by Brian

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