My back yard

[Steve83]

We checked some of the trail cameras today...

[Gary Lewis]

Wow!  He's huge!  Do you hunt?

[Steve83]

I did years ago, but when I bought this property, I met a new friend who wanted to teach his young son to hunt, but didn't have easy access to deer-rich property.  So I let him hunt mine (and some of my neighbors have also given him permission) in exchange for every other deer that he shoots from my land.  That way, I don't have to get up early or stay out late in the cold, but I get as much venison as I want.  But as many deer as there are here, I could actually hunt without even getting dressed.  After seeing that pic above, I might actually get up early while the season is still open this year (it was extended in my county).  This was shot from inside using an SLR:



This is a cheap trail camera looking at that patio above through the treeline:



We have all sorts of wildlife here: bobcat, coyotes, skunks, armadillos, rabbits, turkeys, Canada geese, red-tail hawks, burrowing spiders, snakes, woodpeckers, Luna moths, Barred owls...  Maybe even a groundhog or otter (no one is sure, from the pic).  Most of them are shown in that photo album.

[Gary Lewis]

That's quite a range of wildlife.  We have deer.  In fact my grandtwins jumped one as they went down to the creek to play the other day.  And coyote.

In fact, many have seen what they think is a mountain lion.  We saw something big and dark moving rapidly through the woods a few years ago and started asking questions.  We've been told the official line is that there aren't any, but way too many people have reported seeing them to believe they aren't here.

[Steve83]

Where are you?  I thought Bob (the cat) was a puma/cougar/mt. lion the first time I saw him, so I read up on the TN Wildlife website, which says they're known to occasionally roam FAR outside their normal range (like hundreds of miles), and then (usually) return to their home range.







I bet if you put up a few trail cameras, you'd find you have more wildlife than you've seen.  I still haven't seen the turkeys, but I have a pic of a herd of 8 or 9.

[Gary Lewis]

We are about 20 miles north of Tulsa.  A trail cam is a good idea.  

[Steve83]

I think my local stores have these on sale for ~$110/pk:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/simmons-10-mp-lowglow-trailcam-charcoal-4-pack?cm_vc=-10005
I can't speak to their quality.  I bought 2 Stealth 2-packs at Sam's club a month or so ago, but they're not on the website now.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks. I’ll check them out.

[Frank Wyatt]

Those are some nice pics you got there. The man that owns the property behind me has cows and we got a big laugh one day at one of the young bulls. He was trying to charge some turkeys and they just kept stepping to one side whenever he got close.

[Steve83]

One of my neighbors put that buck down today; ~23.5" across the rack.

[Gary Lewis]

Big buck.