The buck stops here

For some reason roe deer always seem to be a bit bigger than they really are.  I suppose we usually see them in woods or fields without an accurate sense of scale.  It is only when they stand next to something we can appreciate that they are about the size of small sheep.  I saw this handsome buck when I was out looking for dragonflies in Gosforth Nature Reserve.  I don't know why he didn't see me as I was in the open, just the other side of the pond.

As he went up the bank he passed a tree guard to give a sense of scale.  Roe deer are very keen to browse on newly planted trees so we use thousands of tree guards every year as we replant the woodlands in the reserve.

I was downwind so I don't think he ever knew I was there, despite the clicks from the camera.  After posing for a few moments he wandered into the woods.  I was able to get the measure of a roe buck once as it stood next to my gate post.  To the tip of his antlers he is 1m tall.

* "The buck stops here" is a phrase used by US president Harry S Truman.

Out and about in July

I haven't been able to get out and about so much this year, for obvious reasons, but I went on a small expedition on the last day of July to Slipper Tarn, a small acidic pond surrounded by tall trees in the National Trust's Cragside Estate at Rothbury.  It is a good place to see dragonflies and there were hundreds on the wing on the hottest day of the year so far.  The most numerous by far were black darters and you can see how small they are from this immature male on my hand.

This is a mature male.

A newly-emerged female.

And a mating pair.

I could see lots of patrolling male hawkers but they were flying incessantly in the heat.  I didn't manage a single photo of a southern hawker but did find this pair of common hawkers in deep shade in a rhododendron.

I saw at least half a dozen other mating pairs but they mostly flew high into the trees out of sight or out of the range of the camera.

One surprise was seeing lots of large red damselflies as they seem already to have disappeared from ponds closer to home.

Earlier in the month I saw a pair of mating emperors at Banks Pond, the second time in three weeks and the second time ever.

Common darters are now very common

and I have seen a few ruddy darters.

I keeping promising myself that I won't get too interested in hoverflies but some of them are quite striking.  This one is another bumblebee mimic, a male Eristalis intricaria.

This one is a female Volucella pellucens.

And this one is a female Xylota sylvarum.  All three IDs confirmed by the kind folks on the UK Hoverflies Facebook page. 

On another expedition I went looking for a golden-ringed dragonfly but didn't find one.  I did find some butterflies including a comma,

a small pearl-bordered fritillary, the first I have ever seen,

a small tortoiseshell,

and dozens of ringlets.

The last two times I have been to Banks Pond there has been only one adult swan and only three cygnets.  I think the missing swans have been predated as there were a lot of feathers around and the surviving adult looked sad and was letting the cygnets swim around on their own.

Fox and cubs

Last night was the first time I have seen two cubs together this year.  Mother and the short-tailed cub were here as usual when I spotted another fox sitting in the shadows.  It was a second cub and although it moved into the light it didn't come for food.  I managed only these three photos before the vixen moved off, taking the second cub with her.

The short-tailed cub is here every night and prefers it when it has the food to itself.

The dog fox is now fairly intolerant of the cub, which is learning to keep its distance.  The dog had been in the wars again this night but as the injury is on his shoulder it might be just a scratch rather than a bite.

The cub does still try to creep in for some food

but is likely to get snapped at.

The father's tail is a warning.

The cub's tail tries to respond but half of it is missing.

The vixen turned up a few minutes later.  Her posture (low, ears flattened, lashing tail) is very submissive.  The video is a bit amateurish but it does show the interactions between them.  There is no sound because of the double glazing (and the radio was on in the kitchen!).

The foxes usually turn up after dark but are sometimes earlier.  The vixen is usually here first.  Here she is seen from the kitchen window by the iPhone, with my attempt at a meadow and the copse in the background.

The latest from OtterCam

I have been experimenting more with twin trail cameras for the otter videos.  The cameras are still in the culvert as this is the most reliable place to see the otters, although usually in the middle of the night.  The otters are well used to the cameras which are clamped on the downstream end of the pipe.  The cameras are fairly close together and the otters squeeze between them.

Then they shimmy up the ramp over the sluice gate.  The cameras haven't picked them up coming the other way recently.

The left hand camera is now fitted with an extra +0.5 dioptre lens and is in focus for more or less the length of the pipe (5m).  The right hand camera has the standard lens and focuses beyond about 3-4m.  Both these are low glow cameras working at a wavelength of 850nm but the left camera seems to respond better to the double illumination, even though it is the older of the two.  The newer camera struggles to get enough infrared light at distance so here I have cropped it and pushed the exposure as much as I can in iMovie.  There is obviously an imbalance in exposure and image quality but it does provide continuity.

The second time I tried was better.  The otters were moving at 5.30 this morning so there was some natural light.  As the cameras were recording simultaneously I also balanced it better by using the audio track from the first camera for the whole sequence.  (I am learning but there is a lot to learn.)  The mark on the pup's back is just a leaf.

The culvert is 75cm in diameter and the visible length of the ramp is 78cm so it is possible estimate the size of the otters.  I think the mother is about 70cm nose to tail and the pup is about 60cm.  The pup seems more agile every week.

More Fox News

Interpreting fox behaviour isn't always straightforward.  It is all to do with ears and tail and body posture.  In the spring, when the vixen was suckling her cubs*, the dog was content to let her feed first and he often lay on the lawn to wait his turn.  That is no longer the case and he now makes sure they all know he is top dog.  This encounter started as I was watching the cub feeding with its mother.  The dog fox suddenly raced in to displace them and take over the food.  The vixen retreated in a very submissive posture and the cub went over to her for reassurance.

The cub went back for a few biscuits but you can see the dog wasn't happy (ears back, tail curled).

The vixen had moved round to the other side and the cub again went over to her again (the dog's tail is curled again).

Suddenly the dog snapped at the cub (too quick for the shutter speed on the camera) and sent it packing.  Look at his tail in the air.

And then he snarled at the vixen (with his tail curled).

Sensing that he was in a proper bad mood she retreated a short distance.

The cub was still hungry and decided to try its luck again.

This time it was accepted but it was wary and kept a safe distance away.

In contrast, on another night the dog fox fed quite happily with the cub.

I have also seen a second cub for the first time.  This one has a full tail, so is easily recognised.  So far it has only turned up once while I have been watching but it may also come after I have gone to bed.

* Marc Baldwin's website, Wildlife Online, says that a lactating vixen has double her normal calorie requirements, so perhaps the dog fox senses that.