A BIG surprise on OtterCam

It's only a glimpse but is on two cameras and well worth a look.  The dog otter went past with a huge eel, almost as long as himself.  What a pity he didn't stay to eat it in front of the cameras.  I have slowed both down to quarter speed to make it easier to see the action.

Basil Dean, an Environment Agency specialist in river restoration and currently seconded as a Development Manager to the Ouseburn Way project, says he has long suspected that there are large eels in the lake as the habitat is perfect for them, so it is good to have proof.  My cameras have previously recorded otters with fish, a rat, moorhens, ducks, frogs and now an eel.  As long as it is meaty, if they can catch it they'll eat it.

Eels are a favourite food of otters but I expect most of those they catch are smaller than this.  I can't imagine that he could eat it all in one go and I suspect he didn't need to go fishing for another night or two.  The European eel population has declined by 98% over the past 40 years and the species is now on the IUCN Red List.  And it's not because otters are eating them all - the principle causes include pollution, loss of habitat, climate change and physical barriers to migration, so it is good to know that this is somewhere they can thrive (if they stay out of the reach of the otters).

In other news, as they say.  The otter cubs are still with their mother, or at least two of them are. The last time the cameras saw all three plus mother was 10th April but I can't tell if the two are always the same two.  The cub with a bad leg is still there and is almost back to normal.  The cubs are now 10 months old and are likely to disperse soon, perhaps this month.  I think all three are still around because I am often seeing a solo otter (not the dog) and quite often it is whistling a contact call.  It could be that one (or more) is already semi-independent but still in the territory. Here are all four in April - the middle cub is the one with the limp but you can see it doesn't look too bad.

And here is the latest play fight.  When it involved three cubs the mother always joined in but this time she just let them get on with it.  It's a bit disjointed as a lot of the action was off camera and it was a misty night with some of the cameras a bit steamed up but it looks like fun.

The previous three litters all left at about 10 months of age and each time it seemed that the mother initiated it by courting the dog otter.  From the timing of things I suspect that the present female has been the mother of the last four litters but I can't be sure.  Female otters generally only live long enough to have two or three litters so, if I am right, it may be that this female won't breed again.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks.  More news soon.

Feeding the birds

I expect you have seen the latest recommendations from the BTO on feeding garden birds.  The new guidance is to stop feeding seeds and peanuts from today to the end of October in the hope of reducing transmission of trichomonosis which has caused declines in populations of chaffinches and greenfinches.

The problem is widespread but seems a bit less up here compared with farther south.  This graph from the BTO Garden BirdWatch shows the reporting rate for greenfinches in the North East.

Compare that with the South East.

These are similar data for chaffinches.

I don't remember ever seeing a finch on the peanut feeder so I think I'll continue with peanuts until they are all used up and see what happens.  That will be a relief to the woodpeckers who will be here with their fledglings in June.

I reckon I only see about one sick finch a year here.  One effect of stopping feeding is that all the finches will disappear so recording of both healthy and sick finches will presumably plummet but I expect the BTO experts have thought about that.  I'll be disappointed not to see the birds but I guess it is all for the greater good.

At the moment I still have lots of siskins, redpolls, bullfinches, greenfinches and chaffinches outside the kitchen window.  They are going to be very disappointed.

My prize visitor, a brambling, was only here for a week before setting off home to Scandinavia about three weeks ago.

Assuming most people comply with the advice it's going to be interesting to see what happens, both here and nationally.  I expect I'll be getting complaints from the local clean-up squad as well.

The fastest creature on Earth

These aren't the best photos I have taken but they were some of the most exciting and most challenging.  I went to RSPB Bempton Cliffs on Tuesday, mainly to look at the gannets (more on those another time).  As I was starting to walk out to leave a Peregrine Falcon appeared.  Seeing it in real life was astonishing.  It appears from nowhere, very high and moving fast.  Several times it moved into a stoop by folding its wings and within seconds it was half mile away.  I was trying to take some photos but it was really hard even to find the bird through the viewfinder and then hard for the focus to lock on.  At one point it flew past at eye level only about 20 metres from the cliff edge but it was probably travelling at well over 100 miles an hour and was gone in a flash.  The best of the photos is above.  These next few show the peregrine pulling its wings in as it accelerates into a dive.

