Video Catch Up

 Spring and summer are always a busy time and this year has been no different. With Otter Cam now added to my main camera processing time has increased. A weeks data can include between 200-300 video clips and images. Video clips are each 10 seconds long but that can still take awhile to process and identify the individuals shown.

This has meant that some interesting footage has been recorded but not yet put up and so this post is an attempt rectify that.

First up is a late Spring Video blog to updated the winter one I made,

Next is an update on the youngsters on the site. I had believed the Foxes had not bred this year. The dominant male, Half-tail hasn't been seen since the winter and even then looked very old and haggard. A younger slimmer Fox was seen on the site who I assumed was the offspring from last year, however to my delight a single cub has been sighted on my main camera and I suspect they are using a den site nearby, but with both my spare Bushnell trail cams out of action from water damage I can't check that.

Another of this years treats was the increased number of sightings of Roe Deer. The small herd is perhaps 4-5 strong when the dominant Buck is counted. I noted earlier in the season that one of the does was looking very pregnant and I was looking forward to seeing the fawn. Then nothing, she disappeared for several weeks and I assumed that she had had the fawn and was looking after it out in the scrubby grassland. This week however mum returned to Otter cam and I got some lovely footage of the fawn, all full of life and some nice touches between mother and child. The footage shows the fawn with still some juvenile marking, the white spots are just visible and I suspect it is about a 3-4 weeks old at this point.

Whilst otter numbers are not the same as they were last year the smaller individual is still visiting at least once a week and marking the territory, last week I caught some interesting interactions with the Otter chasing a Muntjac, it is unusual behaviour. Neither is an intrinsic threat to the other but the otter definitely wasn't comfortable with the small deer's presence

To finish up lets look at the Badgers, they have been remarkable absent from my main camera, I think their main passage route has changed and so they don't pass the camera as much as they used to. Even so I have caught the glimpse of a small individual who is probably one of this years Cubs. On Otter Cam however one of the Sows sauntered down and spent a good fifteen minutes cleaning herself and delousing. I love how they sit on their backs and scratch their bellies.

Mayfly Fodder

 

Sometimes things have an eerie way of coinciding. I am a long-time watcher of Springwatch. It’s a great programme for both the expert and the novice wildlife enthusiast. I loved the early days with Bill Oddie who brought a level of childish enchantment with the natural world that very much resonated for me, he could at times be a little much, but I was saddened when he left and was replaced by Chris Packham. Chris exemplifies the more scientific side of me, and his analyses add much to the calibre of the programme. It was last week that one article in the programme caught my interest.

Chris was explaining how nutritious in omega 3 oils certain insects were and that those of an aquatic nature had the highest contents. It was after this that whilst I was down on my patch that this year there was a profusion of Mayflies, more so than any other. Whilst sat on the riverside I noticed several small birds flitting out over the river catching them. At first, I thought they may have been Spotted Flycatchers. They breed up neat the church and very occasionally come down to the river. It was also possible they were Blackcaps or Whitethroats. Seeing one alight on a branch I was able to get a binocular fix on them. To my surprise they were common old House Sparrows. I don’t often see House Sparrows on the patch and if do then they are usually in the winter.

Over the spring I have started to see them by the handful and their presence catching mayflies proved that they were breeding on the site or possibly close by. Mainly granivorous birds, they feed their chicks exclusively on insects. The quantity they seem to be consuming suggests these will be some very happy chicks fully of omega three.