The latest from OtterCam

There are several cameras watching for otters at the moment because there has been a lot of activity.  The first video shows how the picture quality improves as more cameras are activated and add their light to the image.

Otters have the amazing ability to live in two worlds, the underwater world for hunting and travelling and the terrestrial world for everything else.  Their senses are finely tuned to both worlds - vibrations and smell being especially important underwater and smell and hearing in particular on land.  A couple of recent videos show how they smell their way around in the dark. First the family travelling up the bank in the small hours.

And two nights later the dog doing the same.  He probably rarely encounters the female and cubs but they all keep in touch via scent.

Finally an amazing video from yesterday.  The dog otter came out for an afternoon nap right in front of the camera.  The whole episode lasted for over three minutes but I have edited it down to less than half.  He looks a bit weary but was always alert.

Surprisingly, and disappointingly, another camera aimed at exactly this spot failed to react at all. At least it is justification for having more than one to keep an eye on things.

Autumn ladybirds

It's time we had a break from mustelids so here is something different.  Ladybirds hibernate over winter and many species can be found tucked up on old gravestones.  I have only been looking for ladybirds for a couple of years but I am learning where to find them and what to expect.  This winter is turning out to be strange.

2024 has been a bad year for many insects - especially moths, butterflies and bees, probably because of the very wet weather in the first half of the year, but it has also been a bad year for ladybirds, with many fewer than expected being reported.  I wonder if this might be because there weren't many aphids around for the ladybird larvae to eat.

The North East Ladybird Spot is a citizen science project that has been collecting ladybird records from the vice-counties of County Durham, South Northumberland and North Northumberland since February 2021.  It now has getting on for 10,000 records from nearly 200 observers, so is starting to have data worth analysing.  Suspecting there might be something odd about this season I compared records for 01 July to 14 November in 2023 and 2024, choosing those dates as a rough approximation of the new generation.  The number of records fell by 54%, which was no surprise although there might be several explanations for that.  I also looked at records for each of the top 10 species.  Nine of them registered falls from -40% for 10-spot Ladybird to -94% for Eyed Ladybird.  The one outlier was Orange Ladybird which showed a gain of +153%.  Note that the database contains records of occurrence but not abundance so this relates to numbers of reports, not of ladybirds.  If all ladybirds were counted the Orange Ladybird would be even more of an outlier.

Apart from lots and lots of Orange Ladybirds I have seen a few others, quite a few with unusual colour or pattern variations.

These are also all 10-spot Ladybirds.

A "typical" 10-spot Ladybird looks like this one below, so to see mostly unusual variants is strange.

This is a typical Cream-streaked Ladybird, a conifer specialist.

I have see several unusual forms of this one as well.

A few other nice finds were 18-spot Ladybird,

Eyed Ladybird,

Water Ladybird,

and Red Marsh Ladybird.

I expect there will be a few more ladybird expeditions before the winter is out, always hoping to find something new.

Another new weasel

I hadn't seen a weasel in the camera box for about four weeks and then this one turned up. Judging by its size and proportions it is a female and looking at the patterns of the gular (under chin) spots and flank markings it is one I haven't seen before, so the seventh different weasel this year.  It has white toes on the left front foot (but not the right), a very distinctive left flank line,

and these gular spots,

so it should be easy to identify if it returns.

You'll see from the video that I have remodelled the inside of the camera box to make it more interesting for weasels to explore and this one certainly had a good look round.  These pictures are from a week ago and it hasn't returned so far.  Weasel presence and abundance is strongly related to the presence of prey, mainly voles.  I have seen very few bank voles and no field voles on the cameras recently which is probably why there are few weasels.  There are plenty of wood mice but they are nocturnal and the weasels are diurnal so the mice probably feel fairly safe in the camera box.

More from OtterCam

There is a lot happening on OtterCam at the moment so I hope you won't mind some more otter videos.  They are longer than usual but worth seeing.  In the first one the mother otter came up the bank to leave some spraint but the cubs weren't far behind.  They were in and out of the water a couple of times before following her.  They are constantly curious and seem to enjoy exploring their world.

Five minutes later the mother otter was back for some me time.  She doesn't get much peace because one cub came out to join her so she got back in.  Seconds later she was back out, followed again by one of the cubs.