This is an uncropped view of the peregrine through the super telephoto lens, disappearing rapidly in the distance.

I didn't see it catch anything.  There were thousands of birds in the air but I think it was hunting pigeons - there were plenty around.  When I was closer to them several times they all took off and flew around in a tight group so I suspect they had seen a peregrine, although I hadn't at that stage.

I watched the peregrine on and off for about 20 minutes.  It was a thrilling experience and amazing to see how fast it moves over huge distances in real life.

A couple of weeks ago I watched a wonderful film The Birds by Martin Dohrn.  He is an expert wildlife cameraman yet even he was having trouble following a peregrine as it was hunting over The Wash.  You probably saw the film as well but if not it is available on the BBC iPlayer here. Next time I go to Bempton Cliffs I shall be forewarned and I'll try to do better with the photos.

Charting the decline of sparrows and starlings

There have been many changes in the wildlife in my garden over the years, perhaps the most dramatic being the recent disappearance of tree sparrows and starlings.  I have been submitting data to the BTO Garden Birdwatch since it started in 1995 and data from my garden are available online from 2003.  I was keen on graphs when I was at work, often using them to investigate changes over time.  So here's a graph.  It shows the number of weeks per year that I recorded a starling or a tree sparrow in 2003-2025.

Starlings were regular residents in the garden from when I moved here 37 years ago.  They nested in tree holes each year, disappearing after the chicks fledged and returning six months later. There were no nests in 2024 or 2025 and I haven't seen a starling here this year.

Tree sparrow was a very rare bird here until 2012.  Although I counted the nests in nest boxes they also nested in tree holes so I don't think the nest box numbers are all that useful but there were nine in 2016, only one in 2023 and none in 2024 or 2025.  You'll see from the graph they were here all the time for a few years and records fell precipitously since 2019.  I have only seen one once this year.

Both starlings and tree sparrows are in decline nationally and both are red-listed on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern although the national picture isn't quite as dramatic as the changes here.  The UK breeding population of starlings fell by 57% from 1995 to 2023.  During the same period the tree sparrow breeding population increased by 39% but that was after a catastrophic decline from the 1970s - numbers now are still only 5% of what they were.  I found couple of graphs on the BTO website that sort of mirror my experience but use different data on a different timescale.  This is their starling graph.

And their tree sparrows.

There have been two other major developments in the garden in recent years which may be related to these changes.  The first was the arrival of ring-necked parakeets that have been here every day since late 2022.  They are tree hole nesters and could potentially compete with starlings for nest holes but they don't nest in the garden and wouldn't fit through a nest box hole. Here's another version of my graph.

The second change, which is probably more relevant, has been a change in the status of American grey squirrels.  The first grey squirrel was seen here in 2005 and the last native red squirrel in 2016.  For 18 years I was part of a team exercising grey squirrel control locally in the hope that the red squirrels could be preserved.  However, the grey tide was unstoppable and I eventually gave up in early 2023 after everyone else had already done so.  Grey squirrels have been here every day since.  They also nest in tree holes and the nearest to the house is in what used to be a starling nest.  I suspect the starlings and sparrows may have seen the resident squirrels and decided otherwise go elsewhere.  On this version of the graph the grey box shows when grey squirrels were resident (and not persecuted).

The grey squirrels have a lot to answer for but there isn't much I can do about them.  After last week's post I haven't seen the stoat again and I think it may also have been put off by the squirrels.  Of course both the parakeets and the squirrels, or neither, might be involved.  It would be nice to think I might see starlings and tree sparrows nesting here one day.  Here's hoping.

