Rainy Week in the Woods

 Not too much on the trail cameras this week as it has been a bit wet and rainy. Firstly, lets see what we got on the first camera trap on the woodland edge. 

First were a few squirrels - here is a good shot of one:

One of my favourites of this post was this jay:

The highlight of this post for me is the first redwing of 2026. We have't had one since early spring last year when they all returned to Scandinavia. I wonder where this particular one stopped on the way?

A few pigeons:

That was all on the woodland edge camera, now lets see what was on the log camera.

After a few squirrels, we did actaully get another jay:

There were plenty of squirrels about.

And a fox at night:

Here's a cool video of a squirrel:

And here's one final video of one eating a left over conker or something:

That's all for this week's post, remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading!

New Spot and a Fox in the Snow

 Following on from my last post about losing footage off memory cards, its happened again :(. We had an amazing picture of a fox right in front of the camera that we unfortunatley lost due to some dodgy memory cards. Thankfully, my dad was able to recover the video of the fox and even though we couldn't get the picture back, it is better than nothing. Its still a fantastic video and one of the best I have had in a while.

Now, for the rest of this post we are going to check out a new spot where I have set up a second camera trap. For some reason, I had not set the dates and times so ignore the time stamp at the bottom. I will remember to set them properly next time I put it out. I will try and give you an idea of when they were taken.

First thing we we got was a magpie:

This spot was also good for squirrels that made for a funny video of one chasing a magpie about:

Here is a video muching on a conker left over from autumn:

It's not just squirrels and magpies though as on the second night a fox wandered past.

It returned again the following night:

Here is a great video of it running over the log:

Here is a robin on the log on the top left area of the screen:

Here is a blackbird and a squirrel:

However, it was a night or so later when we got some deer action.

Here a doe can be seen jumping over the log:

She was shortly followed by the buck who had just begun to grow out his antlers again.

There's a real close up of him here:

The doe came back and started to move about the ground before lying down:

It was there for a good while, an hour or so at least. Eventually it got up and had a good stretch:

About 20 minutes after it had walked off screen, the buck came back before quickly running off again:

Another doe (it could have been the same one as before) came back a bit later and also had a lie down:

Some of the next footage is the best. The buck returns and jumps over the log past the doe. I really like this first picture:

After that, the buck comes back to the doe and they leave, whilst a third one, presumably another doe watches on in the distance.

We didn't get much else other than squirrels, so i will leave you with a nice picture of the snow:

That is all for this week's post. I will definitely be back at the log spot with the new camera and keep up with the usual spot with the old camera as usual once the new memory cards arrive. That's all for today's post, remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading.

Best Footage of 2025

 Hi everyone, sorry this is the first post I've done for a while but it is because of a few reasons - I've been and testing out some new spots but with little success and also because of a faulty memory card. I took some brilliant photos of herons, a water rail and even a weasel but unfortunately they were all deleted. Anyway, hopefully 2026 will be another good year for my blog. 2025 has been brilliant, and today we are going to look at my top ten favourite photos/videos of the year.  Firstly, a few honourable  mentions should go to the fallow deer in the Forest of Dean, the bird we had on the river, some of the brilliant woodpecker footage we have had, the marsh harriers, the sparrowhawk, the bat, other birds we've seen and some of the amazing fox footage we have had this year that haven't made the list. Anyway lets get into it:

10. Badger

We got loads of good badger footage this year, but nothing spectacular. I couldn't do my top ten without including one though so here is my favourite badger photo of the year:

9. Dipper

At number 9 is this dipper we saw on the river Churnet. It was the first ever dipper I had seen.

8. Redwings

About this time last year a flock of redwings moved into the woods and stayed until early spring. We caught them in several spots and got some great photos:

7. Egret

When looking back at all my photos over 2025, this one of an egret fishing is one of the best.                     

6. Fox out in the Day

This is the first of a few foxes in today's post. This was taken by my camera trap back in march and was one of the many amazing fox photos we have had this year.                                                                                  

This is the first of a few foxes in today's post. This was taken by my camera trap back in march and was one of the many amazing fox photos we have had this year.

