What's happening on my local patch?

What a week it has been on my local patch. At the beginning of the week it seemed like spring had finally sprung, mornings were warm and sunny and the wildlife responded. The Fox cubs were playing on the old vicarage lawn:

He's behind you. A cub watches me while his sibling pounces on him.

Fox cub enjoying the morning sunshine.

The birds were singing strongly, including this Stock Dove, note the gorgeous iridescent green neck patch:

Stock Dove singing.

A Sedge Warbler in the Hawthorn blossom:

Sedge Warbler singing.

The last couple of days have reverted to overcast and cool mornings with the cloud clearing during the day. I came across a family party of Long-tailed Tits moving through the trees up past Church End this morning. The youngsters are really cute and their parents are working hard to keep them fed. You can't miss them, they are so noisy, continually calling to each other.

Juvenile Long-tailed Tit.

Adult Long-tailed Tit with food for the young.

I tweeted about this Common Whitethroat a week or so ago. It's song is a strange variation to the norm. Rather than the normal scratchy phrases it has pure phrases, very like a Blackcap but it retains the short, clipped phrases of the Whitethroat. It has Blackcaps stationed either side of it and when it starts to sing it often seems to set them off until they realise it sounds a bit different.  I've never heard this variation before so I recorded it on my iPod, and this morning I finally managed to get a picture of the bird in question, it has been really mobile and stays tucked away in the cover except for the occasional song flight, when it does revert to a more normal song:

Common Whitethroat

Here is the normal Common Whitethroat song for comparison:

Back to the Badger Sett

Last week I finally got around to putting the trail camera back up at the Badger sett and this morning I collected the card and checked out the results. On my first visit a noticed a lot of new earth works around the sett including a new hole out along one of the well used trails. One of the original holes appeared to have collapsed but there was obvious signs of activity around the main holes where I have had the camera before. This time I chose a new part of the sett where there was some fresh sign of digging. The Badger here seems to have taken a shine to the camera!





You will have noticed that I finished off with a short clip of a Fox which stopped briefly as it passed through.

Not sure if this is the best place for the camera, the vegetation cuts down the view a bit, but I'll give it another week and see how it goes. Might try that new hole along the trail next week to see what is happening there.

News from the sett

This last couple of weeks at the Badger sett has seen quite a lot of interest in the camera. The best 2 clips follow:

Recent weeks has seen a lot of charging about by the Badgers. There seems to be a bit of a territorial dispute going on. This last week it turned into a war:

The rats were also present on and off and a Fox, see clip below, made regular visits over the 2 weeks.

Sunday 12th August

Had a pleasant wander along the river at Kempston Mill this morning and caught up with one of the Fox cubs at Church End. Haven't seen them since I first photographed them but this chap was out and about early on. Looked a bit wet so not sure whether it'd had an early dip in the river or had just been laying in the dewy grass. Beautiful light first thing:

Fox cub

There was a noisy Sparrowhawk family at Biddenham Loop CP. I managed to get this distant shot of one of,  at least, four birds which were calling constantly. At one point they were all in the air together but they just wouldn't come across to my side of the river to allow better images: 

Sparrowhawk

On the edge of the new build I came across a couple of young Common Whitethroats, one of which below, in an uncharacteristic environment:

  

Common Whitethroat

On the return leg along the river at Kempston this Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling from high up in a dead tree:

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Latest from the Badger sett

Highlight this week was another new species for the site. This time a Brown Hare did a quick circuit of the Badger sett.



Since moving the camera I have not had the variety of wildlife pass by which is a little surprising given the camera is only about 20 yards from the previous position and looks back towards the old position. This week a Fox passed through which made a nice change.



And finally the Badgers. After last week when the badgers seemed to be taking loads of bedding into the sett, this week appeared to be maintenance week with many clips of the Badgers digging out the sett holes. Here are a couple of the digging clips followed by one where a couple of the Badgers indulge in a little mutual grooming.



To highlight the amount of activity around the sett this week the previous 2 weeks the camera captured 18 and 27 Badger clips. This week there were 63 clips! Maximum number of Badgers in a clip still stands at 3, hopefully we'll have a cub or 2 soon.

Badgers and Fox in the snow this week (W/C 04/02)

Wasn't expecting much from the camera trap this week given the snow and very low temperatures but I was pleasantly surprised.

Badgers were out in the snow several nights, I have put together a few clips covering a couple of nights:


This foxed passed through on the Sunday morning following the heavy snow on Saturday night:


Also had this Muntjac pass through on the Saturday before it snowed:

Camera Trap W/C 22/01/2012

Another new species, on camera, this week, although a little less exciting than some of the previous first timers.
A Grey Squirrel passes through.


A Fox also showed up but was unusually wary of the camera.

Camera trap footage W/C 07/01/2012

Some camera trap footage from last week.

High Speed (Wood?) Mouse. Two clips edited together from separate nights. The first night a mouse (blur) enters the frame from the left and enters the rabbit hole, before leaving back the way it came. Then look for the eye shine on the right of the frame where the mouse sits, on another night, before crossing the frame and leaving to the left again.



Also last week, a Fox passes through during the night and then again the following morning.



There was also a lot of Badger activity again but not much interesting behaviour, just the usual movements to and fro.

I think one did stop for a scratch on the tree the camera is attached to which was quite amusing. Just watched a wobbly video clip and then a Badger comes into frame :-)

22 December 2011

I finally got around to putting the camera trap out at a new location. Thanks to JB for the tip off for the new location which is close to a Badger Sett.

First night (22/12/2011) was an excellent start, first up were a pair of Muntjac. They were very timid in front of the camera and definitely seemed to know something was out of place. Probably picked up my scent on the camera. About 3hrs later a Fox passed through and a few minutes later a Badger, the target species. Another 45 mins went by and the Fox came back again.
Not bad for the first night but there is more to come.