My mammal box has been pretty quiet over the summer. With lots of natural food, the small mammals do not feel the need to visit here. As we progress into Autumn, I usually start to get more visitors and this has certainly been the case this last few weeks. I have been having regular visits from wood mice and bank voles, mainly at night, but also through the day.
I have placed some Autumn leaves, cones and acorns in my mammal box, to create an Autumn scene and it has been interesting watching how the mice have taken advantage of these ‘props’ this week! Their instinct this time of year, is to store or stash the food. I have filmed this behaviour lots of times before. They attempt to cover the food, to hide it from other creatures,and will use whatever is available. This mouse takes all the cones and acorns, as well as the leaves, to try to hide this food. I always feel a bit bad in the morning, when I tidy up in there and put everything back!
I have a number of foxes visiting and, occasionally, they visit during daylight to see if there is any food around….
They are visiting regularly at night and can come quite early now the nights are drawing in. I try to put the food out as soon as it starts to get dark, so pop in and have a look at my live cameras… you have a good chance of seeing them visiting.
My waterhole continues to be really busy. I love it when the birds use the area to bathe as well as drink. This has been one of my favourite wildlife projects of this year as I have captured some lovely footage from it……
Finally, a great new visitor this week… a brambling has been visiting my hub feeders! It been on these feeders almost every day this week and I really hope it hangs around for a bit longer!
