News from OtterCam

The otter cameras are in a quiet phase at the moment.  The previous cubs left in early May and I hope that the female may have given birth to new cubs last month.  Time will tell.  The dog otter was missing for a couple of weeks, probably travelling elsewhere in his territory.  That's him in the photo above, wandering past a camera.

On a camera set up to look for deer one of the otters appeared making an unsuccessful attempt to catch a mallard.  The video was recorded at dusk but the camera was still in daylight mode and the resulting noisy picture has been put through a denoise programme resulting in a rather "soft" image.

It was interesting to see the otter try.  I suspect it was surprised to see the ducks fly off, perhaps hoping that the target was a duckling not yet able to fly or an adult in eclipse.  Mallards, in common with other ducks, and geese and swans, moult all their flight feathers in one go and are unable to fly for three or four weeks, usually in July.  The drakes develop a drab female-type plumage to make themselves less conspicuous.  Here is a photo taken in this week in a previous year showing a drake mallard in eclipsed plumage.  You'll see he has lost his normal colours to be in camouflage and has a row of pins where his new flight feathers will grow.

Perhaps the otter just got the timing wrong.  Also from the past week here is a drake testing his newly regrown feathers.  He'll soon get back his handsome plumage as well.

When the otters do appear on camera they are usually just wandering by.  On this occasion the dog otter spent nearly ten minutes rolling on the moss but I have edited it down to just over a minute.  This was also at dusk and the camera changed to infrared towards the end.

Three hours later the female came and did the same so they are still very aware of each other even though they probably rarely meet.

The otters have a takeaway

The cubs are over six months old now and are growing fast but they still rely on their mother to catch their food.  As they become more independent they are less often all three close by their mother's side so when she catches a fish there is often no competition for it.  Here one of the cubs shows how to eat a raw fish in 40 seconds, mostly without using its paws.

Otters mainly eat fish of course, but being carnivores they also will be happy with amphibians, crustaceans, small mammals and birds.  Ducklings and other young birds are a delicacy in springtime but occasionally there is the opportunity of something bigger.  One night last week the mother went quickly past one of the cameras with two cubs in very close attendance and something in her mouth.  The view is brief and the other cameras missed it but I worked out she had caught a drake mallard.

By the time they reached the next camera she still had the duck and wasn't letting go. Unfortunately she then took it away as I would have loved to see how she dealt with it.  All three cubs followed, hoping for a share of the spoils.  (The moaning sound is from the mother otter, not the duck!)

The cubs will have to work on their fishing skills before they become independent in a few months’ time but I expect it will be some time before they can catch a duck.

Non-target captures on OtterCam

The otter family has been keeping a lower profile recently.  At one stage they were absent from the cameras for a week, possibly because the mother is taking the cubs farther afield to show them that there is more to the world than one lake.  They also haven't shown up much in daylight recently but here's a little night-time wrestling match between the two cubs who seemed to be taking it very seriously.  They are now bigger than their poor mother and I think she got a nip at one stage.

At present fewer than 1% of the trail camera recordings show otters.  Many of the others are of non-target species, especially moorhens, water rails, coots, robins, reed buntings, dunnocks, blackbirds, herons and wood mice.  Last week there were three notable captures of non-target species.  First a common snipe with the added bonus of a Cetti's warbler singing, a little grebe and a bumblebee on the audio track.  I even heard and saw the Cetti's when I was checking the cameras.

Then a stoat, first in daytime and then at night.  Being a stoat it was too fast for most of the cameras but this is what they saw between them.  It is interesting that the stoat is aware of the cameras switching on in the dark.

Thirdly a badger who was very aware of the cameras switching on as well.  The Cetti's warbler was singing in complete darkness.

The reaction of the stoat and the badger to the cameras is interesting.  The first time a trail camera switches on at night there is a click from the mechanical infrared filter moving into position but these weren't the first recordings of the night which probably shows that both animals can see the low-glow (850nm) infrared light.

I am having big problems with false triggers on the cameras in their current positions - recordings made when there is no animal at all.  It seems to be caused by the waving shadows of the reeds on sunny days and because of the cameras' positions there isn't much I can do about it.  It fills up the cards and runs down the (rechargeable) batteries so it isn't the end of the world but it does mean I have over 1000 videos to look through each week.

