Yew View is providing more great footage and, as I review the captures from last week’s Bushnells and other cameras, it is just incredible the amount to wonderful wildlife captures we are collecting!
A species that eluded us for a while were the otters. We knew they were around as they had been seen by numerous people in the area and we had found spraint at various points along the river, but none of it consistently appearing. Despite setting up Bushnells, the otters pretty much evaded us. We tried to lure them in using fish bits and we trained the PTZ cam on the bowl. We have managed to capture a couple of clips there, but the otter is unimpressed with our offerings! Going by the size of him, there is no shortage of fish and other food in the Severn, so he does not need to snack on our meagre offerings!
We have been having more success down by the artificial holt entrance. This male is regularly checking out this site and we captured him on four different occasions last week in this area.
The Bushnell is back in that same position… and our next aim is to capture this individual in daylight!
Daylight footage is something we have been hoping for, from our resident badger family, and this week is the first week we captured some. It is dusk and there is only just enough light to keep the camera in daylight, but we have one badger emerging from the sett entrance! Great to see and we hope more of this occurs over the coming month, with the appearance of cubs very soon! (Make sure you opt to watch the videos in HD)
A fox also made a daylight visit to the sett…
The feeding station has also been giving regular great footage. Lots of arguing and ‘bum-shoving’ as individuals push the others away from the food!
The swallows are pretty active, swooping a swirling over the site. If you stand in the garage, they zoom over your head and come so close at such high speeds, it seems incredible that they do not collide with anything! The Swallow nest cam 1 is shown loads of activity, with soft materials now being bought into the cup and the female spending more time sitting on the nest. We should get some great clips from this camera.
The wren nest, although it now seems finished, has not had many visits in the last week. With the swallows giving up on using this space, they decided to build in the next beam space along. They were very busy flying in and out with beak fulls of mud and straw, so I moved the camera over to film them instead. The exposure is rather difficult due to the darkness of the space and the lightness of the beams, but I will adjust and play with settings over the next few weeks. It is fascinating watching them mould the mud, with saliva to create the cup shape….
Finally, the stock doves are seriously considering our Tawny box…
and the rats, as usual are continually finding ways to make the most of the food on offer!!!
