The snow of the past couple of days has made it a bit easier to see the foxes outside and has also made the videoing a bit easier. These are frame grabs from the videos.
The video shows that this one, despite being very close to the house, is much more concerned about other foxes.
This was the trail camera's take on the same scene.
Looking through the recordings I can see that foxes were coming and going all night, long after the food was gone.
I recently bought a new trail camera, a Browning Recon Force Extreme. I have already posted some roe deer photos and videos but I first tried it out on the foxes by the back door. The first night I had it set to take still photos but the settings were a bit too enthusiastic and it recorded over 6600 photos! I deleted all but a handful but here are the best.
Since then I have been using the camera to record video, as with all the recent roe deer pictures. Because it records full HD video at either 30 or 60 frames per second it is also possible to save individual frames as stills, so that is what I have been doing since. I think the frame grabs are at least as good as the photos so I'll use that in future. In the three photos below the wall light was on. Although it is an ordinary 60W light bulb, it emits a lot of infrared as well as visible light and I think that improves the image.
This camera has by far the best image resolution for infrared night-time photos that I have come across. I'll still use the old Wingscapes for colour night-time stills for as long as it lasts but the Browning will be the main camera from now on. I have been using it to check whether the deer are still coming into the garden at night (they are) but I'll be trying it out in the nearby woods in the near future.
The sparrowhawk had been on his perch nearly all morning, watching and waiting. I had been watching and waiting for much of the time as well. Eventually I gave up and went to make a cheese sandwich. When I came back he was already half way through one of his five-a-day. This is the first time I have seen him take a kill back to the perch. Unfortunately he had his back to me so I had to move to a slight awkward position to get a view.
I suspect this was a blue tit. It only took a couple of minutes to finish it off and he swallowed everything apart from the feathers that were on the ground. From the look of it he had partially plucked the bird before carrying it up to the perch.
Once he had finished eating he spent some time cleaning the blood and feathers off his feet and wiping his beak.
Even then his feet weren't completely clean.
Then time for a bit of preening and he was as good as new.
Here is behaviour I have been trying to catch for some time. All my previous attempts with cameras in the woods have been unsuccessful because it is almost impossible to guess where the deer will lie down. Although they now come to the garden it is still hit and miss but this time it worked and the buck came for a sleep in front of the camera. I have put a video clip below but first a few photos to show what happened.
The buck chose a place where there was already a scrape from a previous night and after sniffing briefly he lay down.
Once he was comfortable he must have sat or slept very still as the camera wasn't triggered again for almost an hour, when he stirred and then stood up.
He spent a few moments sniffing and looking around before wandering off to get some more to eat.
These photos are all frame grabs from the videos so I am impressed by the quality.
Below is the video. The camera records clips of a maximum of 20s at night, with a minimum of 5s in between (presumably for buffering) but otherwise they are consecutive. I have run four clips together in iMovie but the programme refuses to export the result and I can't work out why. In the end to get this I have filmed the result on the iMac screen using the iPhone. This is very Heath Robinson and presumably means some loss of quality, and makes the sound go funny, but otherwise it is not too bad.
The "light" that switches on part way through is infrared light from a Bushnell camera out of view. The buck was too close to it and right at the edge of the frame so there were no useful images from the other camera. At the second transition there was a 56 minute gap with no recording so I guess the buck was asleep or not moving as the camera is pretty sensitive to movement. This last clip was in fact recorded before the others. It was triggered by a fox jumping through the fence but just after the fox disappears you can hear a bellow which I think must be from the buck. It is a sound I haven't heard before as roe deer usually bark or squeak. A great sound to hear in the garden though.
I have seen four foxes together in the garden but this is the first time I have caught as many as three on camera. I still haven't worked out the family dynamics here. When I first looked out the fox with its back to us (which I presume is the dog) was eating, the fox farthest away in the photo (which I think is the vixen) was sitting a short distance away and the third fox was lying down in the background. The photo below was on a different camera on a different night but shows the same three foxes.
As I watched the third fox crept around to the left hand side in a very submissive posture but was allowed to join the other two without any conflict. I suppose it must be family, possibly one of last year's young. Here are the three on video.
I hadn't seen the sparrowhawk for a while but he has been back several times this week, including almost all of today. He spends up to an hour or more at a time sitting on the perch by one of the feeders, usually very alert and scanning incoming small birds to judge whether an attack might succeed. Sometimes he is more interested in preening and stretching but I am sure he still has at least one eye on potential prey.
The neck mobility of the sparrowhawk is extraordinary. Like an owl, he can turn more than 180° in either direction. In these next two photos he is looking over his right shoulder (you'll have to take my word for it).
The photos are taken through the window glass at a range of 3m using a 70-200mm lens at 175mm. I presume this is the same juvenile that was here a few weeks ago. I have also seen (separately) an adult male, an adult female and a juvenile female in the garden in the past three weeks or so. I expect the adult pair may be the same two that have been displaying over the woods in Gosforth Park this week - only a few moments away as the sparrowhawk flies.
This time he brought the family. The buck was first in at 21.20, only 20 minutes after I had arrived home, but he quickly scampered into the garden and out of view of the camera.
45 minutes later a doe appeared and started eating the ivy near the gate. If you look at the far right of the picture you can see a fox eating peanuts just below the kitchen window.
Another 7 minutes later her daughter came in to join her.
They were happily munching the ivy for 15 minutes until they moved beyond the view of the camera.
You can still see the fox in this video clip. Sorry about all the traffic noise in the background.
The camera emits a dim red glow from the LED lights, which I can see, and I think the deer probably can as well. The youngster, in particular, seems to stare at the camera. There is some light from the street lights so it may be that the deer could see the camera itself.
They returned just after 1am and spent another 20 minutes browsing in front of the camera.
Here the doe has an itch.
I am pleased to say the old Wingscapes camera managed a few colour photos.
You can see on this video clip that the youngster did startle when the flash fired to take the picture above.
The last video clip shows the deer leaving at 04.12, having spent almost seven hours in the garden. The doe left first, followed by the buck with the daughter dawdling behind.
Although the cameras couldn't see what they were up to most of the time, I couldn't imagine the deer were eating all that time. When I looked in the wood I could find three scrapes where they had been resting or sleeping.
Nearly half of my garden - 0.4 acre - is left as wild wood and it contains a lot of ivy. I am pleased that the deer want to eat it and even more pleased that (so far) no rabbits seem to have taken advantage of the gate being left open.