How big is an otter?  This composite with the dog otter will give you some idea - pictures taken two hours apart so he wasn't running past me!  The female is a bit smaller and the cubs are smaller still.

News from OtterCam

There is a lag between the trail cameras recording and me retrieving, editing and posting the videos. The first view of the new cubs that I posted last week was recorded on 23rd October.  At that stage the cubs looked very small and rather slow and unsteady when walking but they grow up fast.  This latest recording is from 29th October, so only six days later, and they are already bigger and faster, but still curious.

The dog otter is a regular presence, coming by the camera at least two or three times a week. My guess is that he is the father of the cubs but he takes no part in their upbringing and probably has little or no contact with them, other than through scent-marking.  The cameras are in a very damp environment and get misted up from time to time.  I took one home to dry out so for one short period I had only one camera in position and it was just my luck that the dog came to roll around just where the main camera would normally have been.

The next time I was better set up.  This time he came out of the water to leave a scent mark and went straight back in.  Within a few seconds he was out again for a bit of rolling and grooming before heading up the bank.

The activity on the otter trail cameras is good news as there hasn't been a weasel in my garden for over three weeks and the water shrew disappeared a month ago.  More otter news soon, I hope.

A first glimpse of new arrivals on OtterCam

 

I get to see a lot of pictures like this one above, just half an otter or an otter's tail as it dashes past, too quick for the camera.  When I watched this video from last week there was a big surprise 10 seconds later.

It was surprising for two reasons - originally I wasn't expecting to see them until next month (until they have been seen in the past few days), and when cubs are this young they usually keep very close to mother.  However, these two are very small and maybe they just couldn't keep up. They had certainly never seen a trail camera before.  Here's the video.

Unfortunately the Browning camera only records for 20s at night and the cubs didn't re-trigger the camera before they moved on.  If my calculations are correct these babies are no more than 14-15 weeks old, so only just weaned.  I think the otters probably mated in mid May, meaning the cubs would have been born in mid July.  Paul Chanin's book Otters (2013) says that cubs don't leave the natal holt until 10-11 weeks of age and don't go into the water until they are three months old.  These two obviously can swim already but they are a bit slow and unsteady walking.  I hope to have more news soon.

SardineCam 2

Two of my cameras have been on tour again, this time to Denise and Phil near Riding Mill in South Northumberland.  As before, one camera was set up with a sardine scent lure and the other was in a camera box.  SardineCam was set in woodland edge for the first week and within woodland the second week.  It recorded 1061 videos in all, most of which were of wood mice.  As last time, the mice were fascinated by the sardine smell.  A domestic cat also came by to sniff but the highlight was a roe doe.

Passers-by taking no interest in the sardines were fox, American grey squirrel, robin, blackbird, song thrush and wood pigeon.

The camera box was set at woodland edge in the first week and recorded 546 videos, almost all of wood mice.  In the second week I put it in a rough grass field, still not far from woodland. This time there were only 163 videos and almost all were of shrews - common shrew, pygmy shrew and, most excitingly of all, a water shrew.  There is a small garden pond nearby but the nearest large pond is 160m away across a railway line.  Here are the three shrews in frame grabs from the video to compare their size, body shape and tail length, common shrew above, pygmy shrew middle and water shrew below.

And here is the video.

It was fascinating to find another water shrew away from water, so soon after the one in my garden.  Here is a montage of more water shrew action, all high speed.

If anything the common shrew is even more frantic.  It was interesting to see it collecting the sunflower seeds I had put in.  Shrews are insectivores but water shrews and common shrews both take sunflower seeds in my garden.

The smallest of the three, the pygmy shrew, seems a bit less hyperactive.

We did get a glimpse of a vole but it was very shy and didn't venture past the entrance pipe.  I can't tell what it is with any confidence but from its size I suspect it is a field vole rather than a bank vole.

So no mustelids, which we were hoping for, and no wood mice in the field, but it was great to see all the shrews.  And it is fascinating that moving the camera 50m from woodland to grass completely changes the clientele.  I am not sure it will be worth persevering with the sardine lure but the camera box seems by far the best way to see small mammals.