A few creepy-crawlies

This blog has been overrun by weasels and shrews in recent weeks so invertebrates have barely had a look in.  OtterCam, WaterShrewCam and WeaselCam are quiet at the moment so I have a chance to post a few odds and ends I have come across recently, while looking for something else (usually dragonflies or ladybirds).

The first is a mite, Anystis baccarum, also known as the whirligig mite.  It is a predator of aphids and is available as a biological control for aphid infestations in apple orchards.  This one was munching on an aphid on a gravestone.  The mite is 1.5mm across.

Next a tiny beetle that should be in the list of things that are not ladybirds.  It is Sphaeroderma rubidum, a leaf beetle about 2.5mm long.  It feeds on the leaves of thistles and knapweed.  It overwinters as a larva so this adult won't survive for long.

Another beetle, a Rosemary Beetle, this one about 8mm long.  Although its scientific name is Chrysolina americana it comes for the Mediterranean.  It first arrived in the UK in 1994 and is now widespread.  The larvae feed on rosemary, lavender and thyme.

And a Grey Dagger Moth caterpillar (the head end is to the right).  It overwinters as a pupa so this one won't be a moth until next year.

I have seen a Grey Dagger in my trap before.  While the adult moth is indistinguishable from the Dark Dagger, the caterpillars are similar but not identical.

I expect we'll be back to trail cameras next time.

The weasel leaves a message

It's a smelly old world as far as most mammals are concerned, particularly mustelids.  They use scent to mark territories and to convey and receive information about who's around and what condition they are in.  The weasels that visit the camera box regularly scent-mark with urine and secretions from anal glands but this guy took things a bit further.

SardineCam

A couple of my trail cameras have been on tour - to my friends Gill and Martyn in deepest darkest Hexhamshire.  I took a new camera box for one camera and set up the second with a sardine lure as a new experiment.  Sardines are used by researchers to increase detection of carnivores so I wondered if it would work here.  Hexhamshire is home to polecats (Mustela putorius), one if the UK's most elusive mammals, so one aim was to see if we could catch one on camera.  The more realistic aim was to see what we would find.

The cameras were set for three weeks and at the end of that time both SD cards were full.  The sardine camera had 398 videos and the box camera 498 so I had plenty to look through.  The sardine camera was set up at the edge of woodland with the camera and the sardine can fixed to opposite ends of a piece of wood.  The can was secured with a cable tie.

SardineCam recorded 11 species but only four of those were interested in the sardine lure - the others were just passing by.  The four were badger, wood mouse, magpie and domestic cat.  The badger visited only once but tried hard to get into the can.  The camera gave a great close up of its teeth and claws (with a spider in the top left of the lens).

The magpie visited twice and the first time it managed to peck a few fragments of fish, even though the can was only slightly open (the can is now very visible after badger removed all my camouflage).

The wood mouse visited many times, obviously attracted by the smell but not trying to get at the can.  The cat just sniffed a few times and walked on.

Most of the 398 videos were of American grey squirrels.  Other passers by were blackbird, robin, wood pigeon, pheasant, roe deer, and red fox.

My new camera box was set up at the base of a stone wall.

It had large entrance pipes hoping to entice in slightly larger animals but in the end the only visitors were wood mice, bank voles, common shrews and pygmy shrews.  Here is a brief summary of 498 videos (most of which featured a wood mouse!).

It was very interesting to try out the cameras in a new environment.  The card in the  camera box was full in only nine days so another time I would need a bigger card.  I was hoping we might see a stoat or a weasel and I still have polecat on my wish list.

Close Encounters on WaterShrewCam

The recent changes in the camera box ("weasel box" as was) are intriguing.  The water shrew first turned up on 30th August and it has been here almost every day since.  The last weasel sighting was 10th September and since the weasels stopped coming the common shrews and wood mice have returned.  Until now I have never seen more than one species at a time but this happened twice on one night, a few hours apart.  It is pitch dark of course, and the shrew doesn't have such good eyesight. The second time they must have passed each other in the entrance pipe before the mouse turned round and came back in.

Most days I feed the shrew with casters (blowfly pupae) and she usually takes them away one at a time.  Occasionally she eats in, rather than having a takeaway.  On this night she ate them all in the box, taking each one to the entrance and eating 28 casters in less than 20 minutes (I haven't shown them all), squeaking excitedly all the time.  She certainly looks well fed.

