Nature Friday - Wildlife in a Grassy Knoll

I recently made it to another snowed-in trail camera. It's in a grassy knoll that is surrounded by deep snow all winter (and even now). However, the actual spot where the trail cam sits gets lots of sun so there's grass that deer can eat.

Not surprisingly, deer browsed there regularly, even when they had frost on their fur.


Where there are deer, predators hunt. Mountain lions were sometimes knee deep in snow as they cruised through the area.

And then, if it had been sunny for a while, mountain lions padded along on the dry grass.

Moose came through too. This young one clearly had a rough winter. She's thin. But her scraggly appearance is partly due to shedding. I bet that she'll put on weight pretty fast this spring.

To herald the start of spring, a couple of bears came through in April. This guy, who is also shedding, was checking out a bear marking tree. He's a youngish male, and I suspect that he's considering trying to stay in the area for mating season. An important piece of information for him is how many other male bears are around. A bear marking tree will tell him that.

I put together a short video of the animals who came through this knoll spanning November of last year up until now. Be sure to have your sound on. A mountain lion caterwauled on two occasions. And, at one point in March, the birds decided that it was springtime, and they had a chorus going during the video.

If you like these videos, I have quite a few on my Youtube Channel. Check it out at this link.

Happy Nature Friday.