Close Encounters on WaterShrewCam

The recent changes in the camera box ("weasel box" as was) are intriguing.  The water shrew first turned up on 30th August and it has been here almost every day since.  The last weasel sighting was 10th September and since the weasels stopped coming the common shrews and wood mice have returned.  Until now I have never seen more than one species at a time but this happened twice on one night, a few hours apart.  It is pitch dark of course, and the shrew doesn't have such good eyesight. The second time they must have passed each other in the entrance pipe before the mouse turned round and came back in.

Most days I feed the shrew with casters (blowfly pupae) and she usually takes them away one at a time.  Occasionally she eats in, rather than having a takeaway.  On this night she ate them all in the box, taking each one to the entrance and eating 28 casters in less than 20 minutes (I haven't shown them all), squeaking excitedly all the time.  She certainly looks well fed.

There was a bank vole in the mouse trap in the attic so I put it in under the slate and the shrew took it, like she took the mouse the first time.  She puts a lot of effort into retrieving her prize.

Shrews don't live through a second winter so this one doesn't have long to go.  I am still hoping she might appear on camera with some of her offspring.

Changing times on WeaselCam

There have been significant changes in the weasel camera box in recent weeks.  I wrote previously about the 63 visits in 31 days in July, mostly by two local male weasels with three others that only appeared once.  In August there were 24 visits, but probably a few more as I had a couple of camera issues.  On one occasion weasel 1 (white paws) took a vole but then dropped it when he heard the crows and went to the entrance to check.  Deciding that it was safe he took the vole into the pipe for a good sniff but then came back to check if there was a second vole.  Because there wasn't he picked up the vole and left.  Two hours later weasel 2 (brown paws) came in and could smell the vole but couldn't find it.  Later weasel 1 came back for another check.

Here's the video.

There is also a new weasel, the sixth in six weeks.  Judging by its size it is probably female.  The first time it appeared it could smell that there had been a mouse under the slate and spent over two minutes trying to dig it out before deciding that it wasn't there after all and giving up.

A couple of days later weasel 6 turned up looking rather damp and took a mouse.  It also came back to check it hadn't missed another one.

Next time it showed up just before sunrise so the camera was still in infrared black and white mode.  (The cameras have never seen a weasel at night in over two years and many recordings.)

Then the water shrew appeared on 30th August and has been back almost every day since.  So far in September there have been only five weasel sightings (with none in the last 10 days), so we are down from two a day in July to about one a day in August to less than two a week in September.  I don't know if that is just coincidence or if the weasels might be put off by the shrew.  That seems unlikely - I would have thought a weasel would be a threat to the shrew - although shrews are said to be distasteful to predators and the weasels may know about the water shrew's venomous bite.  As soon as there is more news I'll post it here.

One more observation is that now there are few weasel visits the box is again visited by common shrew(s), wood mice and bank vole(s) again, all in the same night and without food put out for them - the water shrew had eaten all the casters.  Perhaps the weasel smell has worn off so it seems less dangerous.

Alexandrine Parakeet

 

I see a lot of the parakeets.  They visit the feeders outside my kitchen window, several times a day and up to 14 at a time.  This one immediately stood out because of the red feathers on its shoulders, possibly the lesser coverts.  The red feathers are an almost exact colour match for the beak.

This bird stayed for long enough for a few photos but I haven't seen it since.  I assumed it was some sort of variant of Ring-necked or Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) but an internet search led me to the Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria).  This is larger, has maroon patches on its wings and a yellow/orange tip to the beak, so that's what my bird is.  The lack of a neck ring means it is either a female or a first-year male.  There are only a handful of records on iRecord in the UK and none this far north.  This bird was with the other parakeets and I suppose is likely to be an escapee.

The Alexandrine Parakeet is named after Alexander the Great who imported them from India to many European countries.  They were, and are, prized as captive birds but they escape from time to time and there are feral populations in many Middle Eastern countries.  They hang around with Ring-necked Parakeets, as my bird was doing.

News from WaterShrewCam

It is a week since the water shrew turned up in the camera box and took a mouse I had left for the weasels.  The video caused a lot of interest on the Mammal Society Facebook page with speculation that she is still feeding young.  The shrew came back an hour later, and again that night.  The video shows her searching by smell in the dark.