There was a bank vole in the mouse trap in the attic so I put it in under the slate and the shrew took it, like she took the mouse the first time.  She puts a lot of effort into retrieving her prize.

Shrews don't live through a second winter so this one doesn't have long to go.  I am still hoping she might appear on camera with some of her offspring.

Changing times on WeaselCam

There have been significant changes in the weasel camera box in recent weeks.  I wrote previously about the 63 visits in 31 days in July, mostly by two local male weasels with three others that only appeared once.  In August there were 24 visits, but probably a few more as I had a couple of camera issues.  On one occasion weasel 1 (white paws) took a vole but then dropped it when he heard the crows and went to the entrance to check.  Deciding that it was safe he took the vole into the pipe for a good sniff but then came back to check if there was a second vole.  Because there wasn't he picked up the vole and left.  Two hours later weasel 2 (brown paws) came in and could smell the vole but couldn't find it.  Later weasel 1 came back for another check.

Here's the video.

There is also a new weasel, the sixth in six weeks.  Judging by its size it is probably female.  The first time it appeared it could smell that there had been a mouse under the slate and spent over two minutes trying to dig it out before deciding that it wasn't there after all and giving up.

A couple of days later weasel 6 turned up looking rather damp and took a mouse.  It also came back to check it hadn't missed another one.

Next time it showed up just before sunrise so the camera was still in infrared black and white mode.  (The cameras have never seen a weasel at night in over two years and many recordings.)

Then the water shrew appeared on 30th August and has been back almost every day since.  So far in September there have been only five weasel sightings (with none in the last 10 days), so we are down from two a day in July to about one a day in August to less than two a week in September.  I don't know if that is just coincidence or if the weasels might be put off by the shrew.  That seems unlikely - I would have thought a weasel would be a threat to the shrew - although shrews are said to be distasteful to predators and the weasels may know about the water shrew's venomous bite.  As soon as there is more news I'll post it here.

One more observation is that now there are few weasel visits the box is again visited by common shrew(s), wood mice and bank vole(s) again, all in the same night and without food put out for them - the water shrew had eaten all the casters.  Perhaps the weasel smell has worn off so it seems less dangerous.

Alexandrine Parakeet

 

I see a lot of the parakeets.  They visit the feeders outside my kitchen window, several times a day and up to 14 at a time.  This one immediately stood out because of the red feathers on its shoulders, possibly the lesser coverts.  The red feathers are an almost exact colour match for the beak.

This bird stayed for long enough for a few photos but I haven't seen it since.  I assumed it was some sort of variant of Ring-necked or Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) but an internet search led me to the Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria).  This is larger, has maroon patches on its wings and a yellow/orange tip to the beak, so that's what my bird is.  The lack of a neck ring means it is either a female or a first-year male.  There are only a handful of records on iRecord in the UK and none this far north.  This bird was with the other parakeets and I suppose is likely to be an escapee.

The Alexandrine Parakeet is named after Alexander the Great who imported them from India to many European countries.  They were, and are, prized as captive birds but they escape from time to time and there are feral populations in many Middle Eastern countries.  They hang around with Ring-necked Parakeets, as my bird was doing.

News from WaterShrewCam

It is a week since the water shrew turned up in the camera box and took a mouse I had left for the weasels.  The video caused a lot of interest on the Mammal Society Facebook page with speculation that she is still feeding young.  The shrew came back an hour later, and again that night.  The video shows her searching by smell in the dark.

She was back again on the following two mornings so I put out another mouse and she took that on Sunday night.

Since then I have had no more mice so I have been leaving casters (fishermen's casters, blowfly pupae) which I had in the freezer, as you do.  And as fast as I put them out the shrew takes them away.

The shrew comes back twice a minute (I edited out the gaps in the video) so her nest or food cache can't be more than 12s travel time away, so only a few metres.  I set another camera outside to see where she goes but she moves so quickly that it doesn't pick her up.  Water shrews give birth to several litters up until August so I reckon this one will have young close by somewhere.  I'll keep feeding in the hope that the youngsters will turn up on camera as well.

One interesting thing is that there have been only two weasel visits in the week since the shrew first appeared, compared with previously about two a day on average.  I don't know if that is just coincidence or if the weasels would be put off by the shrew.  That seems unlikely - I would have thought the weasel would be a threat to the shrew.