The Most Unusual

Here are some clips of the most unusual animals we've captured on (digital) film.  Usually we see elk, deer, bears, bobcats, raccoons, coyotes, rabbits, owls and frogs. All of the animals in this compilation have barely been seen in the 5 years we've had trail cameras.  Some have only been seen once or twice. I don't know what all the bird species are nor do I know what all the weasel and other small mammals are, but maybe you do.

Bears Visit 3 Times in a Day

 This is a very condensed time-lapse vid of 3 different visits all on the same day by a group of bears. Lots of playing and wrestling.  What you can't tell from this vid (but we can from others) is that it's not the same bears each time.  There is a huge Mama Bear during the first and third visit that isn't part of the second visit. But I can't tell if the younger bear from the first is one of the bears during the other visits.  Also, during the last visit, there are actually 3 bears together.  So, these visits represent somewhere between 3 and 7 bears. 

If you catch it, that's me on the court at 2pm - just 10 mins before the bears' second visit.

Bear Spa Day

This mom and older cub share a serene moment during an ursine spa day. Nice that there are enough tubs to go around. It also seems like the sun is bouncing off a spider web in front of the camera creating that ray effect. Cool.

Owl Battle (for a moment)

 A pair of owls sharing a bath could have been a nice scene. But one of them was completely awful and jumped on the other's head when she was washing her face.  Rude!

Why We Can't Have Nice Things in the Yard!

Super Bear Mash-Up.  Lots of fun is had spilling water and flipping our kiddie pools. This is why we have to buy several pools each year from our local hardware store.  There is a longer version of this video with more shenanigans coming soon.

(For licensing or usage, contact: licensing@viralhog.com)

Skull of Destiny

 Near our hoops court is an aging elk skull that is equal parts haunting and beautiful (especially with all the moss and leaves on it). Many animals visit the skull - these are just some of them in the last two months (shown chronologically). You'll see bears, raccoons, deer, bobcats, elk and coyotes. Several of the elk chew on the bones and many of the animals react to the skull.  You'll even see a three-legged coyote - who made me sad when I first saw her, but now inspires me because she does so well and gets around as easy as the rest of her pack. Notice that most of the clips are from the night time. Maybe that's because that's when they feel the elk spirit the strongest! 

No Roughhousing in the Pond!

 

Heron in Flight

Heron from last month at the pond - shaking out its feathers and taking flight.  Lucky camera timing to get such a good view of her in action.

Bobcat Hearts Elk Spirit

Just one day after the elk skull terrified an unsuspecting raccoon, this bobcat had the opposite reaction.  Loving every second of their encounter.

Raccoon vs Spirit of Elk

A raccoon happens upon the aging skull of an elk near the court. She is completely freaked out - does she know/see something that we don't?  My guess is that she need not worry - for the spirit of the elk is full of goodness and peace no matter what state it is in.

Bear-a-palooza

Several bears visited and played in the pond over a two day period a couple of days ago.  There were 5 different visits in all.  From what I can tell, three of the visits were two bears and two visits had three bears.  Here is a compilation of clips from their good times.

June 14th

A variety of animals hung out around the house on June 14th - I made this video from different clips from that day.  I had to slow down the bobcat clip because she went by so quickly.  This was actually the first day we saw the baby bear that we have now seen a couple more times since.

Friends Forever

A truly beautiful and bizarre scene.  An elk finds the bones and skull of an elk that died near our court several years ago.  The elk starts chewing on one of the bones and decides to lay down and join the skull for a visit.  Surreal.

Great Horned Owl

This is (I think - feel free to correct me) a Great Horned Owl. We only see this kind approx once a year.  99% of the owls we see here are Barred Owls.  This is from a week ago and we haven't seen her again, so she must not have found the pond to her liking and probably only gave us one Hoot on OwlYelp.

A Gift from My Past Self to My Current Self!

So I found this old camera in a drawer full of stuff that needs repairs.  And lo and behold, there was an SD card in it with videos from more than a year ago we never saw. It was thoughtful of me-from-a-year-ago to leave some surprise videos for me-from-today!  The best one is this one of a bear using a tree to scratch that "just right" spot.  Thanks, past version of me, for being a forgetful stooge so I could enjoy this extra fun today.

