Composite photos from trail cameras

Trail cameras take serial pictures from a fixed viewpoint and lend themselves to making composites of images recorded at different times.  These are particularly useful in showing relative sizes, as in the image above which comes from a couple of years ago.

The photo below is recent and is made from fitting together three slices of the same view with subjects that didn't overlap.  It shows a comparison of the sizes of an otter, an American mink and a stoat, three distantly related species.

The next one compares the mink and the stoat on a different camera, the size difference somewhat exaggerated by the different distance from the camera.

In the examples above the joints between different photos have been removed for effect but I usually leave them to make the point that it is a composite and not a trick photo.  The next three photos from the "weasel box" in my garden compare the sizes of a female stoat (L) with a female weasel in the first two and a male weasel in the third.  They also show fairly dramatically the size difference between male and female weasels.

These also show female (L) and male (R) weasels on different visits to the box. The male is twice the weight of the female.

The last example compares male stoat (weighing 350g), female stoat (250g), male weasel (120g) and female weasel (60g).

I notice that all the animals above are mustelids, perhaps because they are frequent targets of my cameras but also because size comparisons of related species are particularly useful.  I'll see if I can come up with something similar for smaller mammals.

Trail cameras in the wetlands

Gosforth Nature Reserve has a new wetland, created less than a year ago.  The stream flowing into a collapsed culvert was diverted into a series of newly excavated pools and ponds last November.  To start with it ended up looking like a flooded building site but now it already looks as though it has always been there.  Animals and birds took to it almost immediately and in recent months it has been a productive area for my cameras.

Earlier this month I posted a video of the local roe buck wading through the water and said I had never seen him go through the other way.  Only a few days later a doe and her twins did just that.  The mother was wary and crossed not far from the edge.  The kids followed, taking a longer shortcut and were also very uncertain about the depth of the water.  The video is two minutes long but good to watch.  Notice the doe has a new smooth dark winter coat while the kids are still developing theirs.

A bigger surprise was seeing badgers wading through the water.  There were four recordings over two nights and from their sizes it looks like at least two different animals.  The water is deeper farther out and badgers are not tall so I expect they were swimming across before wading out in front of the camera.

The fox, by contrast is not at all keen on getting its feet wet.

The cameras also occasionally see a couple of sparrowhawks.  Judging by their size I think both are female and one is adult and the other a juvenile, so presumably mother and daughter.  They are usually too far away and too fast for a good video so this is the best I can do so far - slow motion is at 1/10 speed.  I am working on getting better pictures.

Garden visitors

Wow this was a surprise.  I have been here 37 years and this is the first time I have "seen" a badger in the garden.  I didn't see it of course but it showed up on the camera by the "weasel wall" in the garden.  It recorded only three videos but was here for at least an hour so I expect it had a good look around.  In the video it was eating something but we can't see what.

I still haven't worked out how it got in and out.  There is a 600mm (2 foot) rabbit fence all the way round and I can't see a hole in or under the fence so the badger must have climbed over.  I am hoping it will return and I'm working on a squirrel-proof peanut feeder to try to tempt it back.

The next morning the camera saw three pheasants, a cock and two hens.  Nine years ago I had a pheasant who regularly came to the door to be fed but there has been only one sighting since, until now.

The next photo is from July but hasn't featured here before.  The fox has obviously spotted the camera.

The camera in the camera box by the gate sees wood mice, bank voles, common shrews and pygmy shrews all the time but last week there was a very curious tri-coloured common shrew which I presume is just a colour variant.

And just earlier this week, a tawny owl showed twice on the weasel wall camera.  The second time it caught a mouse - it's a pity that the mouse didn't trigger the camera before the owl struck but it's still good to see.

There have been very few weasel or stoat sightings in recent weeks so it is good to see something other than American grey squirrels on the cameras.  All these are things I would have missed if it wasn't for the trail cameras.  It's amazing what goes on in the garden when my back is turned.

A new buck on RoeDeerCam

During the rut in July-August we saw the dominant buck chasing off a yearling and since then he has been the only one around.  Until last week that is, when a new buck showed up.  Roe bucks can be identified by their antlers so this one is clearly new.  Below is the dominant resident male with his six point head.

This is the yearling who was chased off a few weeks ago.  He has simple one-point antlers.

And this is the new guy.  He has small forward-pointing brow points but doesn't yet (ie this year) have rear points.

And here he is on video.

Roe bucks aren't territorial at this time of year so I expect he'll be able to stick around.  It will be interesting to see.

