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Great Game Camera Photos

Game cameras are commonly used by hunters to inventory and pattern white-tailed deer. And although deer are typically the animal of primary interest, a lot of other critters get captured in the photos taken by trail cameras. In addition, motion-triggered cameras work 24-7, so a number of interesting wildlife photos get downloaded each year.

I’ve published photos of some very strange wildlife camera photos in the past and those were a big hit. Then I put together a group of some neat game camera photos to follow along that line, but I figured it’s time I started publishing great game camera photos on a regular basis. With that said, these photos may not be life-changing, but by posting them it allows hunters to see some of the things others were lucky enough to see.

In addition, everyone gets to enjoy wildlife a little bit more, because none of us gets to be outdoors as much as we’d like! And I find that last photo just a little bit scary!

Also, if you have taken or come across a unique game camera photos, send them in and I will publish them after I get a few. Thanks!

Barbed-Wire Fences and White-tailed Deer

How many times have you seen a deer that died after being caught up in a fence? If you’re like me, it’s probably more often than you’ve wanted. Most often, deer crossing barbed-wire fences get hung up when attempting to jump over and the clear the fence — and then they struggle to their death. It’s unfortunately way to common, but fairly easy to remedy. I’d also recommend it to anyone interesting in preserving or conserving the deer population found in their area.

To avoid “snaring” whitetails on your property make sure the top two wires on your perimeter and cross fences are no closer than 12 inches. This is easy to accomplish when building new fence, but may take more time when modifying existing fence. If you have a barbed wire fence with 6 or more wires, the easiest option is to simply remove the wire second to the top. This will usually be enough to eliminate accidental deer deaths.

On barbed-wire fences with 5 or fewer strands of wire, the only option you may have will be to go back and manually move the wire lower one post at a time. It may take a fair amount of time, but you’ll disable the “fence-trap” and save your deer. It would gut-wrenching to find a mature buck tangle up and dead in a perimeter, cross, food plot or fence surrounding your feeder.

Deer Caught in Fence:

Hawthorn is a Great Deer Food

Deer Plant: Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.)

Class: browse; highly preferred by deer

Description: A perennial shrub to small tree with a broad open crown found in bottomlands and uplands. This browse plant is common in forest understory and upland slopes and twigs are sparsely armed with straight spines, so be careful around them. The flowers and fruits are small.

Note: Photos are from various species of hawthorn.

Hawthorn Photos:

Carolina Buckthorn

Deer Plant: Carolina buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana)

Class: browse; highly preferred

Description: A large perennial shrub or small tree occurring in the understories of forests, drainages and stream bottoms. This browse plant has large leaves and showy red (immature) and black (mature) fruit. The Carolina buckthorn fruit is eaten by some species of birds, but white-tailed deer relish the leaves.

This species can be a prolific re-sprouter after a fire.

Carlina buckthorn photos: