Garden visitors

Wow this was a surprise.  I have been here 37 years and this is the first time I have "seen" a badger in the garden.  I didn't see it of course but it showed up on the camera by the "weasel wall" in the garden.  It recorded only three videos but was here for at least an hour so I expect it had a good look around.  In the video it was eating something but we can't see what.

I still haven't worked out how it got in and out.  There is a 600mm (2 foot) rabbit fence all the way round and I can't see a hole in or under the fence so the badger must have climbed over.  I am hoping it will return and I'm working on a squirrel-proof peanut feeder to try to tempt it back.

The next morning the camera saw three pheasants, a cock and two hens.  Nine years ago I had a pheasant who regularly came to the door to be fed but there has been only one sighting since, until now.

The next photo is from July but hasn't featured here before.  The fox has obviously spotted the camera.

The camera in the camera box by the gate sees wood mice, bank voles, common shrews and pygmy shrews all the time but last week there was a very curious tri-coloured common shrew which I presume is just a colour variant.

And just earlier this week, a tawny owl showed twice on the weasel wall camera.  The second time it caught a mouse - it's a pity that the mouse didn't trigger the camera before the owl struck but it's still good to see.

There have been very few weasel or stoat sightings in recent weeks so it is good to see something other than American grey squirrels on the cameras.  All these are things I would have missed if it wasn't for the trail cameras.  It's amazing what goes on in the garden when my back is turned.

A new buck on RoeDeerCam

During the rut in July-August we saw the dominant buck chasing off a yearling and since then he has been the only one around.  Until last week that is, when a new buck showed up.  Roe bucks can be identified by their antlers so this one is clearly new.  Below is the dominant resident male with his six point head.

This is the yearling who was chased off a few weeks ago.  He has simple one-point antlers.

And this is the new guy.  He has small forward-pointing brow points but doesn't yet (ie this year) have rear points.

And here he is on video.

Roe bucks aren't territorial at this time of year so I expect he'll be able to stick around.  It will be interesting to see.

The older buck is a creature of habit and he often follows the same route in front of the cameras. He regularly takes a short cut through the water, here picking his way in the dark.

I have never seen him go back the same way.  Here he is again in daylight last week.  His darker winter coat is already nearly complete although he is still a bit foxy red around the tail end.

Making scents of the world

Animals perceive the world very differently from the way we do.  They have better vision, better hearing and a much more highly developed sense of smell.  Mustelids in particular live in a world of scent, using it to advertise their presence and to see who else is about.  The first video, from earlier this week, shows an otter sniffing almost every plank on the bridge to work out who has been there before.

Next a less welcome mustelid.   A male mink scent-marking by body-rubbing, then a female sniffing to pick up scents, and finally the female doing a bit of body rubbing of her own.

A stoat has been a regular on some of the cameras.  It was also sniffing its way around when it came across some mink scat.

Another video from earlier this week: a male weasel went through the camera box at high speed and on his return I am sure he was scent-marking in the tunnel.  He was also making a weasel sound I haven't heard before.  A couple of hours later a female weasel came sniffing through the box and picked up his scent.

Finally, to complete the local mustelid set, a couple of badger videos, although not recent.  First a badger sniffing its way around and seeming to take a particular interest in my scent on the camera.

And a mother scent-marking one of her cubs to make sure it smells like the rest of the family. The cub wasn't impressed.

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.

News from StoatCam

If like me you have a couple of dozen wood mice and voles in the freezer and have been wondering what to do with them, this may be the answer.  Since the excitement of seeing ten stoats in the garden a few weeks ago the cameras have been picking up only one at a time, although not always the same individual.  I noticed they have a particular liking for a space under a stack of large paving stones leaning against a sycamore at the end of the wall and were using it as a larder.  On one occasion a stoat went off to fetch a chunk of something, either rabbit or squirrel, and took it into the larder.  Three hours later it (or another stoat) returned and took the prize off elsewhere.

I had seen similar activity there as well so I put in a frozen vole and a couple of days later a stoat found it.  It brought the vole out and then returned to see if there was another one.  I think because stoats (and weasels) are used to raiding small mammal nests and bird nests they are always hopeful there will be more than one item of food.  This time there wasn't so it took the vole back in and either ate it there or took it out the back door as it didn't reappear.

Expecting this might become a habit I put in a mouse but no stoat returned.  Instead a magpie found the mouse and it certainly remembered and came back several times to see if I had left another one, which I hadn't.

Stoat sightings are intermittent at the moment but here's an example of what the cameras do see.

One of the cameras in the new wetland in Gosforth Nature Reserve is also seeing a stoat regularly although it is suspicious of the camera and doesn't hang around.  It is only a mile away so it could be one of the recently dispersed youngsters from here.

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 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.

Stoat kits in the garden

This week has seen great excitement in my garden.  I was away for a few days and on the first morning back I saw a stoat outside the front door and later one on the drive.  There had been very little stoat action on the garden trail cameras while I was away but on Monday evening there were four stoat kits running up and down the drive so I knew something had changed.  They were so fast and unpredictable that photographing them was difficult.

Later I saw more playing on a tree stump in the meadow.

After seeing the kits on the stump I set up an extra trail camera.

Here is a brief view of what they got up to on the wall.

Several times the cameras picked up a kit carrying food.  The first one here has a vole which it doesn't want to share and the second is carrying what looks like a rabbit's head.

After only 48 hours they were gone but they saved the best till last.  I had been wondering whether there were four or five but you can see on the next video there were ten!  I presume this is mother and nine kits, assuming there weren't more out of view.  A stoat family moving en masse like this is known as a caravan.

Here's another edit of the video with a slow motion replay to help count the stoats.

Jenny MacPherson's book Stoats, Weasels, Martens & Polecats says that a stoat litter usually has six to nine kits which are born in April or May and become independent at about 12 weeks. The book also says 10 stoats will eat about 0.5 kg of meat a day which translates into a lot of voles and rabbit heads so I expect this last video was the mother rounding them all up to move on because they had eaten all the food.

The cameras are still in place so I'll know if any of the stoats return.  Although they didn't stay long I am just grateful they came while I was here to see them.