The older buck is a creature of habit and he often follows the same route in front of the cameras. He regularly takes a short cut through the water, here picking his way in the dark.

I have never seen him go back the same way.  Here he is again in daylight last week.  His darker winter coat is already nearly complete although he is still a bit foxy red around the tail end.

Making scents of the world

Animals perceive the world very differently from the way we do.  They have better vision, better hearing and a much more highly developed sense of smell.  Mustelids in particular live in a world of scent, using it to advertise their presence and to see who else is about.  The first video, from earlier this week, shows an otter sniffing almost every plank on the bridge to work out who has been there before.

Next a less welcome mustelid.   A male mink scent-marking by body-rubbing, then a female sniffing to pick up scents, and finally the female doing a bit of body rubbing of her own.

A stoat has been a regular on some of the cameras.  It was also sniffing its way around when it came across some mink scat.

Another video from earlier this week: a male weasel went through the camera box at high speed and on his return I am sure he was scent-marking in the tunnel.  He was also making a weasel sound I haven't heard before.  A couple of hours later a female weasel came sniffing through the box and picked up his scent.

Finally, to complete the local mustelid set, a couple of badger videos, although not recent.  First a badger sniffing its way around and seeming to take a particular interest in my scent on the camera.

And a mother scent-marking one of her cubs to make sure it smells like the rest of the family. The cub wasn't impressed.

A new species for the North East

At first sight you wouldn't think it was a ladybird, only 2mm long, dark and hairy.  Once I spotted it I knew I didn't know what it was.  I have seen all but one of the ladybird species recorded in the North East and I knew this wasn't the missing one.  It was tapped from a mature oak in my garden and peering at it in the net through a hand lens I could see it was black with an orange front and orange legs.

Being at home I could bring it in for a better look and more photos but for a while I still didn't recognise it.  There are quite a few rather similar micro ladybirds (also known as inconspicuous ladybirds), all small and tending to be black with orange/red markings but this didn't seem to fit with any of them, partly because most are black underneath.

Eventually the penny dropped and I realised this was Rhyzobius lophanthae, not at all something I was expecting to find.  Also known as the Bristly Ladybird it is originally from Australia and was imported to Europe to control scale insects in horticulture.

Rhyzobius lophanthae was first reported in the UK in 1999 and is now found across the southern half of the country.  This map from iRecord shows the nearest records to mine are 150km south in Beverley and Leeds - all from last year or this.  (The large concentration of reports from Shropshire probably reflects the diligence, enthusiasm and expertise of Maria Justamond who is the county recorder there.  She also wrote the book on UK micro ladybirds and validates ladybird submissions to iRecord.)

Despite its Australian origins Rhyzobius lophanthae was first described in California by a local entomologist who thought it was native.  In fact it was introduced there in the 1890s so clearly people in Australia and the US knew about it earlier.  One puzzle is how mine got here.  It obviously can't be the only one north of Leeds but being only 2mm long and inconspicuous it might easily be overlooked.  I expect this is part of its range expansion, perhaps encouraged by climate change.  I'll be looking a bit harder in the garden now, hoping to turn up something else new.

The new kids on the block on RoeDeerCam

I started targeting the Roe Deer with my cameras only in mid July, when the kids were several weeks old and already big enough to follow their mother around.  It has taken a while to work out where they go and where best to position the cameras but recently there have been some good recordings.  Roe does usually have one or two young, with twins being common, but the first video from mid July shows a singleton.  It still has some of its camouflage and is still interested in suckling.

The next video shows twins with their mother.  Most of the videos are like this as most of the time the deer just wander about, browsing as they go.

At this age they stay close to their mother but mid July to mid August sees the rut and the kids can get caught up in the action.  In the next video one twin stayed with its mother as she was pursued by a buck but the other one got left behind.  You can hear it squeaking as it calls for its mother.  It must then have caught sight of her across the water and decided to take a short cut.

The next episode was curious.  A kid appeared to be alone although I expect the mother wasn't far away.  The buck watched as the kid jumped the stream and then followed it.  When the kid turned and approached the buck (possibly its father, who knows) it was butted away but the camera didn't see what happened after.

The last video, from earlier this week, shows a young male kid with his mother and a second doe, possibly an aunt or an older sister.  You can see the little bumps on his forehead, starting to grow the pedicles which will be where his antlers are joined to his skull.  I read in John Halliday's book For the Love of the Roe that these little bumps start to grow at three months of age.  They will drop off in February and his first single-pointed antlers will then start to grow.  Roe bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year and it will be three years before he is a six-pointer.