Motion Activated Camera Captures Farm Visitors

Our area is outside normal black bear range. So when someone spotted one, about 5 miles from our farm, it created a stir throughout our community. Three days later our Reconyx motion activated camera caught this black bear crossing our driveway. It was just passing through, on its way to who-knows-where.

The trail camera reveals not only roaming wildlife, but all sorts of other unexpected visitors. Our farm isn’t located on the way to or from anywhere, so no one has any reason to walk through. Therefore we were surprised and puzzled to see a photo of an unknown couple strolling down our driveway one early November morning.

If they had come from the direction behind them, they would have had to hike over steep, rocky terrain. To get from anywhere to the spot where the trail camera captured them, they would have had to start before light.

The camera recorded the temperature as 53ºF, which likely was much lower whenever they started out. But they don’t look dressed for cold weather.

Maybe they came from the direction they are headed, and had just turned around to go back to the county road. But then they would have seen our imposing “No Trespassing” signs on the way in.

Neighbors who have lived in this area all their lives don’t recognize these people. So who are they? Where did they come from? Where were they going? And, most perplexing, what were they doing on our farm?

Over the decades we have lived on this farm, our motion activated camera has also recorded a number of livestock visitors. They include plenty of stray dogs and cats, a horse, a donkey, a herd of brush goats, an impressively large herd of pure white Saanan dairy goats, and numerous cows.

Some visitors appear repeatedly on the camera. Others, like the black bear, are one-time visitors we wouldn’t have the pleasure of seeing without the motion activated camera.