Chinese Deer In Staffordshire

Today's post is a camera trap one, but not one from the fox denn like I had said. There will be a post on that out soon, but first we will have a look a some footage from a different location. If you remember last year, I set up the camera trap in the Churnet valley to try and get some footage of the UK's smallest deer species - the muntjac. I didn't get any muntjacs on the camera trap, but I did get a sparrowhawk and a bat. I also set it up in a different place in the valley for a few weeks, but didn't get a thing. There have been quite a few sightings of muntjac in the churnet valley but as far as I am aware there is no public footage of any (I believe Staffordshire wildlife trust have had footage of them on camera traps they set up to observe wether or not there might be a very small pine marten population in the valley). The only other place in Staffordshire that I am aware of a muntjac population is Cannock Chase which is quite a bit further away to me than the Churnet valley (there likely will be other populations elsewere in the county).  

Anyway, a few weeks ago I set up the camera trap in a new spot at the top of the valley in an area of woodland where the trees are very sparse, and the ground is covered in bracken which is perfect muntjac habitat. I had found an obvious trail and strapped the camera up to a tree to see what it would pick up. 

Historically, muntjac are a recent addition to Britian's fauna. Like with most british deer, they escaped from wealthy estates in the 20th century after being brought over from China. The owners of estates liked excotic deer and it is the same story for fallow deer, sika deer and the very rare chinese water deer. The main source of the UK 's (most notably England's) muntjacs was an escape from Woburn park in the early 20th century, where they have spread across the country up to the west midlands and have become very common in the home counties. They have spread pretty much everywhere now from the midlands and south, with one population being in the Forest of Dean where I had a few dodgy photos of them on the camera trap in 2020 while searching for wild boar.  There are a few small pockets of them in Wales and no established population in Scotland despite the odd one being reported. Northern English counties are a bit a of a grey area. They wouldn't have all come from Woburn, with a few other escapes and releases likely. However they got there, there is an established population in the Churnet valley in Staffordshire. They're the animals I wanted to get footage of. 

Flash forward a couple of weeeks and you get to today. I went to get my camera trap and upon arrival learned that the memory card had got full after 3 days, which is a bit annoying as I likely missed out on some footage between then and now. The odd thing was that as I flicked through the photos and videos, nothing appeared to be there - it seemed to all just be leaves or something blowing in the wind that for some reason set the camera off constantly which is something I will have to fix. I was beginning to lose hope and started to wonder wether all the footage was like this when a finally had something. A squirrel. However, the next few files seemed to have something a little bit bigger. In the early morning hours, two muntjac appeared out of the bracken and onto the trail I had found:

My knowledge on muntjacs isn't great, but as far as I'm aware I didn't all the deer where female as none had antlers although I could be wrong. The next night was also succesful. First was this great video of a  badger (only my second badger clip of the year but it is a really good video):

Then two more muntjac appeared. One of them is a bit smaller than the other but I can't tell wether it is particularly young or not. It is possibily though as they give birth at any time of year and it would show that it is a healthy breeding population.

Muntjac are super quick, as this clip in the morning shows:

I believe we got fooatge of about 3, and it is the best footage that we got of them:

Unfotunatlley, that was all we got before the memory card ran out of space. I'll have to put it out there again soon. It's another one to tick off after three attempts at recording them, and another one that I've ticked off in this brilliant spring for the blog. Anyway, that's all for todays post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Watching Fox Cubs

A few days ago, I found a burrow that I thought was a badger one so I set up one of my camera traps. As it turned out, it wasn't a badger sett but actually a fox denn. Some of the footgae from the camera trap we have had already is amazing, with videos of the fox cubs (I believe there is about 5) fighting over food and exploring the area. There will be a few posts from that camera trap out soon, but tonight I walked down to see if I could see the cubs for myself. 

Once I got to the denn, I set up and tried to get comfy in a bush a few metres away from the earth. After about two hours, I had my first glimpse of one poke its head out. Even though I knew that the foxes were there, it was still had a sense of something unexpected about it. A few minutes later and more of them appeared. I think they could sense that I was there as they weren't leaving the burrow as bravely as they had been on the camera trap, but there were still a few chances for some brilliant shots. Unfortunatley, the camera was struggling to focus because of the low light so most of the photos werent that good. However, if you keep trying you will eventually get something out of am encounter like this. This was one of the only in focus photos, but the two hour wait in a cold bush was worth it for this phtoto alone. It's my favourite photo I've ever taken of a fox, even better than the one last year. The shot doesnt just have one fox though; it has two:

I can't really put into words how pleased I am with this picture, another one to add to the amazing collection this year. This Spring has been the best few months I think I've ever had wildlife watching and we still have a month left. The shore lark, osprey, red squirrels, roe deer, barnacle geese, wheatear and now this photo of these two fox cubs, all in two months. Stay tuned for more posts on the fox denn, as the camera trap already has and will hopefully continue to capture some more brilliant footage.

