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BLACK BEARS, COYOTES, AND MORE! OUR 2nd ANNUAL TRAIL CAM SPECIAL

#39: 22-31 May 2026

"This Week At Hilton Pond North" is an on-going series of original photo essays—posted more or less weekly—about natural history happenings here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of upper Ashe County, North Carolina. If you want a free e-mail reminder about each new installment, click here to SUBSCRIBE.

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Random observations about Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

● Banded in 2026: 37 species, 1,514 individuals

● All-time (2024-present) banding totals: 72 species, 4,692 individuals

● All-time (2024-present) "Yard List": 93 species

● Local breeding species (based on nests found, banded females with brood patches, or recent fledglings seen or banded): 20

Apple Podcast #39

Sometimes things other than birds get caught in our mist nets at Hilton Pond North. This week it was an insect we might never have encountered otherwise: A Southern Pygmy Clubtail, Lanthus vernalis (above), among North America's smaller dragonflies at less than 1.5" long with a 2" wingspan. It's one of just two members of an ancient genus dating back roughly 175 million years and is an Appalachian endemic found only in our eastern mountains from North Georgia to Maine. This dragonfly is an obligate resident of pristine, cold, spring-fed brooks and seepage streams. As such, Southern Pygmy Clubtail is an important indicator of water-quality; larvae are intolerant of sediment and may spend 3-5 years in a pristine stream bed before emerging.

Adults are on the wing late May through early July; males establish territories in the surrounding forest canopy rather than directly over water, making them difficult to detect despite any local abundance. Southern Pygmy Clubtail (like other dragonflies) forms a basket with six legs to capture flying prey: In this species it's mosquitoes, gnats, mayflies, and other tiny insects it often consumes before settling on an established perch. (NOTE: This is the third dragonfly species documented for our research site in upper Ashe County NC; it's in the Gomphidae. See Dragonfly Inventory.)

The Wood Thrush (WOTH, above) is among the most distinctive songsters of eastern North American forests, its flute-like ee-oh-lay phrases echoing through the understory. A bird of mature deciduous and mixed forest, it favors moist woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, deep leaf litter with invertebrate prey, and a closed canopy—which nicely describes Hilton Pond North. WOTH arrive here in late April or early May, having come from southern Mexico and Central America where deforestation has contributed to a population decline more than 60% since the 1960s. On their breeding grounds males are site-faithful, returning annually to the same woodlot where females construct a neat cup nest of leaves, grass, and mud in the fork of a sapling or shrub up about 4-10'. At our 3,000' site Wood Thrushes are near the upper breeding range elevation in the Appalachians; Veery and Swainson's Thrush tend to dominate at elevations higher than us.

Recent geolocator studies show that WOTH make a two-stage migration strategy southbound, taking an extended "fatten-up stopover" of several weeks along the Gulf Coast or eastern seaboard before crossing or skirting the Gulf of Mexico. This is essentially a two-phase migration rather than a single continuous push. Interestingly, individual birds return to the same midway patch in successive autumns, meaning that for a Wood Thrush, "home" is not just two places—breeding territory and non-breeding range—but three. Thus, loss of largely overlooked stopover habitat complicates international attempts to conserve habitat for the entire Wood Thrush population.

The next evening that bear (or another) played havoc with a big platform feeder often featured on Hilton Pond North's Nature Cam livestream (see link below). Although we bring in our seed and sugar water feeders at night, this one is too big to move. The large metal baffle meant nothing to a hungry bear that apparently tried to pull down or climb aboard the platform. Fortunately the contraption wasn't completely destroyed—it's amazing just how strong bears really are—so we got some heavier brackets and were able to make a full repair. We also bought a plastic tray that exactly fits the platform. Now we can fill the tray with seeds and bring it in at night along with all the other feeders. It's an on-going effort trying to live harmoniously with nature in the Blue Ridge, remembering always the bears were here first! (NOTE: There has been much more bear activity this spring than we observed during our first two years. Thus, we'll make these big furry creatures the main topic of a future photo essay.)

It's been a year since Hilton Pond North's inaugural edition of our wildly popular Trail Cam Nature Movie Extravaganza, so with the arrival of "bear season" here in upper Ashe County this seems like an appropriate time to crank up the ol' popcorn machine and share some more video footage. (You'll need to click on arrows for each snippet below to see the action, including the one above.)

