This past Christmas, Santa brought a wildlife camera to Casa de Shafer. We recently had reason to mount it on the front porch (you’ll soon see why) and we inadvertently captured everything that went by our house over an 18 hour period, providing a nice peek into a slice of the middle of this country.
For reference, my house is on a cul-de-sac off the end of a dead-end road. In other words, you have to be going here to get here and there is no through traffic.
Overall the critter cam has worked out great, as we’ve been able to get better looks at the deer, fox, raccoons, and other wildlife that frequent our property. With the abundant deer, my fruit trees are popular and I’ve slipped and nearly fallen from the remnants the deer leave behind.
It also reveals how many times per day our neighbor with the Fusion is going places.
He’s competing with this Ford Expedition that made ten passes during that same period.
White Fords are surprisingly popular here as two adjacent houses have identical F-150s, this being one of them.
Of those two houses, both have second pickup; one has recently added a current generation F-150 and the other has a late model F-250. Both are white, of course.
White is not my preferred color and it sometimes does no favors to the lines and shape of a vehicle (although they all have their bad color). One also could easily argue no color would help the aerodynamic boxiness of a mail rig.
And what a marked car belonging to the Missouri State Highway Patrol is doing here perplexes me. Nobody up the street (there are about ten house above me and you’ve probably deduced they are all uphill) is a trooper.
The Patrol buys its cars and SUVs in a variety of colors, so white isn’t a universal theme.
There is a white van sitting in our driveway but being the nonconformist, I enjoy red. Don’t look at the timestamp as you’ll know I slipped out of work early that day.
Somebody else also has an affinity for red. Yes, pickups are that common as most people here have at least one. This snapshot in time has captured more pickups than anything else.
Crew-cab pickups are likely the most versatile vehicle currently available.
As an aside, being toward the bottom of a hill (it’s about an 8% grade) really allows a person to get a head of steam built up on the way down. Rainstorms will produce whitecaps in the street which is always fun to watch. I also get whitecaps in the backyard just in front of where that buck is standing several pictures up.
By now some people in other locales are likely scratching their heads over all the privately owned light trucks but that descriptor doesn’t fit all of them. This Ford F-350 is commercially owned and has certainly been earning its keep.
This Chevrolet Silverado belongs to a contractor doing some remodeling next door.
Even this Chevrolet Suburban is being used in commercial yet discreet ways. It belongs to a mortician and it has hauled what you are thinking. He also has a black Chrysler minivan.
You may have also deduced nearly everything seen so far is from an American based manufacturer. True that. But there are some infrequent examples of other makes, vehicles that weren’t as well captured.
The house having the two white F-150s also has a car. It’s this BMW convertible – white, of course.
The young gentleman who drives this Subaru works at the local Ace Hardware and we chat regularly. It must be impossible to find a muffler for this Subaru because that thing makes the god-awfullest “blahhhh” noise as it downshifts to go up the hill. It could wake the dead and is much louder than the souped up Dodge diesel being used by a lawn mowing service in the summer.
A Honda CrossTour (or something like that) is an infrequently seen bird. I do rather like it in a functional and unique way. This and a Honda Odyssey were the only Hondas captured.
A Nissan Armada. Until now, I had not realized how many white vehicles permeate my neighborhood.
This Toyota Sequoia and my next-door neighbor’s infrequently driven Toyota Tacoma are it for Toyotas in my neighborhood. It’s interesting how both are light trucks, but that seems to go along with the general theme.
Passenger cars are simply dwindling in numbers.
Being middle America, there is always going to be the obligatory Impala, the car I’ve been calling the Camry of the Midwest.
Long ago, editor Jim Klein and I had a long conversation on the automotive landscape and how that look changes as one visits various parts of the United States and Canada. Admittedly, showing what goes by my front door is a microcosm within a microcosm.
As you can tell from these pictures, Ford and GM are king.
There are a lot of people I know who will drive nothing but a GM product. Ford might be a reluctant second choice for these people but the certainty is nothing else is ever a consideration. On the flip side, there are those in which only a Ford product is considered for purchase. That mindset is still very much alive although this might easily be a regional thing.
Much discussion has been made on these pages about people walking away from various American automobile companies and from my vantage point it’s obvious their market share has declined but much less than it has elsewhere.
It’s rather like the law of averages where there is always the high that offsets the low.
But trying to put a different spin on the overall picture wasn’t the intent of my placing a game camera by the front door. I was on a mission and getting all these finds was simply a bonus. You can see the the stupid fuzzy head of my target in this picture.
I needed to confirm how many groundhogs were present; they will be eliminated one way or another. However, I do give this disgusting rodent some credit. Only for a Dodge Ram pickup did he stick his ugly head out.
