May 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in May. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in May 2013.

Oh dear. These results are quite frankly pathetic. The total number of visits (excluding cats) is down from 16 to 6 even though I had the camera out for the same number of nights, i.e. 15.  I have no idea why there were so few wild visitors. Maybe there were busy breeding, maybe I placed the camera badly. There was much less variety. No deer or badgers and just a few foxes.

A curious fox. I know it's a back view but it really amused me.

April 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I my Bushnell Trail camera out in April. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below. 

Animal visits while the camera was out in April 2013.

 The total number of visits (excluding cats) is up from 14 to 16 but I had the camera out for 15 nights rather than 9.

Fallow deer visiting on the 8th of April. The deer is not white, the security light has fooled the IR.

So what have I noticed?

• I now have fallow deer visiting as well as foxes and badgers - I was surprised not to have captured them before as, in previous years, they had been regular visitors, but they are certainly making their presence felt now.
• peak time is still the 1 to 3 am slot.
• there is a more varied pattern - with some bumper nights and some with no visits before - previously the visits were more evenly spread.

In previous posts, I noted the number of garden visitors in February and March.

A busy night in the garden

I've been putting out a Bushnell trail camera since the start of the year and been pleased to get pictures of foxes and the occasional badger but last night's visitors were special.

Fallow deer buck, photographed 11:52 pm GMT on 7th April 2013.

I supposed I should have expected something like this. One of our neighbours had seen signs of deer around the area for the last couple of weeks but there has been no evidence of them coming into our garden. Then, as I was coming back from picking up the paper, I noticed some poo on the path.

After work, I uploaded my pictures and here's the results:

Time	Species	Comment
7:51 PM	cat	Heads up slope.
10:51 PM	fallow buck	This is a big fellow and I think I recognise him. He has odd antlers - one flattened and one not. He browses round the bottom of the big atlantic cedar for a while then heads down the slope. There appears to be another sitting on the right-hand side of the photo (not shown).
23:29 PM	badger	Moves along foot of hedge towards oak.
00:30 PM	fox	Moves quickly down slope.
01:08 PM	fallow buck	The same buck as before, emerges from behind the Atlantic cedar and heads up the slope.
2:19 PM	badger	Heads up slope towards atlantic cedar.
3:10 AM	cat	Slinks along foot of hedge away from oak.

I've got no idea why we got so many visitors. It was warmer than it has been for a while. The deer have been out and about for some time - so maybe something spooked them and they hid in the garden. Whatever the reason it was a real pleasure to see so many garden visitors.

March 2013 - Garden visitors

In an earlier post, I noted the number of garden visitors I captured on my Bushnell trail camera over February.  Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 9 nights I had it out in March. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in March 2013.

The total number of visits (excluding cats) is down from 23 to 14. I am excluding cats from the grand totals because cats visit day and night and I don't often have the camera out in the day time. However, I am including them on the graph because I am interested in when they visit and their encounters (if any) with our wild visitors.

So what have I noticed?

1. Fewer visits by wild mammals. The number of visits was to nearly half - some but not all of this can be accounted for by the camera being out for about for 9 rather than 12 nights. Maybe the rest is down to the unrelenting cold weather.
2. Peak visiting time has shifted from the 11pm - 1am slot to 1pm - 3pm GMT.
3. We have badgers!
4. Most visits are foxes.

One of our foxy visitors near our daffodils.

Although it has been bitterly cold this month I can see that, comparing this month's photo with February's, the daffodils have grown from a couple of inches of leaf to their full size, including a few flowers.

February's visitors

I've had my Bushnell trail camera out for 12 nights in February. That's most of the fine nights. Over that time I've been looking for a pattern. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in February.

Sometimes a fox goes through early in the evening. These early visits tend to be fleeting, with the fox often moving through at speed. I had already worked out that we usually get a midnight visit and, as you can see that is the peak time. These visits can be quite lengthy with the fox sniffing and sometimes digging in the grassy area. As we get nearer to morning, these visits tail off; the latest for February being at 4.23 am.

We are getting a few night-time cats. Like the foxes, the peak is around midnight. However, I have not yet seen both together. We also tend to get cat visits just as the light is fading and at dawn.

The 'midnight' fox, which visited at 11.09 on 24 Feb 2013.

This wasn't a very representative survey. I had my camera out for less than half the nights in February and never when it was wet. However, I am beginning to build up a picture of their habits.

Snow weather and wildlife

Over the last week, I've been carefully monitoring the weather forecast and waiting for the predicted snow. Meanwhile it seems that the wildlife has been making its own predictions.There has been a flurry of activity round the bird table.  Birds of all sorts were gobbling down as much food as possible. We even had a song thrush teetering, in a rather undignified fashion, on the edge to grab a particularly tasty morsel. 

For some years I've noticed that sea gull behaviour is a good predictor of the weather. A big flock in the valley means a storm is brewing. At 8:30 on Friday morning about two dozen were swooping round The Dene. At 9:00. the snow started.

Pied wagtail, photographed on January the 19th, 2013

One bird I always notice in the snow is the pied wagtail. They seem to become bolder in this weather, even fluttering around the Dene while the children tobogganed on the slopes. 

 

 The RSPB recommend that we give the birds high energy foods and water. In fact, I think the most important thing you can do for the wildlife is keeping a water supply free of ice.  We find that apples and grapes are popular too. In previous years a fieldfare has visited our garden and munched its way through about half an apple a day.

It is always worth checking the tracks in the garden to see who has been visiting.  So far, it is all birds and cats. No foxes yet. You can tell the difference between a cat and a fox trail. Cats don't like getting wet and almost jump from one place to another leaving clean holes in the snow. Foxes slink close to the ground and tend to leave lines where they have dragged their feet through the snow.