American Black Bears have indeed been active locally in April and May, leaving their sign along the trails and occasionally popping into view or at least appearing in trail cam footage. Such was the case on 23 May when—in broad daylight—the one above visited the garden and bird banding area adjoining our comfy mountain cabin. We spotted it raiding a hanging suet feeder and shot a short video with our iPhone 16 Pro before spooking it into surrounding forest.

Wild Turkeys have also been highly active this spring at Hilton Pond North, with mature toms gobbling loudly from the hollers and mixed flocks of hens and young males wandering the woods. Mating must have been successful for at least some, documented by a trail cam video of a mama turkey parading up our long winding driveway with a half dozen or so recently hatched poults. One of the youngsters (below) got separated from the family unit—but not for long!

And speaking of Wild Turkeys, above is trail cam footage of an interesting encounter between a big tom and an inquisitive but cautious White-tailed Deer. The bird, undoubtedly pumped up by spring hormones, wasn't about to give way on his path at what we call Chestnut Oak Rendezvous, a flat area near the geographic center of Hilton Pond North's 35+ acres. (The spot is an old logging deck where cut timber was stacked before being carted away at least a half-century ago.) We wonder if this was the deer's first close encounter with a demonstrative fan-tailed turkey.

The trail cam at the logging deck is particularly productive, perhaps because it's at a crossroads for several paths and deer trails used by all sorts of wildlife. Judging from footage of this White-tailed Deer fawn (above), it's also a REproductive location! The wobbly-legged but energetic fawn appeared to be on one of its very first explorations through the woodlands of Hilton Pond North. Such behavior seems risky for a defenseless youngster when potential predators might lurk nearby, but the mama deer kept a close eye on her offspring and would be certain to "whuff" and rein it in if the fawn got too rambunctious.

There's no doubt predators are a constant danger for White-tailed Deer fawns at Hilton Pond North; in fact, we host a "deer predation trifecta" in the form of American Black Bears, Coyotes, and Bobcats—all of which have been detected locally by our trail cams. Bears, with their extraordinary sense of smell, are able to find even "odorless" newborn fawns hiding in grass; in fact, in some parts of the southern Appalachians bears have been documented as the leading cause of young fawn mortality—possibly as high as 50%! Coyotes are likely to take older, more mobile fawns, seeing them with keen vision or detecting their odor and chasing them down as they wander with older deer. By comparison, Bobcats are ambush specialists that wait for an unsuspecting fawn to happen by before pouncing. The trail video above of a droop-tailed Coyote following a scent trail was time-stamped 1:15 a.m. on 19 May—just 90 minutes (video below) after a white-tail and her fawn had passed through at 11:43 p.m. (NOTE: In the Coyote snippet that's a cow bellowing loudly from a neighboring pasture.)

Our trail cams at Hilton Pond North typically capture wild mammals from little Eastern Chipmunks to Coyotes and those big lunker bears, with the vast majority of footage depicting deer of all ages. Even so, hopping frogs occasionally trigger the camera, with innumerable false alarms set off by trees swaying in the wind. As noted by the previous video of a hen turkey and her poults, the cams sometimes reveal other bird activity—shown by our final two offerings below.

When realtor-friend Scott Cronk brought us back in November 2023 to investigate what has become Hilton Pond North, one of the first bird sounds we heard came from a Common Raven soaring overhead. We were delighted by this because ravens, for us, symbolize the kind of wild places where we'd like to live. Since moving to this mountain locale we've been treated almost daily to ear-pleasing nasal "gronk" calls of ravens we suspect are nesting somewhere on the property's highest points. Sometimes we are even rewarded by trail cam captures of these fascinating corvids, as shown above.

Two ravens—undoubtedly a mated pair—appeared on a fallen log at the edge of the pond; there they demonstrated bill-wiping behavior and revealed the prominent throat ruff that helps distinguish them from Common Crows. Previous footage showed ravens dropping to the edge of the pond to drink but in this snippet the two birds took off down the watershed, flying over a four-foot-wide bench that gave scale to their same-sized wingspan. Now that's a big songbird!

And that brings us to the final featured footage: A Red-tailed Hawk whose wingspan is just a few inches greater than that of the raven. This impressive raptor with its distinctive "belly band" of dark feathers occupied the same raven perch, apparently surveying the pond margin for potential prey. There isn't a lot of action in the video as the hawk cranes its neck, but it is still fascinating to watch.

So that wraps up our Second Annual Trail Cam Nature Movie Extravaganza for 2026. We hope you enjoyed the show and that it gives you a broader understanding of nature that surrounds us night and day here at Hilton Pond North in the Blue Ridge mountains of upper Ashe County NC.