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.

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.

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.

At least two Badgers at sett

Second Badger at sett from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

A second Badger made an appearance at the Badger sett in the early hours of Friday 25th February. I think that one of them is a Boar responding to scent marking by the Badger I believe to be a Sow. Mind you, it's all guessing as it's difficult to analyse with infra-red video clips, especially when each one is only 15 seconds long.

As I said before, I'm hoping there are young in the sett which will come above ground in early April if all is well. The sett has only three main entrances and is probably not that large underground, so I don't think that there will be many permanent occupants.

Wood Mouse hunting Badger from Ron Bury on Vimeo.

I called this second clip "Wood Mouse hunting Badger" but I'm not being very serious!

I hope the Lizard I saw yesterday found a warm bed for the night because we had a frost early today.
So much for spring. Mind you, it's been quit pleasant today so far, though not as warm.