Trailcam

A new, inexpensive trail cam has been set up on the ride for over six weeks, so I thought it was time to see what it had captured and what we could learn about what goes on when we're not there. The quality isn't that great so next time the resolution will be set higher and each shot will be for 10 seconds instead of 5.  Also it might be interesting to place it in a different position and see what turns up.

Fallow

Well they're still around . During May the camera caught them regularly either early in the morning or at night. They rarely made an appearance during the middle of the day. Usually they were browsing within the birch, just at the edge of the ride.

These two were using the ride as a highway at 7.30 am on 11th May.

This white fallow was filmed trotting down the ride at twenty to eight in the evening.

The fallow disappeared around the third week of May - off on their travels into the forest, or maybe just taking another route -  and didn't come back until half way through June. 

Roe

As soon as the fallow had gone the roe deer took advantage of their absence. From 25th May the roe were caught on camera almost every day, but no fallow. The roe seem less concerned about being seen in daylight and were filmed at all times. 

Enjoying the ride at 11.47 am on 7th June.  

Here's another at 8.30 in the evening on the 8th June - a pretty typical shot. 

Mr Fox

The fox is a regular user of the ride, caught on camera at least once a week. His pattern seems to be to head north between 9.30 and 10 pm, and south in the morning between 7.30 and 8.30 am. From that I assume that his lair is probably south of the camera position.

Here he is at 8.38 am 18th June.

Human visitors

Interestingly, we don't seem to have many uninvited human visitors. The camera caught very unflattering shots of us, the deer stalkers and Mark, who appeared in the twilight after a grey squirrel shooting session. We did catch Candice-Marie and Keith, complete with cagoules, who paused and looked a bit sheepish when they spotted the camera, and quickly headed back in the direction they had come from. It seems a little unfair to post film of them.

So here's a video of a jay instead. 

And finally here's a shot of the morning sun - and of course a deer for good measure.