Deer cam

The trail cam was up taking photos and video on the ride in OC1 from 9th -20th June. We were hoping for all sorts of wildlife, but what we got was - deer.

Mostly the camera caught individuals, usually appearing between eight and ten o'clock in the evening. It was good to have confirmed that the deer management is having an affect on numbers. Heading south to north, they often stopped to feed on the holly hanging over the ride.

This chap was an exception - he appeared at 07.51 in the morning

The fallow have had their babies in the forest and are now coming back to Old Copse. This mummy and baby came through on a Tuesday afternoon just after four pm.

They stayed in the wood until half ten in the evening, when the camera caught them heading back the way they came - this time in the dark.

After 12 sightings 9th-12th June, fallow sightings stopped apart from a couple of individuals several days apart - again at their favourite times of 8-10 in the evening. 

We don't see that many roe deer, so it was good to catch this individual taking advantage of the fallow's temporary absence to have a good run on the ride. 

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.

July

 We ignored the prolonged bad weather of winter 2010/11 and created a new ride to give views of the pond. It will do for the time being but needs to be widened. Some of the spindly  birch has been cleared around the sallow to create better conditions for this to thrive in the planned ' willow grove'. There's some regeneration along the ride edge and in the birch clearing, though  regrowth might have  been eaten by deer. There's some improvement along the road edge and at the sunnier end of the ride as a result of  our determined bracken control .

 The kingfisher didn't  appear again after the winter, and although a single great crested grebe was seen earlier in the year, there has been no breeding this summer.  No sign of the white admiral butterfly either. It is not clear if this is because they have been absent, or just been missed. Perhaps  rideside clearing has destroyed some  honeysuckle they use as a foodplant, although there is  still plenty of it growing  in shady locations next to the ride edges.

Sightings: A  group  of newly fledged birds including most of the tits,  young nuthatch, (with much duller plumage than their colourful parents) , and a family of treecreepers. Blackcap and chiffchaff were singing in the wood, rather surprising ,   as the wood lacks the shrubby growth they prefer.
A  grass snake on the ride,  sidling away rapidly up the bank . A short distance further on,  the loud  screeching of jays, which continued for some time before  3 emerged from the pines in pursuit of a tawny owl, whom they had disturbed from its roost.  Over the willow grove,  a small bank vole emerged from the scrub to explore nearby  logs  holding  a piece of bread in his paws.  A Roe deer, an unusual sight at Old Copse, and redder and springier than  the Fallow deer we see all the time.