The turkeys appeared on my camera again, this time with a large male that I don't think was present last time around.

I got several other pictures but this one was clearest.

And a little video of the turkeys walking past the camera.

The post Wild Turkeys on the Trail Camera first appeared on Tropical Boating.

With the Watertribe Everglades Challenge starting tomorrow, I took one of my aluminum boats out to Stump Pass today to check on the current locations of sand bars. There's usually a little swash channel running right along the shore on the north side, allowing participants to save some distance by cutting the corner instead of using the main channel. That didn't look like a great idea today. There's a small bar out from the shore a bit and some waders demonstrating it's about knee deep on the outside of it. There's also an orange ball anchored in the channel just off the end of the bar.

I flew my drone over the area and got this overview shot showing the shoreline and the position of the sand bar. It looked pretty darn shallow between the bar and the shore, shallow enough that I didn't want to try to go there in my little skiff. This was around noon today.

A cropped in picture taken from a bit further west than the previous one. Click to enlarge and you can barely make out the orange ball from the first picture, located just off the sand bar.

I haven't worked up the nerve to launch my drone from my little skiff but decided that it would be OK if the boat was beached. Worked just fine.

The post Stump Pass March 5, 2021 first appeared on Tropical Boating.

Today's novel Kubota B-26 job was a platform from which to pick mangoes that were about 17' off the ground. The roof of the tractor is about 8' high, getting me close enough to bend the branch and grab them.

The other day the tractor became a Travelift to put a boat up on a trailer where it would be easier to work on it.

The post Unusual Tractor Jobs first appeared on Tropical Boating.

Since I could not get any toilet paper, my COVID19 PANIC buying consisted of four new Leghorn chicks from Tractor Supply.

They are intensely interesting to Luke the Cowdog.

We only wanted two, since we already have four yearling chickens and our coop has a capacity of six, but the lady at Tractor Supply would not let us pay for four and only take two home, so we've got four.

The post New Backyard Chickens first appeared on Tropical Boating.

Our chickens are 7 1/2 months old and one finally laid an egg. We figured this egg cost enough that it should have a high end label.

We got another egg yesterday and I decided it was scrambled egg time.

The post Our First Homegrown Egg! first appeared on Tropical Boating.

The neighborhood bobcat passed by again. This picture was taken about 30 minutes after a picture of my cat in the same spot.

Bobcat by chicken run

The bobcat passing by the Omlet Eglu chicken coop and run, which still seems to be bobcat-proof.

Bobcat

Another bobcat visit.

Bobcat

This one was followed by a picture of Kailey the Cowdog, who was set off by bobcat scent again.

A closer look.

I'm not sure what this is.

Still not sure.

Bobcat

Update 10/13/19: the bobcat passed by twice more.

Bobcat

And can definitely smell chicken dinner inside the Omlet Eglu coop, but can't get to it.

Bobcat

Passed by a while later and didn't approach the coop at all.

Chicken Coop Possum

And then a possum showed up. It looks like the back half of this one must be inside the chicken run. There's a movie taken a couple of minutes later that looks like it was up on top.

MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA

Got a rare daytime visit from the bobcat yesterday afternoon.

Bobcat Cropped

A closer look...

Bobcat in Daylight Nov 2019 from Tom Ray on Vimeo.

I wish the accompanying video were longer. It stops just as the bobcat looks like it's getting ready to charge at the squirrel.

Raccoon Posing

I get lots of pictures of this raccoon but it doesn't often pose right in front of the camera.

Flying Squirrel

Hah! A stunt squirrel!

Coyote Eyes

I wasn't sure if this was a dog, coyote, or something else when looking at this picture but the video cleared things up. Two coyotes!

Coyotes On Trail Camera from Tom Ray on Vimeo.

Bobcat

The bobcat dropped by again a couple of nights ago.

A New Years Eve bobcat visit to the pond.

Not a bobcat but a pretty cool picture of a heron landing on a branch in the pond.

The post More Bobcat Pictures first appeared on Tropical Boating.

We like to watch the sun set over Shell Creek every evening and then return home and close up the chickens in their coop for the night. Last night we showed up and Kailey the Cowdog suddenly alerted to a scent and took off across the yard. I was wondering whether our trail camera had captured whatever set her off and it did.

I got several bobcat pictures just after 7 pm. The appears pretty dark but the image at left is cropped in and lightened a bit so it shows up better. In the background you can see that our chickens are hanging around in the end of their run just a few feet from the bobcat. I guess they have great faith in the fencing!

