My husband bought a trail camera to monitor the comings and goings of the groundhogs.

Something has chewed on our plastic deck chairs and flowerpots. During the first week of tail camera's use, nothing was spotted on the deck. So, hubby moved the camera out to the yard and pointed it toward the groundhog woodpile. After another week, no groundhogs have been recorded near the woodpile. That's where groundhogs have had an extensive home for over 20 years. The woodpile made them feel safe. However, for some reason, our groundhogs seemed to have now disappeared from our backyard after the tree fell on the woodpile: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/174621892

Earlier this Spring, Maude had even meticulously rearranged things for her new litter. From Mama Mabel on, our groundhogs have all liked to sit on top of the woodpile and sunbathe. That was good for me to be able to watch and photograph them; plus, good for our house since their living in the woodpile kept them a distance away from our house & from underneath our deck. From the time when I first spotted them a few weeks ago, Maude and her newest pups could be seen on the woodpile every day. That was up until a tree had fallen and blocked the main entrance that Maude had created for the family's burrow system. My husband removed the downed tree. The cut-up wood THEN just became more of the woodpile. So, I can't see the fallen tree as a reason for the entire groundhog family group suddenly deserting their home.

So far, the only thing we've captured on the new trail cam has been my husband mowing the lawn and deer. No groundhogs.

Usually, the deer just walk past the camera now in the yard. But on this occasion, a deer turned around after passing the trail cam and went back to it. The deer then proceeded to lick the camera. Finally, it walked off a little distance, but then, went back and licked the camera some more. I was at the far end of our smaller deck away from that area when I noticed the deer.

So far, no one has checked those photos from the trail cam. I bet the lens now needs to be cleaned. It got quite the licking: literally. Since my husband bought the trail camera without any input from me, I don't know how good the camera quality is. Because he has it tied to his cell phone, I have not yet seen any photos from it.

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I felt the above incident was funny.

Maybe the deer thought our neighbors had put out a new device to feed them. Who knows??? For some reason, the neighbor lady hasn't been recently feeding the deer like she had been earlier in the season. But the deer still expect their human handouts. They have been known to approach me in hopes I'd feed them. It's not a good situation when deer become this habituated. My husband thinks the deer went to the trail camera because it had human scent on it, and that is something these deer have learned to associate with getting fed.