As summer slips into Autumn, YewView is heaving with mellow fruitfulness…. in more ways than one! I have now been working at this beautiful site for just over a year and we have nearly 30 cameras in place and numerous Bushnells that I regularly have spread around the site. With that many cameras, all recording footage 24-7, it is now quite a mammoth task to keep on top of all the weekly footage and to check to see if we have any interesting footage to upload before the hard drive is cleared for the week!
I am sure you have seen footage of our stunning Kingfishers that are regular visitors to the site. Fishing from a post at the wildlife pond, there are a number of individuals that grace us with their vibrant presence every day and our wired HD camera at the location produces stunning recordings each week. I never tire of looking through the footage from this position, but cannot keep all that we record, so try to just upload a selection that sum up the amazing insight we have into these birds’ lives through our cameras.
Last week, as I was walking past, I was delighted to see the male on the perch… you can see me in the background!
I uploaded a couple of videos from the hunting post from this week. One shows why these kingfishers come here….. it is heaving with life and this female has success just about every dive! We don’t always get a dive and reappearance on one clip as there are so many perches around, but this clip shows her hunting… (make sure you select to watch these videos in HD)
… and this clip shows the vibrancy of their plumage, which varies from sky blue to aquamarine, depending on the position of the sun!
I am hoping to get some audio on this camera very soon.
I have also been trying to get some Bushnell footage of these beauties on another perch I put in. I have experimented with the 46cm lens and the 60cm lens on the NatureView and it has taken me about a month to finally get footage of the kingfisher exactly where I wanted it. It is always worth persevering to get the clip you want!
These clips are available in 1080P HD, so make sure you select it by clicking on the cog icon!
… and this last one shows that, even with strimming going on really close, this individual is still happy to hunt here!
I also lifted some stills from this footage… what totally stunning birds… they have to be one of my favourite Yew View species!
It is not often now that we get a new species on our cameras, but as I was looking through the Bushnell footage from the river bank, I was amazed to see this ….
A Water rail!!! This is a new species for the site and brings our total up to 65 species! It seems to have hurt its leg, but let’s hope it reappears on our cameras in the coming months!
This site also produced another great visit this week… beautiful young fox in daylight!
and last week, a Sparrowhawk with its kill; a greenfinch!
We have not had many visits from the otters… just one by this rather handsome male a few weeks ago…
A species that we have not captured much on the cameras, but I am sure is present, are weasels. In the last year, I have only got one Bushnell clip. This week I was delighted to see one at the Badger sett entrance. Blink and you’ll miss it!
The Foraging Feeding Station yields great clips every week with badger, fox and numerous birds feeding here, including the buzzard. The badgers are looking really healthy and I uploaded this clip to show it foraging for food around the rotten logs I laid out.
Finally, I have been working with the Bushnell and the 25cm lens, to try to capture some footage of shrews… not an easy task. They are SO fast! So far, I have one clip….
This spot, this week, however gave me a lovely daylight clip of a Bank Vole…
and some clips of young rats and wood mice!
This is just a snapshot of what is happening on a weekly basis here and I would probably find even more clips if I could spend longer looking through all the recorded footage each week! It just goes to show what wildlife a 7 acre site can support if managed sensitively for wildlife! I hope you enjoy the footage as much as I do!
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