It was great to be back at Yew View this week and to catch up on the captures from over the Christmas period. One of the first cameras I checked was our Tawny Stump, but sadly it is still only the stock doves and the squirrels in and out of there. With the relatively mild periods so far this winter, there has not been much activity in the other box either; only 1 visit over the festive period.
There were a few Kingfisher perch appearances…
The stock doves are very interested in this box as well, with lots of visits..
The most interesting footage this week was of our polecat. We have had sporadic views of it around the camera sett and some nice clips of it coming inside. This week’s footage was at the other badger sett. Sadly, we only have cameras outside of this sett. Over a few days, the polecat seemed to spend time inside this sett, even though I am pretty sure the badgers were around as well. There are two entrances to this sett but we do not know how many chambers there are or tunnel system.
These clips are the best views we have had so far. I was interested to see the rolling behaviour. I wonder if this is scent marking behaviour? Great to see this mustelid more commonly now…
I am considering trying to create a polecat residence to attract it… will need to do a bit of research into what the makes the best home for polecat looking for a ‘des res’ !!
Finally, we currently have a very dark male and female pheasant around. Last year we had a leucistic individual (Very pale but not albino). The dark female appeared on the cameras this week. This clip shows a normal coloured female and a couple of males as well.. they are very visible on site at the moment.
