Trail cameras have come a long way in the last 20 years. Higher quality conventional and cellular signal cameras can get you a relatively good quality photo, provided you keep your resolution settings high and you place the camera in a good location to get the animal in relatively close proximity to the camera. As a lifetime wildlife photographer, I embraced trail cameras early on. I have used a number of trail camera brands over the years, although now I mostly have settled on Browning cameras. All the brands have improved their camera’s performance with new technology and innovations.
Most people use their cameras for scouting deer, bear or turkey hunting etc., although they are being used in a number of new applications. Of course, a few people with distant land holdings or cabins a long way from their homes have been using them as inexpensive security cameras. Research and DNR biologists have been using them to monitor some animal populations.
Here, a breeding buck checks out a logging skid trail between two clear-cut feeding areas that does often used to travel. This deer trail was not well defined, although tree tops from a recent selective logging job placed in a row somewhat directed deer movement along the camera location.
There has been a proliferation of brands of trail cameras available in the last decade or two. Some brands have essentially switched over to almost all cell phone messaging trail cameras. An innovation available to a number of trail camera brands is a special cell antenna that boosts your signal in weak cell signal areas. There are large areas of poor cell signal in the remote areas of rural Michigan like the U.P., where I place my cameras. Of course, many of those remote areas have the best wildlife or deer habitat. I have found if I have any signal at all, the special antenna will work to allow the cell camera to operate. If you have no cell service where you would like to place your camera, then a good conventional trail camera is your only option.
Camera Placement
If you would like to have a more complete idea of what elusive wildlife is in your area of interest other options of camera placement can be explored. Baiting can be very labor intensive and not work well for wary old age bucks and other extremely wary animals.
I have found other ways to boost my odds of wildlife passing my trail cameras. Most animals will use the easiest path through heavy cover. Most animals try to conserve energy and, at times, use manmade trails, especially ones through rough cover like new cuttings with dense brush or saplings slashing or blowdown trees. Trails through preferred food areas can be very productive.
Lance LaRock, field representative for Spypoint trail cameras, lives in Marquette County and runs many trail cameras. LaRock said, “If I see a lot of animal tracks on a two-track road, I follow the tracks until they reach the wood line where animals enter/exit the deep woods.”
“Sometimes, because of the type of ground, I won’t see any tracks but I will see scat. I will then hang a camera in that area to see what direction and time of day the animal is moving and from/to what direction. I will then relocate the camera further down the road to see if I can get a better view of the access point to where they are entering/exiting the woods.”
Stream/Water Crossings
Stream crossing locations are my favorite location for camera placement. One of the best locations I have ever found was a long-standing small old woods trail bridge across a small U.P. trout stream. I was amazed to find out the wide variety of wildlife species using the easier stream crossing rather than wading across the small stream at a different location: mature bucks, bears, wolves, foxes, fisher, bobcats, wild turkeys, grouse, and sandhill cranes.
LaRock agrees, “My favorite place to deploy a camera is over water, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a pond, river or small creek. Every single animal on the face of the planet needs water.” Wildlife Researchers have found wildlife routinely use “travel corridors” along streams and water bodies. Beaver dams can also sometimes serve as a commonly used stream-crossing location for wildlife.
Camera Placement With Bait
If you are using your camera solely to scout for deer pre-season, trails to food sources are always good locations to place a camera. In the parts of the state where baiting is legal, cameras aimed at bait, food plots, or mineral licks will give anyone an idea of what deer are out there. Of course, this method does not always work on the older age bucks that are extremely wary and sometimes only show up on cameras during the rut. Certainly, if you are interested in predators, meat scraps or permitted car-killed deer carcasses are a common method to lure predators and other scavengers into the camera.
Check Your Cameras
Inevitably, a promising-looking, nonbait location may not work out for good wildlife usage. For people placing cameras along trails or other non-food source locations, I highly recommend checking your conventional camera after a week or two. Sometimes, it takes moving around and trying different locations to get the one with more wildlife activity. Of course, if you have the advantage of tracking snow or good tracking conditions on the ground, that can aid your efforts to pick higher wildlife activity locations. However, for much of the year, trial and error is your only option. In Northern Michigan, bears are known to sometimes swat at your camera. If you know bears frequent your camera location or you are baiting bears you should consider using a “security box” to protect it. I always protect my investment of a camera on public access land with a cable lock. The Master Python cable lock works well, securing the camera to a tree.
Don’t Overcheck Cameras
Some old-age bucks and elusive animals are very wary. However, it is often necessary to check a completely new conventional camera location after a couple of weeks to make sure it is productive and unobstructed by new plant growth. Once it is working, don’t overdo your camera checks. It is not uncommon to really get into the anticipation of checking for activity of a large buck or other wary animal. It can be counterproductive to regularly leave your human scent on or near the camera once you know it is working. When I am confident in a new camera location, I often leave a conventional camera for at least a month when attempting to pattern a wary animal. I get really good battery life in my cameras, so I can leave my conventional cameras for several months if necessary. I use a cell camera with an external antenna, external battery and a solar panel to recharge the battery in locations of trophy bucks that are very easily spooked.
More on Camera Placement
Trail camera users need to remember lighting. If your animals follow the common pattern of moving during morning or evening it is best not to point the camera into the sun. I often try to place my camera on the south side of a location point away from the harshest sun locations.
Another lesson to know is your camera’s field of view. If there are considerable ferns or saplings directly in front of the camera, you will either get more photos than you want in ‘false alarm’ (brush movement) photos. I have had over 5,000 photos to review on a camera placed for just two weeks in a new clear-cut trail with numerous aspen saplings moving every time the wind blew. This can be fixed by either setting the camera to delay the shutter for a period of time or turning down the motion sensitivity. Normally I only turn my delay on when my camera is pointed at a good food source and leave it at no shutter delay on a woods trail with occasional wildlife passing. However, the spot I just mentioned with numerous small aspens was an exception to that rule.
In Summary
Placing game cameras out to scout or just to capture photos of wildlife is a very rewarding pastime and can greatly aid your hunting success. Your skill in picking good camera locations will grow with experience. In my case, I look forward to checking my trail cameras after a reasonable period to see what I might find in the photos. Sometimes there are some very nice surprises.