Conflict on StoatCam

The stoat has been having a bit of bother with the neighbours recently.  A few weeks ago I posted a video of the stoat chasing a squirrel but sometimes it is the other way round.  A male stoat could kill an adult squirrel but a stoat of either sex is more of a threat to the squirrel's young.  Squirrels are nesting in the trees in the garden and I hope the stoat will nest in the wall so there is a very uneasy relationship at the moment.

I made a short video of some of the action on the trail cameras.  A lot is off camera and the views were a bit distant so the images are cropped with some loss of quality but you get the idea.

The stoat (I am assuming it is always the same one) shows up on the cameras regularly and I have had two very close sightings in the past week.  The first was through the window for a few seconds from about a metre away when it climbed up through a hedge.  The second about 10m from the front door was bit longer as it probably felt safer at that distance.  It seems to cope with me being around but I just hope the conflict with the squirrels doesn't put it off.  Here's brief video of the stoat with what looks like a field vole.

Weasels are still around in the garden but they are too small and too sensible to get involved with the squirrels.  Most times I see them dashing through the camera box but this one came out to play on the wall while the stoat and the squirrels weren't looking.

A new ladybird hotspot

In the last three years that I have been looking for ladybirds I have learnt that the best places to find them are on gravestones in winter and in small Scots pine trees in the rest of the year. Some ladybirds are generalists - found in many different habitats - but others are conifer specialists and Scots pine seems to be most favoured.  I have often noticed a group of small self-seeded pines close to the A189 north of Cramlington as I have driven past and I eventually got round to visiting them a few days ago.  It's a pretty unprepossessing spot inside a large traffic interchange and apart from the pines it mostly scrub and litter.  But the trees are what attract the ladybirds and they don't mind the surroundings.  This is the habitat,

and this is an aerial view.

It was immediately apparent that there were ladybirds everywhere.  Every branch of every tree seemed to have a 7-spot Ladybird and there were Pine Ladybirds on almost every tree. Altogether I found 10 species in a place with no previous records (because no-one had looked). There were lots of great pine aphids as well which is presumably why the ladybirds were there. 

The species I found were:

Pine Ladybird.  Despite the name it is found in many habitats.

Adonis Ladybird.  Another one that seems to turn up anywhere.

Larch Ladybird.  Mostly a conifer specialist.

2-spot Ladybird.  A generalist.

10-spot Ladybird.  Often in deciduous trees but can turn up anywhere.  I found two colour forms - decempunctata and decempustulata.

7-spot Ladybird.  The most ubiquitous ladybird and very abundant everywhere at the moment.

Harlequin Ladybird.  Also common and widespread but I found only two.

Eyed Ladybird.  Our largest species and another conifer specialist.  A real beauty.

Striped Ladybird.  Perhaps the prettiest of all and mostly found in or close to Scots pine. Usually hard to find but this was the most I have seen in one place.

Pine scymnus.  Really tiny (<2mm) and the only micro ladybird I found.

It was absorbing to find so many species in one small spot.  I expect it will be worth another visit in a few weeks time when there will be larvae to look for as well.

Birds on OtterCam

I rarely set my trail cameras for pictures of birds but birds trigger more recordings than mammals.  Most of the mammals are rats and mice and most of the birds are wood pigeons and moorhens but sometimes it is something more interesting.  Several Eurasian bitterns have been in Gosforth Nature Reserve all winter and at least one is still there - it is rarely seen but constantly heard as its booming call echoes through the reeds.  This one did me the honour of walking past my camera.

Another surprise was a cormorant, a common sight on the lake but not previously within range of a trail camera.

Next two little brown jobs.  Reed buntings are common enough and the singing males are very visible in spring.  Females are less showy but still very attractive and, like the bittern, beautifully camouflaged for life in the reeds.  Cetti's warblers are easily heard but rarely seen, which is a pity as they are also very attractive little birds.

Common birds tend to get overlooked but the trail cameras can give us an intimate view.  Here are a few recent ones that caught my eye.

Finally another surprise - a tawny owl trying to catch a rat.  Perhaps a bit optimistic but it may have misjudged the size of its prey in the dark.  The rat lived to tell the tale.