She was back again on the following two mornings so I put out another mouse and she took that on Sunday night.

Since then I have had no more mice so I have been leaving casters (fishermen's casters, blowfly pupae) which I had in the freezer, as you do.  And as fast as I put them out the shrew takes them away.

The shrew comes back twice a minute (I edited out the gaps in the video) so her nest or food cache can't be more than 12s travel time away, so only a few metres.  I set another camera outside to see where she goes but she moves so quickly that it doesn't pick her up.  Water shrews give birth to several litters up until August so I reckon this one will have young close by somewhere.  I'll keep feeding in the hope that the youngsters will turn up on camera as well.

One interesting thing is that there have been only two weasel visits in the week since the shrew first appeared, compared with previously about two a day on average.  I don't know if that is just coincidence or if the weasels would be put off by the shrew.  That seems unlikely - I would have thought the weasel would be a threat to the shrew.

A big surprise on WeaselCam

Wow.  This is the most surprising find on trail camera so far.  I have been putting a mouse in the camera box about once a week and until now all the mice have been taken by weasels.  And then this.  Yesterday a water shrew pulled the mouse from under the slate - the mouse is as big as the shrew and the slate is much heavier.

Here's the video.

Water shrews (Neomys fodiens) live near water (as you would expect) although dispersing youngsters can be found away from water, and I have seen one here before.  Their normal diet is freshwater shrimps, caddis fly larvae, that sort of thing, and they will take beetles, worms, millipedes, etc.  One of my previous posts documented a water shrew caching food, something I think hadn't been observed before.  I have found a 2002 report of water shrews taking carrion but I don't think it has ever been filmed in the wild before.

Varmints on WeaselCam

My two camera boxes are in the garden to look for weasels and stoats but I occasionally put in a few seeds to attract smaller animals and the cameras then record voles, mice and shrews.  I recently added larger outer entrance pipes, hoping to entice in a passing stoat but instead less welcome visitors have taken advantage.

News from OtterCam

There hasn't been much activity on the otter cameras in the past couple of weeks but as I haven't posted any otter news since April I thought I should produce an update.

The cubs were with their mother until early May and then disappeared - they were full grown and it was time to disperse to find their own place in the world.  The dog otter was a constant presence at that time.

In mid May there was one night with what I take to be courtship activity although the cameras only got a fleeting view.  First lots of chittering and whistling.

Then a wrestling or play-fighting episode.

A week later the dog otter was scent-marking and still whistling.  An hour later the female did the same, this time with a blackbird for accompaniment.

Since then I have found a new camera position.  It has the advantage of being a little farther away to give a wider view.  The disadvantage is that I have to wear waders to reach the cameras.

In this next video the otter in the middle clip is still squeaking.  I don't think it is the dog and it is probably the female but I just wonder if it might be one of the cubs still in the territory, a month after the family broke up.

Since then there have been only solo otters on the cameras.  This last video shows the female otter (I think) who may or may not have caught a fish.

If the courtship lead to mating in May the female may have given birth to new cubs last month, in which case I shall hope to see them on OtterCam in October or November.  I have now been following the otters with trail cameras for 5½ years (since February 2019) in which time there have been six litters of cubs - the first I saw only in my first month before they moved on. Since then there will have been two or more dog otters and two or more females as otters don't live that long.  Mating probably usually takes place around the time that the previous cubs leave, an otter pregnancy lasts two months, and cubs don't follow their mother around until they are 5-6 months old.  This chart shows what I have seen and confirms that otters are non-seasonal breeders and can have cubs at any time of year.  It also suggests that the average breeding cycle is perhaps a bit less than a year locally, with a hiatus in 2022, perhaps due to a changeover in resident animals.

The cubs seen in April 2021 were too small to be out and weren't seen again until July - I think the mother was moving them to a safer place but even so there was a surprisingly small gap from the previous cubs.  This may have been a new female taking over a vacant territory.

In the first couple of years I was only putting out cameras intermittently but since they have been in place all the time.  It will be interesting to see what patterns emerge as I gather more data.