OtterCam in November

For the past few weeks it has been hard to keep track of the otters.  After all the rain in October the water level in the culvert was very high and either the otters weren't using it or the camera wasn't picking them up.  Now I have found another place where they pass through fairly frequently and I have been getting good images.

Last week the water level had fallen and mother & pup were again recorded in the culvert.  The pup seemed a bit wary or distracted by something on the path above, perhaps a badger as there is a sett close by.  The pup was spooked, startling the mother otter.  There was a brief break in recording (the camera records 20s at a time) but they did swim through.  The camera position is higher than ideal after the recent deep water (I like to get as close as possible to eye level).

On the same night the two otters were also recorded by two cameras at the water's edge.  The videos are intriguing. Mother and pup emerged from the water at 03.09.14 and went up the bank, pausing to sniff both cameras.  They reappeared from the water at 03.10.04, so 50 seconds later, and went up the same way.  I can be sure of the timings because they were the same on both cameras.  The otters must have dashed round back into the water out of view to reappear so quickly.  The mother is ahead each time and triggers the camera so she is less well seen.  The pup, however, shows the same mark or pattern on its forehead each time so we can be sure it is the same animal.  This is the first time round.

And the second.

Just before dawn they were picked up again going back the other way.  You can see the light as the second camera is triggered.  The weird white thing that dangles down is a blade of dried grass blown in the wind.

On the previous night there was another intriguing observation.  Mother and pup returned to the water and swam off to the right.  Ninety seconds later a solo otter came down the same way and swam off to the left.  Probably a dog otter keeping an eye on things.

It is much more fun seeing the otters out of the water.  Now that I have found another promising spot I'll monitor it more closely to see which ones are coming and going.

A mink on OtterCam

This is not something we want to see.  The camera in the culvert recorded this animal three times on the same day.  It is an American mink (Neovison vison), a non-native invasive species.

It is smaller than an otter and has a ferret-shaped face and pale ear margins.  Notice how it swims fairly high in the water compared with an otter, and swims with a "doggy paddle" with its tail out of the water.

The American mink is universally unwelcome and is a menace to our native wildlife.  These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't been seen since.  I suspect it was passing through and moved on when it didn't detect the scent of a possible mate and perhaps because it did detect the scent of otters.

BadgerCam at a new sett

This is an old sett that has been reoccupied fairly recently.  Badger clans have a number of setts in their territory and various family members move between them.  This one, I think, is an outlier sett, about 100m from the main sett and it now has two active entrances although there are another half dozen that are disused.  It is one of six setts that I know of in the territory.  Having seen recent signs of activity I set up a couple of cameras to see what was going on.

Badgers are always wary when they emerge from the sett for the first time in the evening, sniffing the air and listening before deciding it is safe to come out.  This is on the no-glow (940nm) camera and the picture is not too bad after contrast enhancement.

The trail camera picked up an interaction between two badgers.  The first in view is churring (I think), aware of a second badger off to the left.  It turns and goes back around the tree as the second smaller badger comes into view. The first comes right around the tree and there is some sort of confrontation just out of view with chittering and a growl. The smaller badger stayed in that position for some minutes with just its tail in view and the larger one didn't reappear.

Badgers make a lot of different noises.  Marc Baldwin quotes researchers from Oxford who identified 16 different sounds - bark, chirp, chitter, churr, cluck, coo, growl, grunt, hiss, kecker, purr, snarl, snort, squeak, wail and yelp.  You can listen to examples of all the badger sounds via Marc's website.

Here is another video from a different camera a few metres away.  One badger is foraging and I think the sound in the background is probably a fox rather than a badger - there was a fox in the frame a couple of clips earlier.  This is the 2020 low-glow camera on a misty night with just a standard lens.

The background sounds are easy to identify on the next video, female and male tawny owls.  This is my newest low-glow (850nm) camera, although a 2019 rather than a 2020 model - I think the older one is better.  Fitted with a +0.5 dioptre lens the image quality is good.

I don't know how many badgers are in this sett.  Watching the video clips I lose track of them as they come and go out of view (and there is another entrance).  I suspect there are three or four and the small one may be this year's cub (there may be more than one small one of course).  I think I recognise one - I think the badger in the next video is the mother of two cubs who featured on many recordings from the main sett in the spring.  She has very distinct colouring with a pale left flank and haunch.  This is now.

And this was in spring.

Here is the video.

My next plan is to set up cameras on some of the other setts to see what is going on there.  If I find anything interesting you will be the first to know.

FoxCam in the garden

I don't see much of the foxes these days because they often don't arrive until after I have gone to bed, although yesterday evening the vixen, the dog and a cub were here at various times.  I rarely put a trail camera out because they are very wary of anything new or strange but I decided to have a look recently to see who has been turning up.

I used a "no-glow" camera with a 940nm wavelength which is invisible to human eyes but, as you'll see below, the foxes can see it.  And they were very wary, trotting backwards and forwards in the background before eventually one plucked up the courage to come to the biscuits.  It was the long-tailed (ie normal-tailed) cub, and it turned up while the security light was still on so the image quality was improved.  (There is a little bit of artefact from the camera or the close-focus lens.  The twinkly lights at the edge are car headlights from the road.)

Next up was the short-tailed cub.

Usually the foxes face the back door while they are eating, probably to keep an eye on the house rather than to assist the photography.  It was interesting how on this night both foxes faced the trail camera, 90° from their normal stance.

Later in the night it was very windy and the short-tailed cub returned after the security light had gone out.  It was trying to sneak a few more biscuits without getting too close to the camera.  You can see the reflections in the eyes of two other foxes waiting in the background.  The round artefact has disappeared so it must have been from the security light on the +0.5 dioptre lens.

One of the foxes in the background was the long-tailed cub which moved in next.  Again you can see the eyes of two foxes in the background.

When this cub had gone the other foxes walked off without coming close enough for me to see which they were.

Usually the foxes eat all the food during the course of the night but on this occasion some of the biscuits closest to the camera were left.  Nothing goes to waste, however, and the crows and magpies carried off the leftovers.

I may try again with the camera before the end of the year if I haven't seen much out of the window.  It will be good to know if the two cubs are still around.

Out and about in October

I twice went to the coast in October looking for goldcrests but didn't see one.  Then last week I heard one in the garden. The first camera I grabbed has only a 300mm lens so the photos are a bit heavily cropped but they are not too bad. This is the first goldcrest I have seen here for almost 20 years but I expect they are here more often and I don't notice. I had forgotten they have such bright orange feet.

When I was at the coast at least I saw a few gulls.  Gulls are not always easy even though I went on a gull ID course last winter.  This one is easy - a great black-backed gull (I hope).

And a herring gull.

And a first winter herring gull (I hope).

This is a bit of an experiment.  I made a panorama of redshanks at St Marys.  It looks OK on my computer but I don't know how it will come out on the blog.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and see if it worth looking at.

In Gosforth Nature Reserve I met a young roe deer fawn, now in her dark winter coat.  She was curious but not alarmed, even though I was fairly close.

I always find flight shots very difficult but at least this heron, also in the nature reserve, is nearly in focus.

Back in the garden the wasps, bees and hoverflies were enjoying the Kniphofia caulescens.

October was mostly wet and windy, starting with Storm Alex and ending with Storm Aiden.  The charts don't show wind but confirm the cloudy wet weather.

Early in the month was the UK's wettest single day on record.  And this Met Office chart confirms that it rained almost every day, which was what it felt like.

The reimposed lockdown will have an impact on all our activities but I'll try to get some photos for November, even if only in the garden.  During the first lockdown there was so much see that I was posting every two days.  Now I'll try to keep up once a week.