I noticed about 2-3 years ago, that car manufacturers not only have black and dark charcoal as color choices, many have 2 and even 3 shades of grey. The latest trend(?) is 2 shades of white. One is “appliance” white, while the other is an extra cost pearl white….though the car manufacturers don’t call the expensive white, white, naming it Blizzard Snow or Morning Drift, some expensive/exotic sounding name.
Interesting, your neighborhood would be very different than mine in what goes by. We frequently have a firetruck go by in the morning, and the invariable comment is “Well, either Ralph’s late for work or somebody woke up dead today. I hope Ralph is late for work.”
I don’t envy your critter problem. We are wondering what is going to live under our deck this year. Last year was three raccoons. I managed to trap & relocate one, then I got a skunk in the trap and gave up.
The Department of Conservation recommends killing such groundhogs. However, both suggested methods (shooting and carbon monoxide) have pitfalls. If I shoot it, I’m shooting at the house. If I gas it, it’s next to the foundation and I’m not running that risk. I may just flood the area and keep my fingers crossed.
The advice I was given about trapping a skunk is to leave it in the cage and simply move to a new house as it’s easier that way.
I never sweated so much in my life letting that thing out of the trap. I had to work quickly because I knew any minute my neighbor would let their dog out for morning pee, and once it saw me and the skunk it would go nuts..
We caught a big rat in a possum trap once. Our old Cairn terrier soon showed what he was bred for – ran into the cage and snapped its neck as soon as we opened the door.
That would be stressful. I got a raccoon in a live trap and he was not happy to see me or the rain. Fun times.
Trying to livetrap a groundhog many years ago, I caught the same racoon twice in 3 days! Didn’t see it a 3rd time, so apparently they learn eventually.
The long-term solution to the groundhog problem was better fencing under the porch and the neighbor clearing the brush out of his unintentional wildlife preserve backyard.
When my boys were younger, they set out a live trap to catch a possum, then promptly forgot about the trap. I found it, several months later. It contained what appeared to be a toupeé with legs.
I made the boys clean it out.
One of the nice things about living in farm country is that unwanted critters can be ‘lead poisened’ easily (22 longs work well, although I found a 12ga works faster on skunks – they don’t have time to activate their defenses).
If I set up a street cam, I’d get a ton of farm pickups, grain trucks and numerous 3.8-powered Buicks. But I’d also get a few interesting things, like the Panther-based limo one of our neighbors bought used instead of a 15-passenger van, said it gets better mileage.
Having formerly been in the landscape business, I serviced numerous properties on cul de sacs. The thing that boggled my mind was how much traffic many of those streets have. Just amazing, sometimes.
Correction, that “Subaru” is actually a first generation Mitsubishi Outlander/Airtrek.
I agree that it is Mitshibishi.
Fun re-purposing of your outdoor photos, Jason–I enjoyed this.
Here in upper Midwest, close to same domestic/foreign balance overall, I’d say. My (college) town doesn’t have quite so high a percentage of pickups as on your street, but my state overall surely does.
Thanks for a little slice of your life today!
“Don’t drive angry.”
Bing!
So was it 4 or 6 more weeks of winter at your house? 🙂
I am in a larger city (and quite a bit farther east). There are fewer pickups here (but the numbers are still quite significant) and more Japanese and Korean cars. Wait, not cars, SUVs and CUVs. Still a reasonable number of minivans here too.
My last nasty infestation was moles. Perhaps they ate all of the grubs here because they were absent last year.
A very different showing than would pass by our house in California. Though pickups are very common here, most non-working (and many working) trucks would be Tacomas or Tundras. Our neighbor has a mechanically homogeneous fleet … all diesel, but diverse brands: BMW, VW and Ford Excursion. We also have three Audis, two at one Home, and including the diesel, about five VW’s (one air cooled) and five CRV’s on the block. Only domestic passenger car is an Escort wagon. We also have coyotes and the occasional deer, but if people have cameras, it’s for security: car break-ins and porch thefts (packages, furniture, even plants) are epidemic here.
Very interesting and an excellent insight into the regional purchase pattern of your area. A lifelong Californian that doesn’t travel much likely has no idea as we discussed some time ago. (and vice-versa of coourse.)
Good luck with the groundhogs, this battle is now into its second year if I am not mistaken. We had an issue with voles (not moles, but voles, similar but different). Voles eat plants and grass from the roots up, so all of a sudden your vegetation is still standing but dead and just comes up in your hands when you touch it. And leaves dead “tracks” all over the lawn that show you where they go/went. Very aggravating. The solution was something called Uncle Ian’s Mole, gopher, deer, rabbit and squirrel repellent. It’s some kind of mixture of dried blood and cayenne pepper. You sprinkle it all over the tracks and anywhere else where you see they have been or you can mix it into soil in a planter if that’s the issue. It actually worked! They make different formulations for different animals. Do not apply it on a windy day, ask me how I know. And If you happen to be a vampire it might be good on tacos as well.
Yes, it’s Year Two on the groundhogs. I’m going to use different methods this year.
