The new kids on the block on RoeDeerCam

I started targeting the Roe Deer with my cameras only in mid July, when the kids were several weeks old and already big enough to follow their mother around.  It has taken a while to work out where they go and where best to position the cameras but recently there have been some good recordings.  Roe does usually have one or two young, with twins being common, but the first video from mid July shows a singleton.  It still has some of its camouflage and is still interested in suckling.

The next video shows twins with their mother.  Most of the videos are like this as most of the time the deer just wander about, browsing as they go.

At this age they stay close to their mother but mid July to mid August sees the rut and the kids can get caught up in the action.  In the next video one twin stayed with its mother as she was pursued by a buck but the other one got left behind.  You can hear it squeaking as it calls for its mother.  It must then have caught sight of her across the water and decided to take a short cut.

The next episode was curious.  A kid appeared to be alone although I expect the mother wasn't far away.  The buck watched as the kid jumped the stream and then followed it.  When the kid turned and approached the buck (possibly its father, who knows) it was butted away but the camera didn't see what happened after.

The last video, from earlier this week, shows a young male kid with his mother and a second doe, possibly an aunt or an older sister.  You can see the little bumps on his forehead, starting to grow the pedicles which will be where his antlers are joined to his skull.  I read in John Halliday's book For the Love of the Roe that these little bumps start to grow at three months of age.  They will drop off in February and his first single-pointed antlers will then start to grow.  Roe bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year and it will be three years before he is a six-pointer.

Staking a claim on RoebuckCam

The rut may be over but the bucks are still putting themselves about.  Although the young buck is not old enough or strong enough to hold a territory he is still keen to make his mark.  The first video shows him scent-marking.  He has glands between his hooves that leave a scent when he paws the ground and scent glands on his neck and cheeks and at the base of his antlers which he rubs on the tree.

As you saw, he ran off at the end, perhaps aware that the dominant buck was nearby (and followed him a couple of minutes later).  The older buck returned after 20 minutes to check out the younger one's message.  He's a full "six-pointer", probably 3-5 years old and in his prime.  It is interesting that he didn't attempt to leave his own scent, something an otter would always do.

Here's another video of the older buck, this time running and barking an alarm call.  I didn't see what had spooked him because nothing else appeared on the camera.

Until recently I didn't think much of roe deer as subjects for trail cameras as all they ever seemed to do was wander past, occasionally stopping to nibble the vegetation (the twins a few years ago were a notable exception).  The last few weeks have proved me wrong and have produced some memorable videos of more interesting behaviour.  Let's hope the deer can keep up the interest as we move away from the rut.

The buck stops here

The roe buck has been busy with the rut in the past few weeks but he now looks as though he is due a rest.  Although the cameras have been in the same positions for a few weeks he looked a bit suspicious at first when he saw this one.

After standing for a few minutes he decided it was safe enough to lie down and was flicking his ears as he was bothered by flies.

Most of the time was just chewing the cud.

At one stage he was so relaxed he fell asleep, although his ears show he was still alert.

He also had time for a bit of grooming.

Eventually it was time to move on, almost an hour after he lay down.

He was back the next day but didn't have time to stop.

The roe deer rut

The roe deer rut takes place from mid July to mid August so is now at its peak.  The bucks are busy trying to intimidate each other and impress the does.  The first video shows an older buck chasing off a younger one.  There was an element of good fortune in this video because the bucks are travelling much too fast to trigger the camera in time.  However, a few seconds earlier a kid had appeared at the side of the frame to start the recording but then disappeared, perhaps because it heard them coming.  The slow motion replay is at 1/8th speed.

Although mating occurs now the pregnancies won't begin until January after delayed implantation, so the young will be born next May.  This year's kids are now about two months old and must be wondering what all the excitement is about.  Here a doe runs off to avoid the younger buck, leaving him and her kid looking rather puzzled.

The bucks follow the does around to show their interest and to be ready when the doe shows hers.  Here the older buck was trying to look cool as he followed the doe through the woods but he misjudged a jump and fell in the water.  Let's hope she wasn't watching.

In a couple of weeks' time it will all calm down again so we'll hope for a bit of excitement from something else on the trail cameras.

RoeDeerCam

Roe deer are regular non-target captures on my trail cameras but because the cameras are set low to look for otters I usually see only the deer's knees and ankles.  Occasionally there is a good view of the whole animal, as in this recent video of a buck.  Deer have a very acute sense of smell and this one sniffed out one of the cameras.

Another video from early spring, again on a camera set to look for otters.  It begins with a doe taking a leap in the dark, then two does and a buck in daylight and buck making the return journey.  The buck still in velvet and all in their darker winter coats.  This is a very easy jump for a roe deer which could leap much higher and farther.

Roe deer on the otter bridge

The trail cameras are set primarily to keep an eye on what the otters get up to but they record whatever comes into view.  At the moment fewer than 1% of recordings are of otters.  Non-target captures in late spring and early summer were mainly of young birds, especially water rails, moorhens and mallards, but there are plenty of mammals as well.  They now outnumber the birds and in perhaps ascending order of size they are common shrew, water shrew, bank vole, wood mouse, field vole, brown rat, grey squirrel, red fox, badger and roe deer.