Guess the Raptor

I don't know crap about birds (wait, maybe what I do know is crap).  Anyway, the point is I'm no good at identifying the local avian hordes.  My quick research tells me this is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. But it could also be several other kinds of raptors. Please comment and set me straight.  I have zoomed in the 2nd time through to help with the ID.

Deer vs Coyote

Because there are so many animals around the yard, it is inevitable that they will run into each other on occasion. Sometimes with surprising outcomes. Here, a badass deer runs off a coyote who stops for a second to try to face-off with the deer, but then realizes that's not a very good idea.

Life

This is our deck (the arrow isn't really on the deck, I photoshopped it)...  Because directly below the deck, at that spot, is a Robin's nest.  We found it and have been taking pics by placing our phones on the deck and lining up the lens in the slats in between the 2x4s.  So the pics aren't great quality and are squeezed on both sides by the deck.

First we found the eggs...

This is Day 1 of life for the birdlings

Day 2

Day 3

 Day 4

 Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

 Day 8

Sometime in the next week, they will leave the nest and be gone.  We will miss them very much!

A Tasty Chair for an Early Rising Elk

Yesterday at a little after 5am, this Elk had a fresh idea for breakfast.

Thar Be Tadpoles!

This is a time-lapse at 30x speed.  So it represents about a half hour at the edge of the pond. What's amazing, is that due to the lighting, logs, bed of leaves and other tricks of the eye, it is very hard to currently see any tadpoles in the pond.  I saw a few hanging near the edge, under a big log, so I stuck the GoPro in the pond. This is the video I got.  There are gazillions (I counted).

There are many other creatures in the video that are not frog or newt tadpoles - I don't know what they are.  Especially weird is the Scorpion-esque creature creepily floating around at the 20 second mark.  Also, near the end you can see two frogs floating around checking out the kids.

Cool Slug

This adorable creature is eating the bud of a Forget-me-Not (I think).  Slugs are cute and fascinating.  It's a bummer that lots of people don't like them - they are just trying to live their best life (like me).  Also, they are great for the environment/ecosystem.  Watch one up close and see how awesome they are... I mean, come on, they have eye-stalks! I wish I had eye-stalks.

When Mom is Too Tired to Play

This fawn tried her best to get mom to play with her, but alas, mom wasn't having it.  I froze the last frame of the video because it was so adorable.

Bear Swimming Time Lapse

This is a time-lapse video of a bear having fun in the pond for about 13 minutes (you can see the time on the bottom).  The entire video represents about 20 mins of elapsed time.  Having a time-lapse camera aimed at the pond helps see some animals that the trail cameras miss.  Either because the animals are too far away to activate them or some other tech issue, sometimes the motion detection fails.  So I have a camera that takes a snapshot of the pond every 10 seconds all day just to catch the things the other cameras miss. 

More Cool Pics...


Bear glamour shot...

Owl Incoming!

Snowy Deer...

Bobcat Too Close...

No Goldilocks

This is one of only a handful of times that three bears are seen at the same time on a video. It seems like the two on the logs are about to throw down when the third comes running in to take their attention. The third one also seems to be a teenager as she is smaller and quicker than the other two.

Magical Heron

Okay, the heron isn't magical, but the scene sure is.  Watching her look for food as the rain plops into the pond is soothing - but only because we didn't see her catch and gulp anything - that would've been drastically less soothing!

Fawn of the Day

This is about as close as we can come to 25 seconds of wildlife bliss...

Life is Good

This bear doesn't appear to have a care in the world.  Stretched out on a nice day, chewing on a long piece of grass. Perfect.

Look at those back legs and feet - I love when the bears hang out this way.

Nodding Off

Please keep it down when you watch this video as to not wake this nice elk - who stayed and slept here for a couple of hours.

Elk Pond Party

Several elk hang out at the pond - one gets a little too close to the camera.  I particularly like the reflections of the elk on the far side of the pond.

