Hopefully this "monster" buck isn't a sign of things to come for 2009.

I eagerly visited all of my camera sites on Saturday morning hoping to find plenty of big buck photos. When I got to my Moultrie camera, which is one of four that I had out, I was surprised to see 181 photos were taken over the one week period. I hurried back to the house to review the pictures only to find about 2/3 of them were of the weeds blowing back in forth, apparently triggering the camera. I never thought about removing the weeds when I set the camera up because I guess my thought process was a bit rusty. Also, when I saw that a couple of the cameras caught very little action, I relocated them to normally productive locations, even though I vowed to not make many changes this early in the summer. What can I say, I’m not the most patient person in the world.

I was most anxious to see the quality of the photos taken by my first attempt at a “home brew” digital trail camera. Overall I would say that I am pleased with the results. The above photo was taken by the camera, and the quality looks pretty good, especially for a low-light area. Somehow the little guy in the photo managed to walk by three of the four cameras that I had out. I’m guessing he’s just roaming around looking for friends now that he’s on his own for the first time. It will be interesting to see if he ends up calling the property home, or if he’ll continue to wander on.

Although most of my photos were duds, I did get one photo of a bruiser buck. He was a little far away from the camera, but it looks like at least a mainframe 8-point with a really wide spread and long brow tines. I’m hoping he’ll walk by the camera a bit closer so I can get a better look. I also got a lot of cool doe/fawn photos, which I always enjoy. Maybe with the cold front and rain coming in over the middle of the week the action will pick up a bit. I’ve learned that summer can be a tough time to get good buck photos since they simply don’t move all that much when it’s hot. One thing is for sure, I’m excited to be out and about in the woods again.

Despite my desire to have my cameras out by June 1, I had to settle for June 21 due largely to my rigorous baseball schedule. I put out all four of my cameras, three of which are in brand-new locations. The temptation is to put all of them in my “regular” spots, but I found a couple of areas last season that I wanted to try, and what better time than in early summer? My newest camera, the one I put together myself, is in the spot where I first got photos of Crabby. It just made sense to put one there. I put my Cuddeback on a trail that faces a huge rub that turned up in the late season hoping to get a photo of the giant that made it (if he’s still around). I put one more over a pretty active licking branch at the top of a hollow and the other over a less-active licking branch on top of the hill.

I’m sure I’ll move the cameras around quite a bit early on, but for now I’m just excited to have them back out. I admit that I got a little burst of adrenaline when I was putting in new batteries and strapping the cameras to the trees. Speaking of adrenaline, that evening my wife and I took the dog for a walk through the property and I laid eyes on my first mature buck of the year. As we rounded the corner we could see two deer bolting through the field. The one on the left was sporting a very wide and soon to be massive rack. Judging by his body size I would put him at the 3 1/2 year-old range, but it was hard to tell as he was running straight away. That being said, I’m almost certain it wasn’t a 2 1/2 year-old. Hopefully I get some good photos during my first check this weekend so I can post them here.