The tawnies are beginning to prospect a little more and, in the last week or so, we have had several visits to the nest box. These clips show the male (I think ) coming into the box and warbling to the female. You can hear her calling softly outside. The female then comes in and does some ‘scraping’. This is when she leans forward and paddles with her feet, testing out the substrate and nesting space suitability…
This is the third year that a pair have shown a lot of interest in this box. Last year, we had mating around the box, food passes and the female spent a few days rooting in the box in the day, but then they chose to new somewhere else. Every year, we hope they choose our box… or the new Tawny stump we are about to put up!
We also had some other great visits this year from species that are less commonly seen. Firstly a Muntjac made an appearance around one of the sett entrances. You can see the Bushnell trigger and how the additional IR improves the image….
Secondly, the polecat made a couple of visits to the camera sett. This chamber is regularly used by rats, so must be quite a good hunting ground!
I had also placed the Bushnell by the badger sett, hoping to get some daylight clips of the polecat. I was thrilled to get a couple of clips…
An added bonus was a daylight clip of a stoat!
It is always fantastic to capture something unexpected and these mustelids have plenty of prey species with lots of rodents and rabbits around…
We are hoping the harvest mice will reappear in the Mammal Box again soon, but it is mostly rather portly Wood Mice at the moment!
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