Sunday, August 7, 2011

Texas Heat Fries Game Cameras



The last week has been straight 100 degree plus temperatures with no cloud cover and no rain in sight. My brother and I have kept game cameras going at the feeders to see how the wildlife are handling the drought and heat. We usually have several hundred game camera pictures to sort through with three cameras deployed around the place. This trip my Bushnell Trophy Camera and my Tasco 5mp camera had no pictures. They simply just had not functioned in the extreme heat. My brother's Primos however kept on taking pictures but did so with large gaps of skipped time. It took one picture where dog food Mike puts out for the grey foxes and other predators was still on the ground and the next picture taken a day later was all gone and nothing had set the camera off. We were having a hard time figuring out what was wrong until we noticed the temperature readings that the primos takes and prints on the bottom of each picture. The temperature in the camera box reached a high of 147 degrees Fahrenheit. The camera box is on a stump in a bare caliche flat with no shade right out in the direct sun most of the day. My Bushnell and Tasco were on oak trees with shade so the Primos has performed the best for us but still had problems. We plan to build a shade to put around the Primos for the future. As you can see the cameras are having a hard time performing at all in this heat. Stay cool, Wild Ed