Growing up fast on OtterCam

Last week the otter cubs and their mother reappeared on the cameras for two nights in a row.  They are a month older than their first appearance and already look bigger and more agile.

The cameras also caught an episode of the cubs play-fighting and tumbling into the water.  It is a bit disjointed because of the camera positions but fun to watch.

I also managed to retrieve a camera from the culvert after the recent floods.  It wasn't well positioned so the view isn't as good as usual but we do get a few glimpses of the cubs.  It is a bit fragmented but in the first clip the cub is scared of the culvert and retreats and the mother has to go back to collect it.  In the daytime clip later on the cubs really struggle against the current and slippery gate, even though the water level was low.

Having seen where the cubs were playing on the first video I went back to reposition the cameras but they haven't been back since.  One of the new camera angles is looking directly at a wood mouse nest hole with the disadvantage that it records dozens of mouse videos every night.  However, the camera wasn't the only one watching.

The video shows the views from two cameras separately.

I can't tell from the video whether the owl caught the mouse but I suspect not as a mouse later reappeared and the owl was back two nights later.  The second time only the top camera caught it in action but we can see a mouse in its talons as it flew off.

More news on the otter cubs in the new year.

Non-target species on TrailCam

The trail cameras regularly record animals they weren't set to look for, usually rats or wood mice but occasionally something more interesting.  Here are a few recent observations.  First on a camera set to look for an otter.  There was no sign in nearly three weeks but it did record a barn owl and a stoat, both firsts for me on trail camera.  The owl stopped for a drink during the night and nearly overbalanced and fell in.

On the same camera a stoat went past twice in the same direction, once in the day and once at night.

Then a real oddity.  A frog in the small mammal camera box.  Given that the frog is cold-blooded I am a bit surprised that the camera's PIR was triggered.

There was a second recording four minutes later but that was triggered by a shrew (yellow arrow).  The frog had moved to the back (red arrow).  The frog didn't appear on video again during the rest of that night and wasn't in the box next morning so it obviously managed to find its way out again.

Finally a recording from yesterday, again on a camera set to look for otters.  The first six frames recorded a kingfisher in the culvert.  I think it must have triggered the camera as it dived and was captured on the rise (you can see the water is disturbed in the background).  It is so brief you can't see what it is in real time on the video but it shows on freeze frame.  It is difficult to be sure but I think it has a fish in its beak.  I wonder if it had been using the camera as a perch to dive from.

I have once seen a kingfisher before on trail camera but never diving or in flight.

Bird of the week - Barn owl

I have had a wonderful time watching a pair of barn owls this week.  The pictures above and below were almost the last ones I took on the first visit.  Most of the time the owls were slightly too far away so the flight photos below are fairly heavily cropped.  Then just as the sun was setting one owl landed on a fence post near the road so I got back into the car and drove slowly towards it.  When I had got as close as I dared I climbed across to the passenger seat and took the photo through the (open) passenger window.

A few moments later the owl dived into the field in pursuit of another vole.

I wrote a Bird of the Week post on barn owls less than a year ago so I won't repeat it all.  Here are a few other photos from this week.

The bird above is darker coloured and has no ring.  The smaller lighter bird below, hunting moments before sunset, is ringed.  Females are generally a bit larger so this may be the male.

A couple of days later I went back.  This time there was only one, the lighter coloured, ringed bird.  It was mostly hunting farther along the dunes and sitting on fence post almost half a mile a way.  It did briefly settle a bit closer but still too far away.  This was the best I could do.

It was wonderful to watch them, despite the cold.  I expect I'll be back again soon.

End of year favourites - Aves (elsewhere)

I haven't taken as many bird photos this year as usual, probably because I have been distracted by other things such as dragonflies, bees and hornets.  Here are a few birds I did see.

Bird of the week - Barn owl

Watching a barn owl floating silently across a field at dusk is a thrilling experience.  I was very pleased to see this pair hunting in late afternoon while there was still good light.

Barn owls are mostly nocturnal but those in the UK are at the northernmost edge of their range and are more likely to be seen out hunting at dawn and dusk, particularly after poor weather.  Their favourite prey is the field vole such as this one, identifiable from its short tail and blunt nose.

Barn owls were severely affected by DDT and other poisons in the mid 20th century but the population has recovered. The barn owl is now green listed although the UK population is only 4000 pairs.

Barn owls are birds of open countryside and farmland and these BTO BirdAtlas maps show that they are more common in the eastern half of the country.

Thomas Bewick made this woodcut of a barn owl for A History of British Birds (1797). 

Barn owls are found throughout most of the world but in recent years some authorities have split them into three species.  Ours, Tyto alba, is now the western barn owl.  The American barn owl, now Tyto furcata, was painted by John James Audubon.

Archibald Thorburn also painted the barn owl.

You can listen to Miranda Krestovnikoff's BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day here and to Chris Packham's here.  You can learn more about barn owls via the Barn Owl Trust's website here.  And watch a short BBC video on how barn owls fly silently here.