Trail camera captures memorable images of a wolf chasing a deer on Oak Island

Dec. 13—OAK ISLAND, Minn. — The growing popularity of trail cameras has provided glimpses into the natural world that otherwise would go unseen.

Such is the case at Oak Island on Minnesota's Northwest Angle.

Frank Walsh, who owns Walsh's Bay Store Camp on Oak Island of Lake of the Woods with his wife, Laura, has three trail cameras on his property. The other morning, Walsh was scrolling through the card he'd removed from one of his cameras when he came across the image of a deer on a full-speed run through the brush.

According to the time stamp, the deer was caught on camera at 4:30:46 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3.

A mere 25 seconds later, at 4:31:11, the next photo shows a gray wolf in hot pursuit.

How the chase eventually ended is unknown, but Walsh said the two photos tell a story that marks one of the more memorable outdoor encounters he's captured on his trail cameras.

All of this just a short walk from camp.

"I'm virtually sure it was the wolf chasing the deer," Walsh said. "I've never gotten a picture of a deer jumping like that."

Walsh's latest check of that particular trail camera also showed two other striking photos of wolves, both looking directly at the camera. One of the wolves, photographed in the dark, has a black coat. The other photo, of a gray-colored wolf taken in daylight, "was one of the prettiest pictures I've ever gotten," Walsh said.

"There are four pups this year, but I keep seeing — and they're obviously quite big now — but I've been kind of watching them grow all year," he said. "I've got so many of those pictures, I don't even bother with them anymore — there's two, three, four of them caught on the camera. At least four black ones."

Despite the wolf activity, Walsh says he has yet to come across evidence of a kill, whether it's finding a deer carcass while walking or snowmobiling down the trails or seeing crows, ravens or other scavenger birds circling overhead.

He also picks up "lots of does and fawns" on his trail cameras, along with a buck that makes regular appearances and is alive and doing well.

"I just can't believe how they coexist," he said. "I'm sure (the wolves) are eating something."

Or, in the case of the trail camera images, at least attempting to chase down a meal. Every check of the cameras is an adventure, Walsh says.

"It's just amazing how close the encounters are, between the wolves and other critters," Walsh said. "I'm seeing snowshoe hares, a little while later wolves — they seem to be active all day. A lot of times, you'll see pine martens or whatever.

"You just don't know what's coming up. "

Speaking of Lake of the Woods, four of us spent a day on the ice last Sunday, in hopes of repeating the fishing success we've traditionally had up there over the years on "early ice."

We didn't get our wish.

Ice was a bit on the rough side, but nearly a foot thick in the area we fished north of Pine Island. Water clarity also was good, a significant factor any time of year, when it comes to fishing success on Lake of the Woods.

Turbid water almost always means poor fishing on Lake of the Woods, but that definitely wasn't the issue last weekend.

Set up in a rental house over about 23 feet of water, we didn't mark many fish on our electronics, and the walleyes and saugers we caught were mostly small. Using the "head-to-tail-across-the-pail" benchmark for keeping fish, we scratched out a half dozen saugers and two walleyes, the biggest walleye measuring maybe 15 inches — "maybe" being the key word. Other anglers fishing nearby reported similar luck.

A majority of the fish we marked could be coaxed into biting, we just didn't mark many of them.

It wasn't the start to the season we were hoping for, but a good time still was had.

Things can only go up from here. Hopefully.