Bob Asmussen: Animals at Allerton are ready for their close-ups

Jun. 6—Here is a phrase you don't read often: Thanks to the pandemic ...

But I can complete the sentence with a positive spin: Thanks to the pandemic, you know what your favorite Allerton Park owl is having for lunch.

Or ...

Thanks to the pandemic, you can watch a mama deer lead her kids across a stream.

When most everything at Allerton Park and Retreat Center near Monticello was shut down because of COVID-19, natural areas manager Alex Lourash came up with an idea.

If the public couldn't commune with nature, Lourash would bring nature to the public.

"Kind of bringing the park to the people at home," he said.

Since the start of the pandemic, Lourash and the folks at Allerton have been keeping hidden cameras running, capturing some amazing footage in the process.

"I put a short video together, and it kind of snowballed from there," Lourash said. "It got more and more attention and shares and likes."

Last year, the cameras caught a local bobcat on tape. Better at Allerton, where they are used to critters, than, say, in your backyard.

Lourash has been at Allerton since 2016. The videos, which are available on the park's Facebook page (@AllertonPark), aren't live footage. That would be tedious to watch and very low on the excite-o-meter.

Lourash does the hard part. He takes the SD cards out of the cameras and puts them on a computer to view.

"We check them once a week," he said. "We go and swap the cards and put a new card in."

The cards go back to the office, where the footage is uploaded and edited.

"We keep the good stuff," Lourash said. "There might be 200 clips in a week, and we keep 10 to 15."

After a few months, the footage is compiled into three- to five-minute videos.

"Through a night, I could get 100 videos of a raccoon going back and forth, but people don't want to see a five-minute video of a raccoon walking back and forth," Lourash said.

The cameras are activated by movement. Once started, the videos go 20 or 30 seconds.

The animals don't totally ignore the cameras. Woodpeckers check them out. Raccoons like to smell them. So do deer.

What you will see

The videos are from the creek, woodpecker nests, cavities used by groundhogs, etc.

The videos are dispersed to the appropriate Facebook page. One of an owl finding food went on the Allerton Park Bird Club site (@AllertonBird Club).

"It's not gruesome, but it's definitely eye-opening," Lourash said.

Since the start of the videos, Lourash said they have been viewed more than a half-million times. That's good for the park.

"It just gets the community involved," Lourash said. "It gives you an actual understanding of how many actual animals live in Allerton that you don't normally see when you are out walking around.

"I think it's all positive."

Unless you are a squirrel taking a nap losing the right to privacy. They will get over it.

The tools

All the cameras are hidden off the trail for security purposes.

The cameras are the size of two fists. They each cost about $150.

Lourash is open to more video ideas.

"We've been looking hard for a fox den the past couple of years," he said. "River otters. We're always thinking of the next cool thing we can get videos of."