Fox cub in the meadow

We couldn't let a whole week go by without mention of the foxes so here is an update.  I have been trying to grow a meadow on part of the main lawn.  I haven't yet mowed it this year and I have put in seeds and plants of wild flowers. There is still a lot of work to be done but it has made a start.  The fox cubs love it and by playing and racing around in it they have trampled quite a large area.  Generally they are very wary of the trail cameras when I put them on the ground so I thought I would attach them to trees to make them less noticeable.  The first experiment worked so I'll try some more.  Here is the result from the first night.  On the video you can hear the oystercatchers as they fly overhead.

OtterCam in July

This was the sixth consecutive month I have set the cameras and again I got recordings of an otter.  Again she was alone so I wonder if she has new pups somewhere.  I'll keep going with the monthly recordings and hope to see pups with her at some stage.

On the first two nights I put one camera on an old abandoned boardwalk but it proved impossible to hide the sardines. From the recordings I can see that the bait was snaffled by magpies minutes after I left so the poor otter had only the scent of what had been.  Still she did pass by, both times in daylight.

On the second occasion she seemed to attack the secondary infrared LED light which was off to the right but it doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and it was screwed down so she couldn't knock it into the water.

The other camera was nearby in the reedbed and had more success.  Initially I didn't hide the food here so again it was stolen by magpies.

On the third night I put both cameras in the reeds looking towards the same spot with an auxiliary infrared light source. This time I hid the food from prying eyes.  Otters of course hunt by scent so she was onto it straight away.  It was dusk and this camera has already switched to infrared mode.

There were several recordings of the otter eating which aren't very exciting.  This clip recorded was as she was leaving.

Here is the view from the other camera.  It was still in daytime mode, perhaps misled by the light in the sky, and the picture is very grainy.

After three nights recording I ended up with four good video recordings of about 15 seconds each.  I reckon the expeditions to install, reset, rebait and retrieve the cameras take up to 90 minutes each so with editing and processing time the input to output time ratio is over 400 to 1!  And my internet connection is so slow that it takes another hour to upload the 60 seconds so that you can see it on this blog.  Still, I enjoy every minute!

A walk round the pond - Week 30

It has been hot this week, good weather for dragonflies but almost too hot to walk around and watch them.  Emperors were patrolling almost constantly, usually resting only briefly on the waterside reeds where they are difficult to see.  I was lucky that these two paused in more accessible positions.

The second one had two damselflies in attendance - probably an azure and a common blue.

I had another go at some in-flight shots.  These were the best I could manage.

This week I saw dozens of common darters including lots of mating pairs.

Darters oviposit in tandem with the female flicking the tip of her abdomen into the water.  The male holds on to her until the deed is done so she doesn't run off with a rival.

Other mating pairs were common blue damselflies

and azure damselflies.

There were lots of butterflies enjoying the heat, mainly skippers, meadow browns and ringlets.  A new sighting for the year was this small tortoiseshell.

Common blue butterflies old and new.  The size difference is interesting but my guidebook gives a range of 29-36mm so perhaps these just illustrate the range.

I saw a grasshopper which looked a bit odd.

But it was only when it turned round that I could see it was missing a leg.  It seemed to be able to jump OK but perhaps not very accurately.

It was time for my monthly bumblebee walk although it was perhaps a bit hot for them as there were fewer about. Almost all the bird's foot trefoil has gone and the knapweed isn't quite out so there were also few flowers for them.  The red-tailed workers were very keen on this yellow flower which I think is ribbed melilot.

A bite of lunch

Dragonflies are carnivores and eat all sorts of insects, often eating their smaller prey on the wing.  I saw this rather tatty four-spotted chaser fly up in front of me and return to its perch.  It was only when I looked closer that I realised it had caught a blue-tailed damselfly and was in the process of eating it.

It started at the front end and ate the whole thing.

Here the last bit of the blue tail is about to disappear.

Then time for a rest.

Four-spotted chasers are sometimes caught and eaten by still larger dragonflies such as emperors, something I have yet to see.