Just Missed!

Back when the pond was dry (this is the usual bottom of it) - a scruffy coyote scoots off to the left just one second before a bobcat appears on the right.  Of course, there was no video framing out there in nature, so I'm sure they were hyper aware of each other.  Interestingly, on other videos I've seen deer chase coyotes and bobcats chase deer - but also, deer chase bobcats.  It's sort of a rock, scissors, paper thing.

As Close As You'll Ever Be to A Bobcat's Butt

Glad this Bobcat didn't spray the camera. Her butt was certainly locked and loaded. The surprise of this funny video is that there were actually two bobcats. That's unusual for our yard - they are almost always loners.

It Takes a (Deer) Village

Group parenting abounds as this Moms & Daughters Day gets off to a cleanly start...

Coyote Break Time

I've posted several videos of animals playing recently, so now it is time to rest.  Nice of this beautiful coyote to do so right in front of the trail camera.

Hummingbird in Slo-Mo

Took this with my phone the other day as this hummingbird flew a few feet from me to dine at our Hummingbird Cafe (5 Stars on BirdYelp). It's amazing watching her hover perfectly in one spot without wavering (her tail helping with balance). Also, the last two seconds of the video are regular speed so you can see the difference. It looks so abnormally fast after you've watched the slow motion.

Bobcat Fun Time

On a snowy day in February, this bobcat was having more fun than just about any creature on Earth.  I love watching our wildlife play with joy and abandon.

Ghost Elk

From February - on a snowy night, Ghost Elk invade the moors of our yard.

And You Think Your Kids are Hungry All the Time

Most Bear Fun Ever at 5x Speed!

This bear had the time of her life playing with the kiddie pool and the balls on the basketball court.  She stayed and played for about 20 mins.  This is one 4 min segment that I sped up to 5x speed so you can watch it in about 50 seconds. Luckily, the software kept the audio when I sped up the video, because the sound is hilarious, too.

Posey Fawn

Crazy cute fawn in some nice lighting makes for a great video.

Random Cool Pics

A group of elk doing their best to look majestic...

Weird and cool night shot of a bat that looks like an X-ray.

This bear's nose is shaped perfectly like a heart.

That's me in the background trying to get by the deer without disturbing her.  Obviously, she sees me.

Because Monday Should Now Be Baby Bear Day

I mean... Come on.

Coyote Copy

From last June... These are two videos filmed 1.5 hours apart from each other of a beautiful coyote in the same spot. They are remarkably similar (the camera didn't move, of course). I compare them via split screen at the end so you can see how consistent her route and behavior were.

Badass Bobcat

This beautiful creature is made even more menacing when I add the slo-mo instant replay.  She's just lumbering along the driveway in the cold light of day.  Awesome.

Elky McBitey

At the pond, this elk seems to be threatening her buddy with "Death by a thousand small bites" - meanwhile, two ducks look on wondering what all the ruckus is about.

Bear Shows How to Relax

Stressed?  Anxious?  Worried?  Need some help?  This bear shows that a bath can be a great way to chill out!

Glamorous Owl

This owl poses for a glamour shot while checking out her surroundings for food and potential enemies.  Luckily, her head goes about 270 degrees around.

Bear Selfie

This bear decided she wanted to be the director of her own film.  That's one of our trail cameras that is tied to a cut log that she's carrying around.  You should see the videos from that camera!!!

Bambi and Thumper

Bambi and Thumper captured in a peaceful and inspiring moment.  I presume you know which is which!  

Lucky Camera Save and an Unusual Duck

This video is from when the water in the pond was rapidly rising in Feb. Luckily, I retrieved this camera right before the pond drowned it - as the water rose many more feet just after this. 

The duck was very unusual (to me), so I looked it up and the official name of it is "Cool-Ass Duck". Which is appropriate.

Bobcat Boomerang

Nice video of a bobcat running back and forth... and back again.

BTW, I will now be mainly posting stuff from our yard here on this blog.  Twitter and YouTube are not my favorite outlets.  This is a more cohesive and friendlier way to post.  Hope you visit here again soon!