I’m located in the east end of the Greater Toronto area. Even years after the massive cuts , GM still dominates. From where I sit I can spy two Silverados one Sierra . A perpetually dirty Traverse just drove by.
This morning I was lined up at the Costco Gas bar. Gas is hovering around $1.25 a litre. Rough math coverts that to $4.73 (CDN) plus exchange = $3.37 (USD). for a U.S Gallon. I figure over 50% of the folks lined up were driving F 150’s , Silverado/ Sierras, and Rams. I’m not sure how that price compares to the U.S ? I do know that where I live Trucks of every configuration one can imagine rule.
$2.19 at my Costco in Northern Colorado for regular. It’s been that for about a week now. Plenty of trucks here as well and every SUV/CUV you can name.
FWIW Chicago is at about 3.79 for premium. Full size trucks aren’t the norm here due to narrow side streets and parking, but among newer cars mid-size crossovers rule.
Two years ago we were over run with Rabbits. A couple of Coyote families took up residence in the bush land across the street.
Rabbit population has been reduced significantly .
The arrival of coyotes in my area did the same thing to the large feral cat population. They disappeared one way or another.
Our biggest varmint problem in our neck of the woods is moles. If only the red-tailed hawks carried small shovels. As for mechanized wildlife, we see, on a daily basis, most everything that Jason posted in his piece – in all of those same exciting colors. There are a few unusual exceptions, though – there is a Viper up the road from us, there is a C7 Corvette down the road from us. A close neighbor has a restomod ’69 Camaro, and another has a very nice Acura NSX. The balance of what we see is divided between kids in bro-dozers, kids in fart-can Civics, etc., and pizza delivery vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
In my Mid-Michigan neighborhood there are a lot fewer full sized trucks, but the domestic/import split & color palette are pretty similar.
I say upfront I have no scientific belief one way or the other, but an Aunt of mine swore by vinegar. She said anything that dug holes in her property had a jug of vinegar poured down the hole and didn’t come back.
It may be an old wives (aunts) tale, but she was a sharp old Scot and proud of her yard so who knows?
Ammonia hasn’t worked so far, but I’ll happily try vinegar. I’m also thinking flowable fill under my porch.
Found a pic of Jason dealing with his varmint problem.
Wow, that’s a lot of pickups. But even here in San Diego I think pickups are still gaining ground over the last few years, taking the place of larger SUVs and BoF Explorers. I think I’d get different results if I did this https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/qotd/qotd-what-sort-of-cars-are-most-popular-in-your-neighborhood/ again (but it looks like Missouri would beat TX in the pickup Department!)
I love that last picture! I love animals, but I can completely relate to fighting varmits. I catch 25-30 rats a year around my house, and I also fight moles on occasion. We have coyotes, opossums, and raccoons too but they usually don’t cause a problem (and I’m in a major city suburb 1.5 miles from Microsoft HQ).
Back when I used to have bird seed feeders (which I had to get rid of, because of the rats, except for suet & nectar feeders), I also had a squirrel problem. I live-trapped squirrels, but often would end up forgetting to close the trap before nighttime, and would end up with a live rat in the morning (trap + rat went into a 35 gallon garbage can full of water for at least 5 minutes).
Getting to the related story – when I was live-trapping, my peanuts would disappear out of the trap. I couldn’t figure out what was taking them, so I set up a VHS videocamera inside the house, pointing down at the trap and set to record for 6 hours. After a few days’ worth of recording, and several hours’ worth of scanning the video, I found a few frames showing the culprit – it was a horizontal streak in and then out of the trap.
A sparrow, I think (hard to tell, as it was just a blur on the video), that flew in and out through the 1″ x 1″ square openings on the side of the trap, and carrying the in-shell peanuts on the way out! Amazing what animals can do. How can a bird tuck its wings just for an instant, just at the right time, to fly through an opening that small, while carrying a peanut?
Right now, I’m fighting a super-smart and super-fat squirrel, who somehow manages to jump to and hang onto my suet feeder from a point unknown. I put up a large piece of plexiglass on the side of the house so he can’t climb up and jump from there. I need to get one of those cameras to catch him in the act.
Thanks for sharing!
Critter Cam is my jam – what a great assortment!
That was interesting, but please level your camera.
The camera was near level. As you should have read, my street is approaching an 8% grade.
Jason, Take a look at the house across the street in your shots. Does it look even remotely level? Or are the houses down your way built without levels and plumb lines? 🙂
Here, I fixed it for you. Now the house is level. And the street is closer to 8% grade. It was more like 15% in your shots.
I thought maybe you had it set up on purpose like that…although I did wonder why.
Interesting to see to the variety, and lack of range of brands.
Our cul-de-sac is flatter and shorter, the postman comes in a red van and there are no ground hogs.
But still, there were 5 Mazda MX-5 Miatas in 18 houses for quite a few years.