5.  Roe deer buck

I think its pretty obvious to see why this is in my top ten:                                                                            

4. Seals

On our north Wales trip we saw a big colony of seals, including a baby one. Here is my favourite photo taken that day.

3. Fox cubs for a few weeks in summer we had the camera set up near the fox den where the vixen had been raising her cubs. Not only did we got lots of nice bird footage there but we also got some really nice fox cub footage. One video even had about 5 cubs in it.

2. Avocets

Avocets were a bird I really wanted to tick off the list this year and we did so at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands. After a marsh harrier scared them on the other side of the lake, they settled down again right in front of the hide.

1. Summer Foxes

While out a short walk testing a new camera, we caught some amazing fox footage. There were seven all together, and I highly recommend clicking here to see that post. There were so many good photos of the young ones jumping about and others of the vixen staring righting the camera. if I had to pick one though, it would be this one:

That's all for 2025. 

Some of my targets for 2026 are:

-recording a weasel (again)

-recording a water rail (again)

-spotting a spoonbill

-recording a wild boar in the Forest of Dean

Thanks for reading.

November Fox

 Here's some footrage from last week.

Here's a badger on halloween:

Here is a squirrel:

Here's a fox on the first day of november. I believe it is one of the young ones although I could be wrong.

We did get another glimpse of badger but no good footage. That's all for this weeks post, remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading.

Cattle Egret at Doxey Marshes

 We were back at Doxey Marshes on the weekend on quite a damp day, which wasn't the best for taking photos with the new camera. Anyway here are some of the birds we saw:

A flock of canada geese:

A mallard duck:

Here is a cattle egret, a pretty rare bird in the UK (the white bird in the middle):

I also managed to get a few good photos of a heron and great egret in flight:

There is a good size comparison here between the larger great egret and the smaller cattle egret:

Here's another photo of the great egret:

Finally, here's a photo of two gadwall and a shoveler:

I should have a new camera trap post out soon, hopefully on the weekend. That's all for this week's post and thanks for reading.

Early Morning Deer

 Back in the usual woods for a few nights, here's what we got:

 Early on Wednesday morning, we got two roe deer (a doe and a buck) wandering past:

They came back in the evening too:

Finally, very early on Tuesday morning we got one of the young foxes:

That's all for this week's post. Remember to leave a comment and thanks for reading.

North Wales Wildlife

 Over the last few days, we've been to wales north Wales in the campervan to try and spot some wildlife.

Day 1 + Day 2 Early Morning

 On the first day of arriving we saw this red kite:

We also scared some female pheasants off the road:

This photo of a male pheasant I took the next morning on the campsite is a bit blurry because I took out of the van window:

RSPB Conwy

We headed to a nature reserve called RSPB Conwy, which is on the south side of the river Dee estuary. If you  remember, we went to RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands in the summer (where we saw the avocets and marsh harriers) which is on the north side of the Dee estury. 

The first birds we saw were little grebes. There were loads of them everywhere - I'd never seen so many in one place before.

A little egret appeared nearby:

It then flew down right in front of the hide:

There were also 3 or 4 snipe about, that proved to be quite tricky to get a photo of.

Here is common sandpiper that was a good way away:

On the estury there were birds such as redshank (small, grey and red legs), and oystercatchers (tall, black and white, long beak and orange legs).

Coastal Wildlife

After walking around Llandudno, we headed to a small nature reserve right on the sea called Porth Dyniewaid, to try and find a species of mammal that I had never seen before. Shortly after parking up we walked to a cliff face overlooking a huge flock of cormarants:

However, it wasn't the cormarants that we were there to see. Below them was a 'bob' of 16 grey seals. A few of them were resting on the shore and others were dipping in and out of the sea. Here are some of the pictures we got:

There was even a young seal, probably only a few weeks old, that followed its mum into the water:

Seeing the seals was so cool, and they made some interesting sounds too. Easily one of my favourite wildlife sightings since starting my blog. 

That's all for this week's post. Thanks for reading, and I'll leave you with a picture of the north Welsh sea: