Let’s Check in on the Animals! What Have They Been Doing While We’ve All Been in Isolation

These days I sometimes go long stretches without leaving the house, or maybe I should say, the yard. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned a time or two, I live in the woods, at the bottom of a mountain with lots of undeveloped wooded land readily available for me to explore. Since getting two trail cameras a while back I have been continually amazed at all of the animals that share our land with us. The highlight of my days recently is retrieving the SD cards to see what the camera has captured. I never know what I might see!

I was reviewing some footage from the previous few months and thought it was time I shared some of the things that have been going on in the woods here in western North Carolina. I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s fascinating to see what goes on OUTSIDE while we are inside. Have you been getting outside more to explore? Have you had any exciting wildlife encounters? Seen any bears yet this spring? So far “our” bears here are still hidden; I have not seen a bear on the camera or live since November though I know one of these days soon that should change. 

I put together a 12 minute compilation from the trail cameras that I move around regularly, and my friends Renee and Rich who live nearby have been kind enough to share some of their footage too. You’ll see some turkeys, a few beautiful birds, some raccoons (You’ll never guess how many are traveling together one night!), even a pair of pileated woodpeckers, a pair of coyotes playing leap frog, a fox or two, and yes, even a bobcat (!!) and a few other animals. And though I haven’t “caught” any black bears since November, I have included some footage of them from late summer while they were still active before denning up for the winter. 

And since I love playing games, I thought I should make this a game, with a prize for the winner–as long as I get at least 10 people to participate. If there are less than 10 it will just be for fun, with no prize.

To play, watch the video of the animals captured by the trail cameras and then tell me how many different animal species were represented, not counting humans. (That means that a red and a gray squirrel would count for two different species, but if I show 12 images of gray squirrels, it still only counts once) For 24 hours after I publish the post I will take guesses, and you must give your guess using the comment box below the post, not an email to me. Obviously I won’t approve the comments until the 24 hour window has passed, so people cannot simply look at what someone else wrote. At the end of the 24 hours, I will publish all of the guesses and if there’s more than one that is correct, I will put those in a hat and pull out one. That person will win one of my brand new greeting card sampler packs--winner’s choice. (A prize worth close to $25!) Good luck! I hope you will try this fun game!

I hope you like the compilation, and even more, I hope you play the game! Have fun watching!