Scotland - Day 3

 The final day in Scotland had a few nice suprises. We drove to Caerlaverock castle and once we finsihed looking around we walked to the coastal anture reserve. I was expecting much but once we got to a hide I used my thermal imaging camera to spot some roe deer about a kilometere away. It was a good job I had a long lens on the camera. It was so far away that the land you can see behind it is actaully Cumbria:

There wsn't just a doe, there was also a buck lying down in the grass:

After we spotted a huge flock of barnacle geese we walked around to see if we could get a closer look. The geese were super far away, maybe even a mile:

 

Luckily I did manage to get a good photo when some flew over much closer:

Barancle geese are pretty rare, I've only ever seen one before at Sandbach Flashes.

The geese weren't the only bird I saw though as I saw a red kite, kestrel and even a few wheatear. I'd never seen a wheatear before and when one landed on a fence post I managed to get an few pictures:

That's all for today's post, and that's everything fromm the Scotland trip. It was one of the best weeks of my life for wildlife watching and I can't wait to hopefully go back to Scotland in the future and see what else I can find. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Scotland Trip - Day 2

 On the second day in Scotland we drove about an hour to galloway forest. It's the biggest forest in the UK and we enjoyed a walk around the dense woodland. After that, we headed up to a red kite feeding station. There was food being left out for them at 2:PM and about 100 red kites form within a 15 mile radius flew in ready for their lunch. A few were circling the field and others where perched in the trees: 

When the food was scattered about, the kites swarmed in - it was pretty incredible to watch:

Once the kites had fed, they dispersed into the surrounding trees:

It was amazing to watch all the red kites feed and get so close to them. I got some of the best red kite footage I have ever had. I definetly recommend going to somewhere that feeds them as it is an amazing sight to see. That's all for today's post, remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

Scotland Trip - Day 1

 This is probably the best post I have ever made for this blog in my opinion. Some of the photos I took of the rare creatures I found are incredible, and proabaly my best yet. On the day after we arrived (so the first full day) in Scotland we headed out to Threave Castle nature reserve. The aim was to see a rare bird of prey called an osprey. Ospreys have always been my favourite bird of prey since I saw one in the lake district a few years before I started my blog. Obviously I was too young to take any pictures but it's been a bird I've wanted to photograph for a while. Ospreys nest at the nature reserve and there was a hide looking over a river onto the nest. It didn't take long to see an osprey though, as before we even reached the hide I spotted it perched high up in a tree on the other side of the river. Luckily the camera I was using has a super long lens so I managed to get some good photos despite it being pretty far away:

It then landed on the nest briefly but I was too slow to get a good picture before it flew off again:

Ospreys weren't the only thing we saw at Threave as we also saw a red kite and a quick glimpse of a roe deer:

After we had seen the ospreys we drove twenty minutes south to Barhill woods near Kirkudbright. We went there to hopefully get a glipmse of a red squirrel. The red squirrels there are fully native as well, unlike populations in the highlands and elsewhere in the UK, the squirrels there were not introduced; they have been there long before the greys. We walked around the woods looking for a hide where food is left out for them (which took a long time for us to find) and once we reached it we saw a few other people photographing something up in the trees. The hide was locked, but it didn't matter as a red squirrel ran down a tree and hopped off. These were some photos I took of it:

When that one ran off, another one appeared at the food: 

Then the other squirrel reappeared and a got some amazing footage of them chasing each other up a tree:

One of them grabbed a nut and sat on a branch with it. That's where I got some of my best photos and video of the trip:

I think that this photo is probably the best I've ever taken:

I got down to the ground and tried to take some more level with it on the floor:

Seeing such a rare animal and getting so close to it is amazing. Along with the osprey, it was probably the best day I've ever had wildlife watching. I'm not totally against grey squirrels as they're here to stay now and it's not their fault that they're here in the first place but imagine if the reds where (as our native squirrel) everywhere, in all the woodlands across the UK. They look nicer and are more secretive and less likely to scare other birds off your bird feeder. Unfortunatley, the greys are the top squirrel now, and it doesn't look like it's going to change. There is a lot being done to help reds though and small areas of woodland like Barhill woods are crucial to the reds, especially if there are no greys. Anyway, that is all for today's post. I've still got loads more to show you from the Scotland trip so check for more posts over the next few days. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!