Forest Wildlife in June

No Red Squirrels and still no signs of Wildcat, which I don't expect in this area at this time of year. I've been monitoring trails for deer, which are infrequent because of culling to aid forest regeneration.

Images are all straight from the cameras (Ltl Acorn 5210A and 6210MC) and resized down.

Red deer hind with young calf (Cervus elaphus) still with its spotted coat

Remote Camera results for March 2012

Badger at the test site - Camera Ltl Acorn 5210A

Roe Deer female moving along the trail just before she
stopped to groom. See video clip below.
Camera Ltl Acorn 5210A

I'm still trying to play catchup after a long job in March; which excluded just about everything else and was followed by more time spent on the water issue with the 6210 cameras.

I sent a lot of information to the manufacturers and I'm expecting to hear news about solutions to the problem, sometime this week. There's also an upgrade imminent for the 6210, so hopefully I'll have more to report in a few days time.

I have a number of favourite camera locations around the area such as river crossings and heavily used animal trails which I monitor periodically.

Some I like to keep a camera on almost permanently, and one which has a high Red Squirrel density with a main trail through it, is the site I used to start testing the 6210 and the Bushnell.

Squirrels, Badgers, Pine Marten, Roe Deer, Brown Hare and Foxes can all be seen fairly regularly. The two images on the left and the first two clips in the video below are some of the activity at this location, from this last month.

Clips are from a 5210A, the Bushnell black flash, another 5210A and a 6210MC in that order.

Red Squirrel collecting a Sitka Spruce cone from the forest floor, female Roe Deer that stopped for a groom centre stage, a yearling Red Deer nervously testing the air after crossing a river and a Pine Marten at the ford.

The ford site from the first camera location
Camera Ltl Acorn 6210MC

Pine Marten about to cross the river. Taken from the
second camera location - Camera LtlAcorn 6210MC

The clip of the Red Deer is one of a number of river crossings used by deer which I monitor occasionally; and further down the same river is the location where the Pine Marten crossed, which I refer to as the ford.

One of the entrance holes at the Badger sett by the river
Camera Ltl Acorn 5210A

The images on the left show the ford from two angles. The first camera location looks across the trail and up the river. The second camera location, with the Pine Marten just about to cross, is looking across the river and up the trail.

Badger, Fox and Marten use the ford fairly regularly and sites like this, where trails converge, are a good choke point to monitor.

I'm also hopeful that if Otter are using this river as a highway during the summer, I might capture one on this camera.

This river feeds into a larger river further down and earlier in March, a few hundred metres down river from the confluence, I discovered a new Badger Sett with fresh digging.

The last image shows one of the two holes, both of which are freshly excavated. Cameras indicate that only one Badger is present and I'm hoping it's a sow with young.

This sett is right by the river and one of the Badger's main trails crosses the river, climbs a steep sided gorge into the forest and follows an old fence line which eventually takes her to old pasture and worm heaven.

I have two cameras over the sett, another camera covering the river and another at a latrine on the fence line.

So far the Badger seems to rotate her activity about every two to three days around the different trails radiating out from the sett. I'm due to check the cameras today so more later in the week.

Camera survey of a local spruce plantation.

Norway Spruce plantation

Norway Spruce canopy

I was recently asked to carry out a survey for Red Squirrels and their dreys (nests) in a local plantation of dense Norway Spruce.

This is an area which normally shows a fairly high incidence of squirrel feeding during the late summer and autumn but the most recent signs I found were at least a month old and mostly green cone feeding from summer and early autumn.

This year has been extremely wet in this area and coupled with an almost non existent hazel crop, it's possible that mortality may be higher than normal.

I've looked, many times for dreys in this plantation and so far had not seen any. This occasion was no exception and as you can see from the images on the left, the tree density makes it an almost impossible task.

Fungi 

I used trail cameras in several places in the hope that one of them might catch a squirrel. In one part of the plantation where the most recent feeding signs were found I also discovered a group of fungi, which some animal had been feeding on. In the hope of finding out what, I set two of the cameras at different angles over these.

