At about 11 a.m. and  11 p.m. on the 4th of May 2011 I recorded a White-tailed Deer sniffing and checking out my recorder at the North Woods, near my home.  The location is along a stream in a small valley, about a mile long, that feeds into the lake I live on. The nice thing about the location is that there are no roads or people close by, very quiet. Now when I place out remote recorders they are usually an object of interest by the forest critters. Most of the time I assume it is raccoons, possums or even field mice.

It had a long approach getting to the recorder and leaving. The best way to listen to this sound is with headphones and the volume turned up. Although the subject was very close to the microphone, the noises it made were very subtle.

To listen click here:  The Sniffer Pt. 2 – 11 a.m. and here  The Sniffer Pt. 2 – 11 p.m.

Location of the recorder placed underneath a log. As the small recorder was not visible to any casual passer-by my hunch is that it was detected by the animal having smelled it. None of the leaves appeared to have been moved so I would think that what ever was inspecting the recorder was careful not to touch either the recorder or the leaves that were covering it.

Compare this recording to the recording of the 30th of March 2011, The Sniffer, recorded at a different location here in Central Illinois.