mikef451's Journal

Hello Fine Naturalist Folk,

Welcome to my first journal post! Two weeks ago we installed a group of game cameras in hopes of observing Species of Greatest Conservation Need. Specifically we are looking for Sylvilagus aquaticus, or Swamp Rabbit. I have observed these on a few occasions previously, so I thought we should try to boost their numbers within the county. The cameras are loaned from TPWD , (Thank you very much!), and we are charged with and enjoy reporting all mammals observed as we hunt our target species.

Williamson, Co is on the western most edge of this species which is common in east Texas, and southeastern US. I believe it is a recent addition to the list of SGCN for this area.

It is very similar to Eastern Cottontail though somewhat larger in size, but smaller rounder ears and their ear length to head length ratio is different than S. floridanus. Their eyes have cinnamon rings around them versus the white rings for S. floridanus. The tail is flatter and less white I believe with an overall more rust or brown color. Oh and they love water. It seems to be a security for escape from predators. They prefer stream and river banks with grassy vegetation or floodplains. They are mostly nocturnal and huddle in grassy nest hollows during the day.

With short notice I had three volunteers with the initial roll out of six cameras. Randy Spurlock, Jim Nelson, Kathy McCormack, and myself finally got them placed two Saturdays back.

The following week, Kathy, Jim, Karen Schnell, Keri Dunn, Chris Tschirhart, and myself swapped out the cards from the digital traps. The most exciting thing was the fresh beaver chew found near a camera, but nothing observed otherwise than the usual suspects of the night.
Thanks to the above mentioned folks!

Thanks to all who helped with bringing this project to the chapter, and here's to many future observations!
See you next week!

Mike Farley

Good Morning Nature Lovers,

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks! I would like to thank all the folks who have volunteered their help, either in the field, or with sorting and uploading. Kathy McCormack, Keri Dunn, Jim Nelson, Diane Powell, Lori Franz, and April Rohlich.

One of the challenges here is to keep track of proper locations of cameras once they've been moved for various reasons. Either continued observations of common mammals, excess false trigger issues, combined with a new found spot that looks promising. Kathy has taken upon herself to track these locations via maps and a fluid list of coordinates, camera numbers, and their key number. This small list has proven invaluable to me. Thank you Kathy!

April, Lori, and Kathy are now uploading to iNaturalist which is a big help since we collect data on both Friday and Saturday currently. It is possible that a weekday evening will be added soon. The heat is a concern as always though. Our early 7:30 am starts have been very nice.

Our biggest news items are, we got our first SGCN observation of North American River Otter and the 3 adorable Bobcat kittens that were really enjoying hanging out for 3 hours (90+ images) by a camera which was baited with Pure Vanilla extract. Keri brought her camera along which will accept the SD cards and we were viewing observations as we went. You should have heard all the oohs and aahs over those kittens!

It was terrific fun! We still went to a local coffee shop to see on a laptop, as well as divide up the uploading.

Thanks for wading through this long post. Next week will have at least one new camera location were excited about!

To see observations simply click on the "Leave a Comment" button.
Mike