There's been a lot happening over the last few weeks, with the cameras continuing to capture lots of footage of all the usual animals. The Swallows have built a second nest and have just hatched their second brood. The Barn Owl box camera has filmed the pair mating (which can be seen on our youtube channel), so we're waiting anxiously to see if the female uses the box for her second brood (a first brood was reared in a nearby Ash tree).
I've also been experimenting (not yet as successfully as I'd hoped!) with different methods of filming some of the wildlife that's difficult to capture on our static camera systems, for example Daubentons Bats skimming along a beck. Watching them through a night vision device gives some fantastic views of the way they snatch insects from the surface of the water. But when I tried to record what I was seeing onto the recording device, the slow frame rate coupled with the fact that the night vision throws a relatively narrow beam of infra red light, the footage was not that good, though on the clip below, a Bat can be clearly seen plucking an insect from the water.

Another method I tried was using one of the variable focus cameras set to wide angle, overlooking a pool, to see if this would give any better results. The footage from this was very poor, as when the Bats were close enough to see clearly, they were only in frame for a split second, the rest of the time they appeared as small dots floating around the screen, so I'm now trying to come up with a suitable method of giving plenty of infra red light which will allow me to film with a better quality camera. On the plus side, just as I was starting to set up the camera, an Otter appeared just a few feet away, and I quickly managed to point the camera at it and get the few seconds of footage below.

Swallows nest

There's been a lot happening on the Wildplaces front in the Tees Valley over the last few weeks. One of the highlights being the result of a telephone call from a lady who thought she might have seen a Water Vole in the small stream at the bottom of her garden. Unfortunately a good check of the banks revealed no evidence of Water Voles, but the lady did say that she regularly had Foxes, Badgers and Roe Deer coming right up to her patio. She said she'd happily let me set up a camera there, and sure enough it captured images of a family of Foxes, and Badgers chomping on the scraps she put out for them, and Deer helping themselves to her Roses! The footage is very good, and I'll upload some of the highlights very soon.

As well as continuing to collect lots of footage of urban mammals we've had a camera on the Swallows that have nested at our office for the past few years. Here's a video of their progress from just after hatching through to fledging.

Sleeping Badger

I was intending to write a little about one of the litters of Fox Cubs that I've been watching and filming recently, but I'll leave that till a little later as I came across this while I was walking through the woods the other day.
At first I thought it was another dead Badger (I've found several lately, most of them have had nasty, festering wounds as a result of being attacked by other Badgers, which can be common), but as I watched, it became clear that it was asleep beneath a tree. I watched it for about ten minutes before it stirred and had a good scratch.

Badger watching

A couple of nights ago, I thought I'd have a go at filming the Fox Cubs, with the camcorder, but the wind, though not strong, was swirling, which would've made it difficult for me to remain undetected. As I'm not easily put off, I decided to see if any badgers would appear from a nearby Sett, which is fairly sheltered from the wind.
After getting comfortable, I sat and waited, and after seeing several Rabbits emerge from the Sett, a larger, stripey head appeared in the mouth of one of the holes. I readied the camera, and when the badger (a Sow) eventually emerged, she ambled steadily up the bank and away, meaning I managed only about 15 seconds of video.
It's been obvious from many of the trail camera videos I've got from near this Sett, that the Sow is suckling a litter of Cubs (her teats are clearly visible), and didn't want to hang around for long, prefering to get out and forage to replace some of the many calories she'll be using up feeding them.
I hung around for a while, in the hope that another Badger would emerge, and as it got too dark to use the camcorder, I switched to the night vision. About 10 minutes after it got totally dark, the Boar appeared, and I managed to get a few minutes footage. As you can see, it came very close to me, without detecting that I was there, and after it wandered off, I headed home content with what I'd seen.

First Fox Cubs

I've been waiting patiently (though not too patiently!) for a litter of Fox Cubs to emerge above ground, in order to get some footage. Now that they've eventually obliged, I'm having to change the memory card in the camera every day, as there's that much activity going on!
It's obvious from the clip, that these Cubs are being well fed, and several of the videos have shown them playing with dead Ducklings-no coinicidence that a Mallard on a nearby pond hatched 16 Eggs on Sunday, and by Monday all of the Ducklings had dissappeared, very easy pickings for the Vixen!
More of the videos can be seen on the wildplaces youtube page.

Badger

I've been asked a lot lately whether animals can see the infra red light from our cameras, or whether they're are disturbed by them.
I'm certain that most of the animals we film, are aware of the light from most models of camera, but very few seem to be actually bothered by it. This clip of a Badger sniffing at the camera is fairly typical of the reaction of most animals , and I've recently got footage of several species including Otter, Roe, and even a Stoat checking out the cameras in this way (check the youtube page for some more clips).

Volunteer day

Besides collecting video footage and mammal records, the wildplaces project also carries out practical conservation work. We recently did some habitat management on the outskirts of Middlesbrough, at a very wildlife friendly farm where a lot of the video footage is collected. The farm grows willow which is used as a renewable energy source, being burned at the local power station to provide electricity.

These areas of Willow are proving to be very good habitat for several species, including Harvest Mice (which I'll hopefully be able to film in the near future).

We were helped on the day by students from Guisborough Askham Bryan college, who were on courses ranging from first diploma in animal care, to foundation degree in animal management.

The students were all very enthusiastic, and had a good time, getting really stuck into the work, and doing something which really does help the local wildlife.