Fox News

Since my last post the foxes seem to have settled into a routine and one or other is here by about 9.30 every night.  After the vixen turned up looking very pregnant seven weeks ago I didn't see her for a week or so but the next time she was obviously feeding cubs.  In the last few weeks she has been a regular but earlier this week there were two foxes together, the first time I have seen this pair together.  Here are a few photos - the vixen is on the left.

Eventually the dog left the vixen to finish off the peanuts.  With luck there will be cubs here as well in a few weeks' time.

An update from OtterCam

The dog otter turns up regularly on the cameras, usually at night and usually just hurrying by. This visit was very early in the morning.  The camera found enough light to work in daylight colour mode, but only just, so the image quality isn't very good.  The otter was very aware of something up the bank, perhaps a fox or a badger, although I just wonder if it might have been the other otters because I think I can hear a faint squeak from a cub.  If so, they didn't show on any of the cameras.  Eventually he decided it wasn't something to worry about and swam off.

Last weekend there was another daytime recording, this time of two otters.  The likely thing is that these are the mother and one cub and the other stayed out of view.  I did wonder if it might be the two cubs out on their own but they aren't calling and are still a bit young to leave their mother.

Ten minutes later one of the cubs turned up on its own and was calling, so I think it must have got left behind.

Then a couple of nights ago the family went by all together.  Otter cubs are said to stay with their mother for "about a year".  I think these are nine months old so they'll probably be around for a few weeks yet.

A siskin spring

After a waxwing winter this is a siskin spring.  I usually see a few of these beautiful finches each year but the last few weeks have been exceptional.  My BTO GardenBirdWatch (GBW) records show the first arrived in the first week of January and numbers built up to 22 by the end of March.  The bird in the photo above had the misfortune to bang his head on the kitchen window but he seemed to make a full recovery.

I have two six port seed feeders, amongst others, but never quite managed a photo with six siskins in one go - there's always a hungry goldfinch spoiling the show.  

I am not the only one to have seen a lot of siskins this year.  The BTO GBW website shows records for the North East.  This is the number of gardens seeing siskins - twice as many as average.

And this is the number per garden, four times higher than average.

My impression that this is a particularly good year for siskins is backed up by this graph showing data from the last 25 years.

I read that the probable explanation for the influx is the persistent wet weather.  Sitka spruce pine cones open in dry weather but remain closed when it is wet so the siskins run short of food and turn to gardens instead.  They mostly live and breed in the conifer forests in Northumberland so I expect they will disappear shortly.

News from the weasel wall

Because the trail cameras in the camera boxes have been seeing weasels and stoats fairly regularly I set up a camera to watch the newly extended weasel wall.  And on the first day there was a stoat.

The camera in this position was picking up lots of false triggers (it turned out to be a fault in a new camera) so I moved it to the other side.  This video shows a male weasel, which was followed 90 minutes later by a male stoat.

Next time it was the stoat again.  It seems to enjoy the safety of the wall.

Since then both the stoat and the weasel have appeared every few days and from their size I think both animals are male.  Both will have large territories and be using the wall as one of several bases around their patch.

I would prefer a female as that would increase the chance of seeing youngsters later in the year (weasels and stoats lead solitary lives so I think it is unlikely males and females would both be in the wall).  Both stoats and weasels have their young about now so it is unlikely there is a litter in the wall just now.  Females of both species move their kits to new nests fairly frequently so I live in hope.  Finally, here's a video of (a weasel) coming and (a stoat) going.  The weasel activity was all within a minute but I have edited out the gaps where it was inside the wall.

OtterCam in March

The dog otter has been a regular on the cameras, coming by at least every couple of nights, always in the dark.  This is a favourite scent-marking spot.

The cameras didn't see any sign of the mother and cubs for two or three weeks after my last otter post but they have been back regularly in recent days.  The cubs are probably 8-9 months old and are more or less full grown.  In the next video the mother brought the cubs down for a sniff around but they then came back up the bank.

The dog otter and the others don't interact (on the cameras at least) but they keep track of each other by scent marking.  The next time the dog otter came down the bank and left his scent mark before slipping into the water.  The female followed a couple of hours later with one cub lagging behind as usual.  The first cub was interested in the scent but the others not so.

And here are two more example of similar activity at the same spot.

Otters are very tolerant of my cameras, usually ignoring them but this time the dog came over to check it was mine, as did his cousin.

Finally a couple of recent daytime sightings of the otter family but in not very good light.