The other cameras I set nearby for several days but still no squirrels.

When I returned to collect the cameras I saw      where badgers had been turning the ground for earthworms and as you can see in the video composite below, the area was visited by a fox, two badgers and a Pine Marten in a hurry.

The light in the marten shot is the second camera firing. Both cameras are 'black flash' so this is just what the camera can see.

There are also two images of Red Squirrel dreys shown below for reference. These are both about 10 metres of the ground. They are not always this visible.

Red Squirrel drey in Scots Pine

Red Squirrel drey in Norway Spruce

Wildlife reactions to trail cameras

Following on from the last post, I had the ProStalk set up over peanuts in the same area and as well as the squirrel, this was visited by badger and pine marten.

The video clip below shows a badger taking notice of the visible infra red when the camera switched on. Badgers and pine martens don't seem at all bothered by this and after their initial interest, will carry on as normal. Almost invariably, pine martens will come and give the camera a close up inspection and on a number of occasions where the camera has been set close to the ground, they have marked the camera by urinating over it. The first time this happened I thought the camera was a bit sticky when I went to check the card, and afterwards, as I looked at the video clips, I realised why.

This is not the case with other wildlife. Red Deer will always be nervous and shy away from the camera if they come close or it is directly in their path. Urbanised foxes, although nervous, do seem to tolerate the IR glow after a while, but out here where foxes are really wild, all you'll usually see is the light in their eyes as they keep to the edge of the illuminated area and skirt round and away.

Close by another camera caught these Red Deer hinds and I think a yearling calf, in the early morning light.

Badger (Meles meles) trails, tracks in mud and latrine

An early morning look along the river showed where a pair of badgers (not sure if they were travelling together or separately) had been foraging earlier in the night.

The right hand trail is the main trail and the left hand is where one of the animals travelled parallel with it, which might suggest they were moving together.

Badgers, being rather low slung, leave a furrow through virgin grass and the image (left) shows moisture collected on the laid down grass, suggesting the animal had passed early in the night.

Below, in the first pair of images are left and right hand respectively, partially registered prints in mud. These pairs of footprints were about 33cm apart in a slightly staggered line, suggesting maybe it was a cub moving at a walk.

Although badgers have five toes the inner toe very often doesn't show; but if you look at the images you can make out the inner toe of the forefoot in the first two frames.

Also, they normally walk on the front of their feet and the heel doesn't show; but the right hand image of the second pair below, does show the heel pad.

Normally you'll see claws, toe pads and the large central pad. The claws on the front feet are extremely long and show almost in a line. The rear foot shows slightly behind and offset to the front foot.

In the second pair of images below, the prints are more or less registered, indicating a walking animal. When badgers trot or gallop the hind feet are set down in front of the fore print.

Badgers don't normally dump just anywhere but dig a shallow pit at a latrine site. Latrines are

found strategically placed around a family's home range and act as message posts and territorial markers.

Left is an image of a latrine pit and faeces deposited by the badgers mentioned and is located at a confluence of regularly used trails on the edge of their particular territory.

Twilight Badger

Following last nights dusk appearance of the Badger and Pine Marten, I decided that if the rain held off I'd pay the sett a visit with the proper camera.

It was threatening rain at 2000 but I went anyway and arrived at about 2030. I'd prepared a spot a few days ago under a Norway Spruce about thirty feet from the bait site and left some peanuts, back around midday. If my scent was too fresh they probably wouldn't appear until well after dark.

 I was in luck tonight. The rain stayed away and a slight breeze was blowing gently down the bank towards me so I settled in to wait and promptly fell asleep. (That will give Martin a laugh) Luckily I woke up about fifteen minutes later just in time to witness the arrival of a Badger and although it was getting dark there was still enough light to get a few shots.

I quietly left at 2110 without seeing a Pine Marten and left the Badger to its feast.

For those interested in the technicalities these two images were 1/8th second at F5 and ISO 1600.