Finally a little bonus from the mallards, who never seem to look where they are going even in daylight.

Unusual garden birds

The pond in my meadow is just entering its third season.  It was made for wildlife, particularly dragonflies, but this wasn't quite the wildlife I had in mind.  Last week I looked out of the window to see two drake mallards walking along the drive.  I picked up a camera and when I opened the door I could see a female swimming around in the pond.  At first one of the drakes was trying to keep the other one away from her but soon they were all in the water.  The female didn't seem interested in the drakes and was either feeding in the pond or falling asleep.  Here are a few photos.

On balance I don't think the ducks will be good for the pond, so if they return I shall discourage them.

Winter water birds

It has been very cold for the past few days and the local ponds and lakes are frozen.  All, that is, apart from one end of Kilingworth Lake, a mile from here.  There the birds have manage to keep a patch of open water and there are hundreds of them crowded in.  I didn't get worthwhile photos of all of them but the birds I saw included black-headed gull, Canada goose, common gull, coot, gadwall, goldeneye, herring gull, little grebe, mallard, moorhen, mute swan, pochard, shoveler, and tufted duck.  They were all very close in and very hungry, so prepared to tolerate humans.  It was a great opportunity to see them close up and to take a few photos.

For example, it isn't often I see a goldeneye this close.

The most numerous duck was tufted duck.

I also saw a few male pochards.

And mallards.

The gadwalls weren't joining the party, preferring to take a nap on the ice.

Other partypoopers were shovelers.

I am used to seeing shovelers on the water but I hadn't realised how small they are until I saw this one next to a mallard.

Gulls present were black-headed gulls,

herring gulls,

and one first-winter common gull.

While I was watching several people brought food for the birds.  The swans and gulls in particular saw them coming and raced across to meet them.  The ducks, coots and geese joined in the scrum.

The thaw started today so the birds will be able to spread out across the lake again or disperse to nearby ponds and lakes.

Youngsters on CulvertCam

The culvert camera is set mainly to keep an eye on the otter(s) but does detect all sorts of other visitors.  At this time of year they often include youngsters.  The first video shows a mallard and two ducklings (quite a small number for a duck).  The ducklings don't fancy the ramp and return down the pipe.  After calling them the mother gives up and flies back over the top to meet them back on this side.  The video has to peer through a spider's web over the lens.

On another occasion the ducklings were hesitant about going up the ramp but presumably did make it up as the camera didn't record their return.  They did come back early the next morning. By the time the camera is triggered mother and one duckling are already half way down the culvert but the other one lags behind and drops over the edge of the sluice gate as it hurries to catch up.

Water rails are often recorded on the culvert camera, more frequently than otters.  On this occasion one appeared with three small black chicks.  One chick disappeared round the far end and the other two followed mother back past the camera.  Six minutes later one chick is seen running up and down, trying to find where the others have gone.

I can't work out what the loud tapping noise is in this video as none of the visible birds seems to be making it.  Any ideas?

Bird of the week - Scaup

The blog seems to have been taken over by trail cameras and mammals since the turn of the year so here is something different.  This handsome duck has been resident all winter on a municipal lake only a mile from here.   At first he was a bit difficult to pick out from all the tufted ducks but now he is coming into his finest breeding plumage. This is a male scaup, also known as a greater scaup, Aythya marila.

The scaup is a diving duck and makes a very energetic leap as it starts its dive.

The scaup is in the same genus as tufted duck and pochard.  It has a similar shape to a pochard and similar colouring to a tufted duck.  Here is the scaup with a tufted duck behind.

Thomas Bewick described the scaup in volume II of A History of British Birds (1832).

He wrote

John James Audubon painted a pair of greater scaups for Birds of America.

Archibald Thorburn also painted pictures of scaups, this one showing a female as well.

Other male ducks showing off their colours on the lake were goldeneyes,

tufted ducks,

pochards,

and mallards.

Scaups are uncommon winter visitors to the UK.  They breed in the arctic so this one will be heading north quite soon. Scaups also breed in Northern Canada and from there they migrate to the USA for winter.