SardineCam

A couple of my trail cameras have been on tour - to my friends Gill and Martyn in deepest darkest Hexhamshire.  I took a new camera box for one camera and set up the second with a sardine lure as a new experiment.  Sardines are used by researchers to increase detection of carnivores so I wondered if it would work here.  Hexhamshire is home to polecats (Mustela putorius), one if the UK's most elusive mammals, so one aim was to see if we could catch one on camera.  The more realistic aim was to see what we would find.

The cameras were set for three weeks and at the end of that time both SD cards were full.  The sardine camera had 398 videos and the box camera 498 so I had plenty to look through.  The sardine camera was set up at the edge of woodland with the camera and the sardine can fixed to opposite ends of a piece of wood.  The can was secured with a cable tie.

SardineCam recorded 11 species but only four of those were interested in the sardine lure - the others were just passing by.  The four were badger, wood mouse, magpie and domestic cat.  The badger visited only once but tried hard to get into the can.  The camera gave a great close up of its teeth and claws (with a spider in the top left of the lens).

The magpie visited twice and the first time it managed to peck a few fragments of fish, even though the can was only slightly open (the can is now very visible after badger removed all my camouflage).

The wood mouse visited many times, obviously attracted by the smell but not trying to get at the can.  The cat just sniffed a few times and walked on.

Most of the 398 videos were of American grey squirrels.  Other passers by were blackbird, robin, wood pigeon, pheasant, roe deer, and red fox.

My new camera box was set up at the base of a stone wall.

It had large entrance pipes hoping to entice in slightly larger animals but in the end the only visitors were wood mice, bank voles, common shrews and pygmy shrews.  Here is a brief summary of 498 videos (most of which featured a wood mouse!).

It was very interesting to try out the cameras in a new environment.  The card in the  camera box was full in only nine days so another time I would need a bigger card.  I was hoping we might see a stoat or a weasel and I still have polecat on my wish list.

Fox News

The foxes have been very elusive over the summer so this is the first news since April.  I know they have been coming because the food has been taken and they have been showing up on the weasel trail cameras but it has always been well after I have gone to bed.

In the last week things have changed, perhaps because of the darker evenings, and I now see a fox every evening before 10pm.  This is the dog fox - he looks a bit scruffy on a wet evening, especially as he has moulted his tail, but he'll smarten up over the next few weeks.

Then a few nights ago I saw the first cub of the year.  It didn't look up much so didn't make a great first photo.

The next night he was back - this time he was very wary and couldn't bring himself to take the food, even though he came to within a few inches.  He kept retreating to sit a few metres away and to have a think and eventually gave up and went away.

The next night the dog was here first and when the cub arrived the dog fox ignored him and didn't invite it to join in.  In this photo below the dog is on the left, having retreated to chew a bit of cheese rind.  I think he ate all the food, down to the last peanut, and by then the cub had disappeared.

The cub's behaviour is strange.  Two nights ago he circled the garden about ten times but couldn't pluck up courage to approach the food.  And last night he came straight up and made himself at home.  Here are a few more portraits.  He has long black socks, a tiny white tag on his tail and a little black mark on his nose so is is quite recognisable.

It is good to be able to see the foxes again.  I hope more cubs will turn up in the next few days but it has usually been earlier in the summer than this to see a lot of cubs so one may be all I see this year.

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.

More Fox News

In yesterday's post I said I hadn't seen a fox for weeks until the new pregnant vixen turned up the night before.  Not wanting to miss out, the dog fox was here by 8 last night.

He has been in the wars since I last saw him.  He has a nasty wound on his right temple although it looks as though it will heal.

I suppose one drawback of being the alpha male is that you have to fight to keep your place.  It will certainly make him even easier to recognise.

This is his good side.

He didn't look up much but made sure he found every last peanut.

Once they were all gone he sat down for a scratch

and then trotted away.  If both foxes are now going to turn up reliably I'll have to put out a bit more food for them.

Fox News

I have seen very little of the foxes over the winter, partly because I probably spend less time watching for them but mostly because they don't often turn up before I have gone to bed.  I am still putting out food regularly and it is almost always taken.  There is also a rabbit in the garden so I am keen that the foxes turn up regularly, hoping that one of them might even catch its own dinner.

Last night I was lucky and this fox arrived at about 9pm.  It is a puzzle, however, as it isn't one I have seen before.  It knew exactly where the food was and I could see at once that it is pregnant, so a vixen, but the one I thought was the new alpha female last November had a bright white tail tag, long black socks, and was very dark around the eyes.  This one is paler and has a small dark grey tail tag and shorter socks.

Assuming this is a new resident vixen, she is the third in a year on the patch and the fourth in 18 months (that sounds a bit like Prime Ministers!).  It looks as though her cubs will be born soon but it will be a few months before they are old enough to visit the garden.

My mammal year

2023 has been mostly about mustelids, from weasels and stoats in my garden, to otters nearby, to pine martens in Ardnamurchan, with badgers here and there.  Other mammals have been foxes, mice, shrews, voles and even a roebuck in the garden, not to mention rabbits and squirrels.  Oh, and a bat I rescued from a pond.  Here are some highlights.

Merry Christmas