burlyman: Here are a few suggestions that may help.
1) Do not face the camera east or west due to the rising and setting sun.
2) Check your batteries even if bought new, with a digital multi meter. With low or faulty batteries, the camera can malfunction. Batteries should work down to 1.0 to 1.2 volt. Full charge is 1.5 to 1.60 depending on a high quality or rechargeable battery. Rechargeable "C" Pure Energy batteries are available at some Wal Mart stores at 1.5 volt.
3) Auto-flash is based on the surrounding light conditions. At dawn and dusk the camera may cause a false reaction.
4) Try setting your capture mode manually to "1". This is for low light conditions. The camera is suppose to select this on its own. These cameras go into a sleep mode to save battery power when not activated by animal movement.
I brought up the manual for this camera on wildviewcam.com. Here it lists the following: Picture Quality Switch, Camera Sensor Switch and Flash Control Switch. If there are different settings for each switch, try a different setting. Do only one at a time and test the camera. If no change reset to the original setting, then try another setting or switch.
As grass and vegetation gets taller and leafs out, this will cause white flash as it reflects back at night.
I have several of the Wild View EZ Cam. They will except the following SD cards: 512MB, 1GB Lexar and 1GB Sandisk and 2GB Lexar. If your cards have never been used in another camera (right out of the package), then they are okay. If you have used them in another camera, save your pictures, then format the SD card in your computer. Some brands of SD cards can either cause problems or not work. Hope this helps.