Bobcat Alert

There were quite a few more pictures in the ensuing 13 minutes with the bobcat prowling all around the coop but the bobcat just looks like a black blob in most of them. The picture at right was taken right about the time that the bobcat would have heard us approaching the yard and it's looking that direction.

The cropped and lightened version of that one. The chickens continued to hang around out in their run through all the intervening pictures, apparently going to sleep in their coop only minutes before we arrived. I'm pretty sure the bobcat was trying to reach them through the cage and I did find a couple of tail feathers on the ground so maybe it was almost successful. All four are fine this morning.

Late Night Bobcat

I wondered whether the bobcat would return late at night. Yep. I got a few pictures of it slinking along the pond drainage ditch and this picture of it right next to the coop.

The post A Couple of Bobcat Visits to Chickens first appeared on Tropical Boating.

Early last night at least one coyote was around our game camera for about 10 minutes.

Coyote

It showed up at 8:11 pm.

Coyote

Still around at 8:21 pm.

Coyote

And completely unaware of the camera, it seems.

Coyote

Some of the pictures showed it going one direction then (in the same minute) showed it in a different area going the opposite direction. The camera doesn't record picture times to the second, so it's possible, but it also made me think I might be looking at more than one coyote. No picture showed two and they all look like the same animal so I'm not sure.

The post Return of the Coyote(s) first appeared on Tropical Boating.

I walked by my trail camera a week or so ago and noticed it was down by the base of the tree, not strapped to it at knee height where I had left it. I wondered how it could slide down the trunk of a pine tree, then noticed the face of it was cracked and noticed the nearby large branch and figured out what happened.

The branch fell and gave it quite a wallop, knocking it to the base of the tree, shattering some of the glass over the LED flash bulbs, and cracking the plastic case. I brought it inside and went to release the battery tray, only to find it was already loose.

The picture shows the old camera where I found it, the new one strapped to the tree in the shadow, and the offending branch still waiting to be hauled away.

The pic at left is a closer view of the old, smashed camera. Today I put the batteries from the old camera into the new one and tried to fire it up but it didn't work! No power. Closer examination revealed that some of the AA batteries had been smashed enough to not make contact with the conductors in the ends of the battery tray. The positive pole still stuck up enough to contact the negative side of another AA battery so I was able to arrange them such that the smashed batteries were touching another battery and it worked.

The new Moultrie 180i has a different back-light on the display and it's not as easy to see in sunlight. The new one is also "Moultrie Mobile" compatible, meaning it has a cellphone built inside so you can access pictures through the cell network. The cheapest plan for it was $65 so I will just continue to get the camera card manually.

The post Replacement Trail Camera first appeared on Tropical Boating.

I found a used kayak dolly that I wanted on craigslist the other day and went down to Bokeelia to buy it. The seller was somehow able to quickly identify me as a person who can't say no to trash and as I was leaving he said, "Hold on a second. I got something else."

The "something else" was another kayak dolly, a broken one. So, trash. I gratefully accepted it.

Another useless thing to adorn one of the shelves in my sheds. How could I refuse?

I looked at the tires on it and thought, "Those might just fit the Eglu chicken tractor!" As shown in the photo at right, the Eglu came with some pretty skinny tires and they kind of bog down when I go through sand, making it hard to push.

I was hoping for a quick swap, but things didn't go that easily. The shaft size on the tractor was smaller than the one on the broken kayak dolly. I first attempted to fix this using a small piece of PVC pipe as a bushing. It was the right exterior diameter for the new tires but the wall thickness of the pipe was too much so the interior diameter was too small to slip over the tractor shaft. I hunted around my rather extensive junk collection, looking for something else to serve as a bushing. I couldn't find anything that was quite right but did find a piece of small black irrigation hose that was almost right, just a bit too big in diameter to slip inside the new tires. I solved that problem by slicing out a sliver of the hose until it was a perfect fit.

That worked but my problem was still not over. The pins that Eglu provided to lock the tires in place were too long and could not be inserted into the shaft hole. Solved that one by putting them in a bench vise and hammering down the offending part. I installed the tires and found that the other end of the pin was still a bit too long. After the pins were inserted, the long end hit the tire valve stem. Bolt cutters solved that problem, shortening the pin end by 1/8 inch or so.

The new tires should roll over rough terrain a lot better but they do look like they'll drag a bit on the arms that hold the shafts. I'll find out tomorrow morning when I move it. If that's a problem, I think I can insert a couple of washers as spacers to move the tires away from the arms.

UPDATE 9/18/19: It rolls a lot easier now!

The post Off Road Eglu Chicken Tractor first appeared on Tropical Boating.