Deer aren't the most exciting subjects on trail camera because they usually don't do much but the kids are charming.  They are now a couple of months old and still have some of their camouflage but they find the bridge a bit of a challenge because it is built rather like a cattle grid. If you have dainty hooves it requires a bit of concentration to get across safely.  Here are mother and the twins all managing easily this time.

Here one of the kids has discovered the camera.

Here is one of the twins showing how not to do it.  After falling through a couple of times it came back to have think but realised it was left behind and had to try again.  You can hear it squeaking as it set off a second time.

The last video shows one of the kids on the bridge.  As I said, roe deer don't do much but it is quite relaxing to watch if you have a couple of minutes to spare.

SardineCam 2

Two of my cameras have been on tour again, this time to Denise and Phil near Riding Mill in South Northumberland.  As before, one camera was set up with a sardine scent lure and the other was in a camera box.  SardineCam was set in woodland edge for the first week and within woodland the second week.  It recorded 1061 videos in all, most of which were of wood mice.  As last time, the mice were fascinated by the sardine smell.  A domestic cat also came by to sniff but the highlight was a roe doe.

Passers-by taking no interest in the sardines were fox, American grey squirrel, robin, blackbird, song thrush and wood pigeon.

The camera box was set at woodland edge in the first week and recorded 546 videos, almost all of wood mice.  In the second week I put it in a rough grass field, still not far from woodland. This time there were only 163 videos and almost all were of shrews - common shrew, pygmy shrew and, most excitingly of all, a water shrew.  There is a small garden pond nearby but the nearest large pond is 160m away across a railway line.  Here are the three shrews in frame grabs from the video to compare their size, body shape and tail length, common shrew above, pygmy shrew middle and water shrew below.

And here is the video.

It was fascinating to find another water shrew away from water, so soon after the one in my garden.  Here is a montage of more water shrew action, all high speed.

If anything the common shrew is even more frantic.  It was interesting to see it collecting the sunflower seeds I had put in.  Shrews are insectivores but water shrews and common shrews both take sunflower seeds in my garden.

The smallest of the three, the pygmy shrew, seems a bit less hyperactive.

We did get a glimpse of a vole but it was very shy and didn't venture past the entrance pipe.  I can't tell what it is with any confidence but from its size I suspect it is a field vole rather than a bank vole.

So no mustelids, which we were hoping for, and no wood mice in the field, but it was great to see all the shrews.  And it is fascinating that moving the camera 50m from woodland to grass completely changes the clientele.  I am not sure it will be worth persevering with the sardine lure but the camera box seems by far the best way to see small mammals.

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.

A surprise in the meadow

I have been caught out a few times before so I always check the coast is clear before I put out food for the foxes.  This time I looked through the kitchen window and thought the fox was here early.  Then I looked closer and saw this.

There was just time to grab the camera for a couple of shots before the buck moved out of view. I don't know how long it has been here or even if it is still here.  The top of the garden is pretty overgrown, deliberately left wild for things to live in, but I wasn't expecting a roe buck.  I am not even sure how it got in.  In previous years I have left the gate open for the deer in late winter or early spring but they have always left in early morning.  It would be possible for a roe deer to jump the 4ft gate but there isn't much of a run up.  The lowest fence is 4ft as well but it is nearly all overgrown with hedges.  If the buck stays I hope it doesn't eat too much of my meadow.

End of year review - Video 6

This is the last of my end-of-year trail camera videos and is my favourite.  I don't often target roe deer because they aren't very interesting subjects - they usually just wander past the camera.  A fair amount of planning went into this.  I knew the twins were about and I used two cameras to cover a bigger field of view.  Even then it turned better than I had hoped.

The buck stops here

The roe deer rut is over for another year.  This handsome chap was probably still getting his breath back when I met him last week.  He seemed completely unconcerned as I watched from a path only 20m or so away, looking up occasionally to keep an eye eye on me as he continued the more important task of eating.  He is still his foxy-red summer coat.  It will get thicker and darker as autumn progresses.

An intimate view on RoeDeerCam

Just a short post this time, with only a couple of videos.  The cameras have recorded a mother and fawn in the rain, almost too close.  The camera is set to record for one minute but will go on for longer if the target is still detected so I have trimmed the video a bit.  It is amazing to see the fawn so close up and curious about the camera.  The fawn is probably only about six weeks old but has already nearly lost its newborn camouflage.  I expect it will soon follow its mother all the time.  The doe is still moulting but the bucks are already in their foxy-red summer finest.

The second video shows the fawn on its own at midnight.  To start with the action is on the upper camera, a standard low-glow (850nm) trail camera.  As the fawn moves across the scene the video cuts to the second camera which is a no-glow (940nm) and for a few moments it benefits from the light from the first camera.  When the low-glow stops recording the no-glow is on its own, with a noticeably poorer picture.  After a few seconds the fawn re-triggers the first camera and the picture improves again.  It is interesting how much the cameras (the no-glow especially) benefit from extra lighting.  I have been using additional lighting or multiple cameras for the otters for a while but it isn't as easy to achieve out in the open for the deer, although it is something to think about.  The fawn is calling throughout and is obviously starting to eat for itself.

Both cameras are still in place and if anything else interesting turns up I'll post it here.