My friend Badger

The last time I saw these two in close proximity to each other was a couple of weeks ago when the Pine Marten was chased away from near the sett entrance.

This location is further away from the sett and they seem more settled although the Pine Marten still keeps a wary eye on the Badger.

The good news from my point of view is that they both made a twilight appearance last night which means I'll soon be able to take some daylight shots with the long lens.

Badger chasing Pine Marten

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. I've had a visitor for a couple of weeks and I'm also getting the van ready for it's MOT.

This recent trail cam clip from the Badger sett shows that Badgers don't always tolerate Pine martens.


This Pine Marten was close to the sett entrance and the Badger chased it away. I think there may be cubs in this sett and the adult is never far away at the moment.

Who's living in this hole

At another forest location is an old disused Badger Sett which I've been keeping an eye on, and recently there has been some fresh digging at one of the entrance holes. This last week I decided to stake it out with the trail camera and see what might be visiting.

On the second night the hole was investigated about two hours apart by a Pine Marten and a Badger. Both animals entered the hole briefly but neither stayed for more than a few minutes.

There were no false triggers on the camera to suggest that anything had exited the hole and disappeared during the camera delay time and neither animal stayed long enough to indicate anything other than a passing interest.

For the moment I can only assume that the fresh digging is exploratory. Curiously a Fox was caught fleetingly at the edge of the light, just after 9pm on the third night, and as is usual with Foxes, was spooked by the IR. The slightest suggestion of anything out of place and the local Foxes just melt away. Again nothing to suggest it was using this hole as I would have expected it to be out earlier if it had been exiting the hole after laying up. Mind you, I still have a question mark over this as the delay time on the camera would miss a fast exit.

Just after 3pm on the second day the camera was triggered by Chaffinch's feeding on the ground around the entrance. Suddenly they were spooked by something and took off in a great hurry after which a wing briefly appeared in the right hand side of the frame. I've looked at this several times and I'm fairly certain it was a hunting Sparrowhawk but there's not enough visible to make posting the video clip worthwhile.

It did leave me wondering how often trail cameras catch this sort of event, especially as in this case, in a confined forest environment.

I've now moved the camera back to the other Sett where I'm hoping young will emerge during April but will check this hole from time to time.

Below is a brief clip of the Marten and Badger.


Who's living here from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

Badger digging for food under fallen tree

Badger hunting from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

This is a rather more sucessful close up with the trail camera using the diffuser and less masking over the LED array. The Badger was between 3 and 5 feet from the camera.

Hawke Prostalk PC2000 diffuser test

Still trying to cure the overexposure problem at close range.

This clip was taken with a diffuser over the LED infra-red light source plus a reduction of the light aperture but I've over cooked it a bit so will expose more of the LED's and try again.

The Badger was about 7 feet from the camera.

Muddy prints

Returned the trail camera to the Badger set this afternoon and checked the holes for activity.

All had sandy tracks on thawed and crusted snow.

There were Pine Marten tracks to the feeder not far from the sett and the feeder was empty so I gave it a refill. It's being used by Great Tits, Blue Tits, Wood mice and Pine Marten for certain but I've so far no evidence that Squirrels have visited, although there is some evidence of gnawing on one corner of the lid.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Badgers and Pine Martens

Last week before the return to winter weather. They're all turning up in pairs now.

 
Badgers at Sett from Ron Bury on Vimeo.
Pine Martens at Badger Sett from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

Night Life at a Badger Set

A short collection of video clips from last night at a Badger set where I'm hoping to see Badger cubs this April. Will be looking to get some photography done there as the nights shorten. Felt like spring today at 11C with sunshine and patchy cloud. ; View the video

Badger Tracks

I came upon these Badger tracks a couple of
days ago and followed them into the forest for
some way before they eventually led me to a
single hole which I didn't know about.

From its appearance I wouldn't have judged the hole to be in use, had the tracks not taken me to it. The placement of the footprints suggest that the Badger was moving fast so maybe it had been spooked and was desperate to get underground.