Night Moves

Fallen trees over ephemeral streams provide a walkway for passing wildlife as well as a hunting perch. I was hoping to capture a northern fisher crossing this log after seeing it on my trail camera. In the month I had the camera trap set up, the fisher never showed but this barred owl (above) would make frequent visits. By having a trail camera watching over the setup I could see that it was hunting amphibians that had moved into the freshly filled woodland streams.

An enigma for me has been the elusive fisher. Unlike most animals that follow game trails, these carnivores have a semi-arboreal lifestyle and incredible climbing abilities that help access prey like squirrels. During the winter I had aims of photographing a bobcat in the snow. I captured no bobcats, but this fisher (below) paused just long enough in front of the camera as it hunted small mammals and scavenged on the forest floor.

Wetlands are a key piece of the biodiversity puzzle. These pieces fit together to help keep food webs functioning. Large predators such as this black bear are at the top of the food chain and wetlands are a huge bonus on properties attracting a range of wildlife. This image stands out to me particularly as I had not seen bears on the property but knew they were around. When I checked the images on the camera the realization really set in that I wasn’t in the U.K. anymore. Bears are notorious for destroying cameras in the field, but this individual was a little curious and then passed on by.

The wily coyote certainly lives up to its name. These intelligent canines will use a trail for weeks and then when I introduce the camera trap, they will switch course and move around the trail to bypass it. I had a variety of wildlife pass through this trail including the coyote you see. Tracking footprints is always a great tool when scouting locations and just beyond the trees in the background is a meadow on the shores of a wetland. In the spring and summer, these meadows provide cover for newborn deer and rabbits, both prey for coyotes. In the winter they use the cover of the woodland to hunt.

Widespread in Ontario, snapping turtles are constantly risking their lives each breeding season when large adult turtles cross highways. At this property managed by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), my camera trap recorded a large snapping turtle making its way back to a DUC-restored wetland on private property.

Out of all the subjects I have photographed using a camera trap, this image of a bobcat was the hardest to come by. It took around six months to locate where bobcats were and what trails they were using. This trail is located next to a large wetland. A pair of bobcats would frequently walk the trail, and it could be that they use the cover of the trees and shrubs to hide themselves when stalking prey in the wetlands. It was great to get these images of a secretive species locally, and they even left me a present (scat) when they used my camera trap housing as a new scent-marking location.

After spending the winter high in the treetops, porcupines head down in spring and summer to move between new feeding areas. More active at night, these spiky animals don’t have to worry as much about running into predators. Camera traps are great at capturing them as the cameras operate day and night, allowing a glimpse of what goes on at all hours. From my cameras I have been able to see that not all porcupines are the same: some are a light shade of brown such as this one and others are much darker, almost black in colour. They have rather long claws which function as climbing aids when scaling tall trees. By using the camera trap, I get a much more intimate view into the lives of porcupines as they waddle along the forest floor.

Candid camera: the setup

Camera trapping, as it’s commonly called, involves leaving a digital camera out in the field with a motion detector. It’s not unlike setting up a trail camera, but by using a digital camera, I’m able to capture images with much more detail.

Camera traps are non-invasive methods of photographing wildlife since the photographer is not there to disturb them. Camera flashes are set higher than the animal’s eye level, so they don’t look directly into the flash, and I place cameras along already-used game trails made by the animals themselves. I camouflage the camera housings with paint to match the surroundings. And while I take great care to blend the setup and hide the camera from both animals and humans, some animals are curious and will inspect the camera housing. I mainly use manual mode for these setups to capture both day and night images, and I can dial in the settings for a particular scene or lighting scenario. It sounds easy but everything can change once I leave the camera.

From getting covered in mosquitoes when setting up, to trudging through metres of snow, it’s all part of the journey to capture that one special image.

View more of Joshua’s work at joshuaburch.co.uk and follow his adventures on Instagram: @joshuaburchphotography