Actually, they were Fallow deer...

Last week I posted a video of some deer. We weren't sure what species they were, but thought they might be Roe. We know better now, thanks to people on the Wild About Britain forums - they are Fallow deer. Here's the video again in case you missed it:

Mike

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Six wild boar, two pigeons and a fox

Here's some assorted videos from our trail camera for you... First, the largest group of wild boar we've seen yet, and the first time the male is with the others:

Next, one wood pigeon chasing another one in front of the camera:

And finally, two videos of a fox. First, in the early morning, with the camera still in infra-red mode, and then later in the day, but also with an unidentified creature running very fast the other way along the path - any ideas what it is? It's about 8 seconds in, and you'll probably want to switch the video to HQ mode to see it.


We've now moved the trail camera to the other side of the wayleave, into the wood that my friend Alex owns. It's by an animal trail and a seasonal stream (dry at present), so it'll be interesting to see what it picks up...

Mike

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Wild boar - lots of them this time!

As I said, we put our trail camera back near the mud bath the boar like to use, and we were rewarded with some results! In this video you can see four boar together at one point. At the end of the video is a single boar on its own - this was actually taken the next evening. This makes me think the big boar at the end might have been a mature male, roaming on his own, while the group could be females and adolescents. Anyway, watch the video and see what you think:

We didn't just get a boar, we also got a rabbit as well. OK, not as exciting, but here's the video anyway:

Mike

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And now some deer videoed on our trail camera!

We're really pleased with this - we only put the camera in this location, actually quite close to our little camp in the woods, yesterday! At about 8pm last night these deer wandered through! You can see that the first is a male, the second a female, and the third another male, but with an antler missing - presumably lost in a fight. The fourth looks smaller, perhaps a younger one?

We've already moved the camera back to where we got the boar earlier in the week, but lower to the ground. I think it was pure chance that we got deer at the spot near our camp so quickly, but we'll try the camera again there at some point.

UPDATE: we're not sure now what type of deer these are - any more opinions welcome!

UPDATE 2: The consensus is that they are Fallow deer, thanks to people on the Wild About Britain forums.

Mike

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Wild boar video!

At last the trail camera has paid off! We got a film this week of a wild boar in the "mud bath" they use in my parents' wood, next door to ours.

I've started the video with a few seconds taken during daylight (with nothing there) to set the scene, and put the same clip at the end as well. This helps because the footage was actually taken at around 2am, so the camera is in infra-red mode. You can see the boar wandering around looking for stuff in the mud, and also make out its eyes reflecting the infra-red illumination from the camera.

Next time I'll position the camera a bit lower down, and hopefully get a better view that way, as the main area of illumination was above the boar in this video.

Mike

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Trail camera: A fox and a butterfly

We finally have some interesting wildlife on our trail camera! Here's a video of a fox having a sniff around our pond:

Here's a more bizarre one. What I think happened is a butterfly landed on the camera, triggering the motion sensor, and then proceeded to crawl over the lens while it was recording. Given the colours visible, and what I know is flying around the pond right now, I think it was a White Admiral.


Mike

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First animal on the trail camera!

At last we have something other than people walking dogs on our trail camera! OK, it's not very exciting, but it's a start, and until now we didn't know that pigeons liked to drink at our pond. It's also good to know that something as small as a pigeon will trigger the motion sensor:

We also got these enticing but unclear pictures, which I think might be the tail of a fox, or something similarly sized (bottom right of picture). There's two pictures taken close together, for a "now you see it, now you don't" effect. They were taken at night using infra-red illumination:
More to follow when we get something interesting...
Mike

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