Box End Park WeBS: 20/05/2012

It was overcast, drizzly and quite cool at 8°C.

Pretty quiet for the WeBS count this morning:

Canada Goose 2
Common Tern 18
Cormorant 1
Grey Heron 1
Kingfisher 1
Mallard 15 Also 5 ducklings with no adult present. 2 of the adults recorded had 10 and 2 ducklings.
Mute Swan 13 One of the swans carried Orange Darvic 744.
Oystercatcher 1
Skylark 3
Total number of species: 9 Individuals: 55

I also had a party of 22 Swallows through north west and another 3 local birds, probably from the stables across the road. Some of the other species recorded were:

A flyover Lapwing
2 Common Whitethroats
3 Blackcaps
2 Chiffchaffs
1 Garden Warbler
2 Reed Buntings
1 Sedge Warbler

No Otter this morning but I did see one near the island on the river at the south east corner of the park on Friday morning (18/05).

This week at the badger sett

I moved the camera last week. It's still looking over the same area but slightly set back and higher up. I may have to rethink this as the clips are a little dark but it does give a good overview of the sett.

Lots of comings and goings this week at the Badger sett. The following clips show some of the interactions between the badgers, with the final one showing some play fighting.



Not sure whether it was the new camera location making it better able to capture the passing Muntjac, or whether there were just more muntjac around but the following is a selection of the Muntjac clips this week. the second one shows one passing a badger and the third one has a great backing track from a singing Blackcap.



Finally a brief clip of the Roe Deer passing through again.

Worrying time...

I found a Hedgehog, killed by a car, just across the road from my house the other morning. I was concerned that this might be one of the hogs from my garden so I set up the trail camera to check what was going on. When I checked the footage this morning I was pleased to find not just one, but two hogs taking advantage of the meal worms I had put out on the lawn.


You might also spot some extra eye shine in the first clip. I think this is a Wood Mouse taking advantage of the fallen seeds from the bird feeders. I need to move the camera closer to confirm this.

Trophy Cam bags another new species for the site

This undisclosed site in Bedfordshire is really proving to be a great wildlife spot. This week a Roe Deer passed through:


Not much Badger activity recorded this week because the batteries ran out in the camera. There was one Badger about on the first night but no digging or interaction. I have re positioned the camera this week. It still overlooks the same area but it is a little further back and a little higher in a tree. Hoping to get a better overview of any activity, a bit like Stephen Plummer has here.

Badger activity over the past 2 weeks

I had a marathon session yesterday afternoon going through 2 weeks of trail cam footage from the Badger sett. I usually change the card each week but didn't get up there last weekend, I'll try not to miss a week again as I had 350 clips to go through. This was a bit surprising as there have only been just over 100 clips each week recently, but there was more Rabbit activity around the sett these last 2 weeks with a couple of young rabbits showing up regularly. There was also a really busy sett maintenance night on the 28/04 when the Badgers were busy digging out the main holes around the sett. This activity racked up 44, 30 second, clips in just under an hour. Here a couple of clips from that batch:


Still haven't seen more than 3 badgers at any one time and still no cubs :-(

The following clip captured a male Tawny Owl calling. I have increased the volume of the soundtrack but you may still need to increase the volume on your PC to hear it:



Don't forget to turn your PC volume back down again ;-)