Two new boxes were set up this week at Yew View. …. you can never have enough nest boxes up, especially when you have 7 acres to fill!! One box is a bit different though… it is a bat box. We have a number of bat boxes up around the site, but most are wedged shaped and not suitable for a camera. I found a larger nest box, with ridges at the top to bats to grip and ceramic, ridged tiles on the sides, offering lots of rough surfaces for bats to grip onto. This box gave me enough room to mount a small nest box camera in the base, looking up. It is likely to get pooped on, but hopefully we will get some footage! You can put a camera in a new bat box, but once the bats are using the box, you cannot touch it unless you have a license We will be installing lots more bat boxes at Yew View this year and will have licensed bat monitors to check them for us a couple of times a year, so we can see which species are visiting.
We also had a kestrel box to put up. This box is suitable for kestrels, stock doves and jackdaws. We mounted it high in a tree above the wild flower meadow. There are not many trees big enough to support this box. We hope something shows an interest. Although we have not put a camera in this box, the outside is viewable from out PTZ camera.
The tawny pair are still showing a lot of interest in our nest box, visiting every couple of nights. There is a lot of vocalisation between the two as well, which is promising. This week, I wanted to get up and adjust the focus which had been knocked by a squirrel. The squirrel beat me to it the morning I arrived and, pushing his head past the camera, he chewed through the cables to my lights in the box. Luckily, with an electrician on site, he was able to make some emergency repairs, so I could get everything back in the box before the night visits…
Make sure you opt for HD footage on the clip.
and after the lighting and focus was adjusted…..
The badgers are also regularly visiting our Camera Sett, tempted in by some peanut snacks, but they are still very active at the original sett, where we only have cameras on the outside. Some straw was placed outside and they did not waste time taking advantage of it!
The Kingfishers are looking stunning and this male spent a lot of time hunting from our post this week. We have not seen much of the female this week, but this footage shows the male hunting successfully and looking strong and healthy, hopefully getting into breeding condition.
I was keen to see how the new view on the Harvest Mouse Platform was looking…. it did not disappoint… you can’t help but fall in love with these beauties!
It is not surprising that it is difficult to see these little guys in the wild… they are SO fast. In a fraction of a second, they can be gone! This clip looks like he is on Fast-Forward, but this is not speeded up at all!!
Finally, after visiting Dave Culley, we have been on the look out for some large hollow logs for our next Tawny nest…. we may have found some..
There was a definite feeling of Spring in the air this week and the promise of lots of camera excitement in the coming months!