Black-tailed skimmers

I recently had the pleasure of going on a dragonfly walk with Dr Gordon Port, an entomologist from Newcastle University, organised by the Natural History Society of Northumbria.  A few days beforehand we did a reconnaissance walk around Bowes Valley Nature Reserve in Gateshead and saw plenty of dragonflies, including black-tailed skimmers.  This is a species I haven't previously seen in the North East.  It likes to rest on exposed soil or gravel and there aren't that many suitable sites locally.  This also makes for fairly scruffy photos because of the background and I couldn't find one facing the camera.  We found it easy to see the black tail in flight, to distinguish it from a broad-bodied chaser which also has blue pruinescent colouring.  This is a mature male.

This is an immature male.

Then last week I went to a site very close to home, Weetslade Colliery Country Park.  It is a reclaimed colliery spoil heap and I was pleased to find tens of hectares of wild flowers less than 1km from my garden as the bee flies.  Sadly the Northumberland Wildlife trust has fenced off all the wetland areas behind "No Access" signs but some of the dragonflies had sneaked over the fence to bask on the path.  And there was a black-tailed skimmer!  Again it was on mud and wouldn't face the camera.

I reported it to the British Dragonfly Society via iRecord and found it was only the fourth record in 10 years in the vice-county (VC67).  According to Harry Eales in Dragonflies & Damselflies of Northumberland & Durham (available on line here) the first ever black-tailed skimmer record in VC67 was in 2009 and it remains "very scarce" so I was very pleased to find this one so close to home.

Whilst at Weetslade I also saw common darters and emerald damselflies on the path so who knows what else lies in the forbidden area?  I wasn't looking for birds and didn't really have the right lens but I did notice a male reed bunting

and a young sedge warbler.

Having discovered what a promising place it is I'll have to make more regular visits.

Family photos

When this all started a month ago it was almost always the dog fox that arrived first, either to check that the coast was clear for the cubs or to be first to the food.  Since then the number of cubs in the garden has increased from one to five and the parents have been here less and less often, as if they are leaving the food for the cubs.  So it was good to see both parents here together for once.  The dog fox to the left is greyer while the vixen has a darker back.

They were joined by a cub that is almost as big as its mother already.

Then a second cub but they wouldn't keep still so the photos are a bit blurred (the shutter speed in the low light is only 1/60s).

I haven't yet managed a picture of both parents with all the cubs.  I see three or four cubs together every night.

Most often they get along well but there is always an undercurrent of competition.

The change from peanuts to dog biscuits has also meant that the cubs spend more time collecting and stashing food which also makes them more difficult to catch all together.  It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few weeks as they get older.

A walk round the pond - Week 29

I had company for a visit to the pond on Tuesday.  Liz, Denise & Phil joined me to prove that eight eyes are better than two.  The find of the day was Liz's, an over-mature female broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa) resting in the afternoon sunshine.  It was bright yellow in its younger days.

I think my companions were surprised by how many photos I had to take to end up with two that were worth keeping. For this particular dragon it was 125(!), which is unusual but not exceptional.

We also saw several four-spotted chasers (Libellula quadrimaculata) patrolling, ovipositing or resting.

Denise spotted this male ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum), the first I have seen with mature colouring this year.

There were also plenty of common darters (Sympetrum striolatum).

Phil found an ovipositing female emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) out on the pond but it was a long time before I could pick it out to get a photo.

We also saw several patrolling males and this one at rest.

We saw common blue, azure and blue-tailed damselflies but no large reds.  This male emerald damselfly (Lestes sponsa) shows pale blue pruinescence - a new word for Phil.

The female's colouring is more subtle but equally beautiful.

Butterflies included a common blue, lots of small skippers, ringlets and meadow browns, plus several small heaths, a new species for Phil.

We saw several shaded broad bar moths after I had seen my first last week.

The whole site was humming with insects, most of which we couldn't name.  This is one of 18 UK species of lacewing. Having looked it up since I got home I think it is Chrysopa perla.

And the best news of all - no Canada geese.  Maybe the greylags will feel it is safe to return.