OtterCam in December

The otter cub is now on its own, although it is still in the territory.  I last saw mother and cub "together" in mid November although even then the cub was trailing a long way behind, testing mother's patience.  The water level in the culvert was high in late November and the camera has difficulty detecting a swimming otter with just its nose and ears out of the water so there were few recordings.  Since then I moved the cameras to a small gully at the edge of the lake.  I had many good recordings there last winter but nothing when I tried this autumn.  Now, however, the camera is again seeing otters every night.

There is a spot a metre or two from the water's edge that they use for scent marking.  Every time an otter passes it pauses to have good sniff to find out who else is out and about, and often leaves its own message.  This is the dog.

The cub is less used to the cameras and pauses to sniff those as well.

Here is the cub going down the bank, still calling its mother, although there was no other otter recorded for several hours this time so she wasn't nearby.

And a very interesting sequence from a couple of days ago.  The dog otter went down the bank and again sniffed the message board.  As he turned towards the camera we can see he has a wound or scar near his left ear, or possibly part of his ear missing, presumably as a result of fighting with another otter.

(I have checked back through other recent recordings but there isn't another clear view of his left ear to tell how recent the injury is.)  He left the scene stage left and two minutes later another smaller otter came out of the water, sniffed, and went up the bank.  They must have been aware of each other - perhaps the smaller otter was waiting for the dog to move on before leaving the water.

And finally, a distant cousin of the otters, another mustelid, dropped by to see what had been going on but decided against going for a swim.

These videos were all recorded with a +0.5 dioptre lens on the trail cameras.  I hope the quality is OK once they have been downsized by YouTube and Blogger because the originals are really sharp.

WrenCam

I live in hope of another visit from a weasel to the trail camera box but for the moment it is nearly all wood mice.  The bank voles seem to have given up after realising there was no free food on offer but wood mice call in every night just to check.  This visitor made a welcome change.  Perhaps I should have called this post TrogTrogCam.

Through the kitchen window

I could hear the crows and magpies complaining when I was standing in the kitchen this morning but I couldn't see what they were upset about.  I knew it wasn't the sparrowhawk because the small birds seemed unconcerned.  Then suddenly a buzzard landed right in front of me.  I grabbed the nearest camera and just had time for this photo before it flew off, pursued by the corvids.

This is only the second time I have seen a buzzard in the garden, although they often fly overhead.  The last time was in the very cold winter eleven years ago but that one was at the top of my tallest ash tree so there was no photo.

Buzzards are birds of moorland and farmland and are rare garden visitors, so they don't feature in the data summaries from the BTO Garden BirdWatch.  The population has increased ten-fold over the last 40 years and they are now our most abundant raptors.  This graph is from the BTO Bird Trends.

This graph from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey shows the population growth in the North East so maybe I won't have to wait another 11 years for the next visit.

An update from OtterCam

It is a couple of months since I reported on the activity on OtterCam.  I have kept one camera in the culvert all the time because it is the most reliable place to see which otters are out and about, although it often doesn't show much in the way of interesting behaviour.  It is also the one place that seems to be free of rats - elsewhere they can trigger dozens of recordings every night.

The one surviving cub is still with its mother but is now about 11 months old so it may be encouraged to seek its own way in the world fairly soon.  In early October it was still usually close behind mother, as seen in this video.

Later in October junior was still in tow but was very distracted by something in the culvert, perhaps a strange smell.

Three hours later they returned but this time the cub was four minutes behind and was whistling loudly as it hurried to catch up.  There is a jump in the video as the cub has to re-trigger the camera.

In November the cub has been consistently farther behind and doesn't appear in the same 20s video clip, but triggers the camera separately as it hurries to catch up.  Here the mother is waiting and listening intently but eventually moves on, either not wanting to wait or because she can hear the cub is following.

The camera also saw a large single otter apparently fishing in the culvert on two consecutive days, although its prey is too small to be identified.  My guess is that it was catching small fish.  This may be a dog otter.

I will try an extra camera position soon to see if I can pick signs of the cub becoming independent.

A fox gets blown away

Foxes hate windy weather.  They can't hear because of the noise and can't smell because the wind swirls around so they are deprived of their two main senses and feel vulnerable.  Add in horizontal sleet so they can't see properly and life becomes very difficult.  Last night we had a red warning for the winds in Storm Arwen of over 60mph (100kph) which were accompanied by driving sleet.

This fox turned up early because it was hungry but it gave up and ran off after a few minutes.  You can see in the videos how its ears are flattened and it is constantly trying to look for danger.  There was no external microphone, for obvious reasons, so the sound is as recorded inside the double-glazed door.  This was a few hours before the storm reached its peak and I didn't see another fox all evening.  Tonight will be colder but much less windy.

Fox News

The foxes are now looking wonderful in their new winter coats.  They are generally here only one or two at a time so it hasn't been easy to check on who is still in the family group, added to which this year's cubs are now full grown.  I was away for a short while so they didn't get fed for a few nights recently.  Getting home late in the evening I put out some food and this was the scene about 20 minutes later, filmed on the iPhone.  The dog fox is at the back with two of this year's cubs.

Next time I looked the dog and one cub had gone and a smaller cub and another with a dark (perhaps dirty) face had arrived, so that was five foxes within the first hour.

Not included were the alpha female, who is a regular, and the two yearling vixens.  I haven't seen them for a few weeks so they may have moved on.  Also not included were another smaller cub (there are at least two) and one with a very distinctive scar on the haunches, both of whom are also recent regulars.  I think the family group is at least 7 and maybe up to 10 strong at present but it will get smaller as some of the younger foxes disperse.  I presume the alpha pair are planning to hold the territory next season, which would be the vixen's third and the dog's second.

Although the 2021 cubs look fairly alike (except that they come in two sizes), I can generally recognise individual foxes. As an example this is the alpha male

and one of his offspring from this year.  Although they are alike the dark facial markings and the colouring on the foreleg are quite different.

This is the alpha female who I recognise at a glance from her muzzle shape, body shape and ear position.

And this is one of the larger full grown 2021 cubs.

Here are a few more family portraits, first the alpha female and male and then some of the youngsters.

While the cat's away, the mice will play

Or in this case, while the sparrowhawk is away all the small birds will make the most of it.  The trail camera is set up to watch the new sparrowhawk perch in the kitchen garden but it records a lot of other birds while he is away.  Even when the coast is clear they are still very much on edge.  Here is a taste.

There is a surprising amount of activity after dark, including this rather indecisive wood mouse.