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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

John's Mammals 2012 (1 Viewer)

Pix from the weekend (the Paddyfield is on the thread in rarities).

Great Orme Feral Goat (didn't have daylight left to get to Beddgelert)

Kestrel letting fly
 

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Hi John,

How do you bait shrews?


In the open I have used mealworms but I have also found that they will come to high-energy foods such as raisins and sunflower seeds near the start of the year. I haven't tried to trap them but in England the usual bait is casters (= pupating fly larvae).

John
 
I went back for more of the Yellowthroat yesterday. Eventually the views were absolutely stonking, but we also got stonked by a fierce hailstorm.

The bird is zonkingly bright yellow and shows up against any background in any light.

If anyone goes for it and it goes into the little copse at the top of the hill, STAY OUT AND LOOK IN because it will bounce about on the ground in the open.

At the bottom of the hedge it spends most of its time in, there is a good view into the ditch bottom and surrounding brambles. This is a very good place to get views of Field Voles scutting back and forth across the open ditch. Obviously this works best when the bird and most of the people are at the top of the hill, so its a matter of prioritisation!

Full marks to two lads from Wetherby who had watched the bird in the open for an hour early in the morning and persuaded everybody else to restrain themselves later on. Even more full marks to the same lads for having jump leads in their car just as I discovered I'd left my lights on adn flattened the battery - they had me up and running in seconds and very, very grateful I still am for their assistance.

Reluctant thumbs up to the bloke who pitched up just as the bird began showing really well, having been to the Forest of Dean first and not only having had excellent views of displaying Goshwaks but also having been lucky enough to be at New Fancy View just as a sounder of Wild Boar including small piglets came out of the woods and did some rooting about before fading away again. No hard feelings about the grip - much!

Sunday morning both Bank and Field Voles by the River Blackwater in Camberley, along with Grey Wagtails and singing Chiffchaffs.

A good weekend.

John
 
Saturday I went to Pulborough Brooks where there have been frequent Weasel sightings this year, though still not by me.

On the way down I saw a dead Polecat by the A31 on the Hogs Back. Clare tells me she had one on the A325 recently so they are fairly well into our area now, though still extremely difficult to see alive.

They have also got Water Voles viewable from Winpenny hide in the ditch immediately in front of the hide. These I did connect with, getting excellent views and some pix.

Up near the top of the reserve there are hordes of Bank Voles this spring, which I guess is why there are so many Weasels about.

I counted 170 Fallow Deer out on the marshes.

The adult female Peregrine that has been around for ages came in to her favourite tree on the Hanger and gave excellent views from Jupp's viewpoint.

Today I went to Dinton Pastures in search of Lesser Spots but had no luck. I did see yet more Bank Voles and, briefly, a Weasel.

All in all, not a bad weekend.

John
 
Marion and I had a short break on Ardnamurchan from last Wednesday until Sunday. The weather was good, just a bit of drizzle on Thursday and quite windy a lot of the time.

We didn't get anything spectacular, but had a decent array of routine stuff: three Otters, a pair each of Golden and White-tailed Eagles, plenty of Common Seals and Red Deer, a fair few Great Northern Divers in Loch Sunart and out at Ardnamurchan Point, and at last the Black Guillemots at the Corran Ferry that everyone else sees.

Both of us however think the high point of the holiday was walking into the Salen Hotel bar - we hadn't been for three years - and seeing Jon the landlord's face light up as he greeted us as familiar faces. Highland hospitality at its best.

We did a couple of night drives, drizzled off the first night, no result the second: the warm damp weather had a decent crop of moths out and a few bats, Common Pip and Natterer's both near the wildlife centre.

We stayed in one of the cabins at Resipole and put bait out in the hope of attracting Pine Martens. Unfortunately the campsite has a resident fox at the moment - a big handsome devil with a white-tipped brush - and he came round at 0200 and scoffed the lot. On the bright side I've always wanted pictures of a fox with a white tip and now I have them: he was blithely unworried by my flashing camera at the bedroom window.

The Martens are still around, one wintered in the loft of reception. Its probably better not to bait at the moment though, unless you can put it out of reach of a fox. A Wood Mouse had some of what I did make inaccessible to the fox.

The best Otter was from the Ardery (Aird Airigh) hide, along with 20 Common Seals. He fished in front of the hide for half an hour, caught a crab and brought it on shore to eat, and so on - then vanished from under our noses. We also had one in front of the campsite and the third was further out along the peninsula at Port na Croisg.

The loch was too ruffled most of the time for porpoise spotting but on the one afternoon the wind dropped, we had a couple from the Camas Torsa car park.

I'll put a few pix up in a day or so.

John
 
I've sorted the pix. This will be more than a few, but its a while since I went to Ardnamurchan and it may get the flavour of the place across better than any prose of mine could.

Hooded Crow
Red Deer Stag
Oystercatcher (hammerer) on mussel bed
Red-breasted Mergansers
Harbour Porpoise

John
 

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Great Northern Diver
Dan the Border Collie leads guided walks around Ardnamurchan Point
Red Deer stags
John preparing Pine Marten bait
The Pine Marten baiter's palette

John
 

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Red Foxes like peanut butter too!
Its not anthropomorphism to recognise that as enjoyment
Yum
Next morning at the hide: Otter fishing
Otter chewing on pipefish

John
 

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Otter with another Pipefish
It then caught a crab and brought that on shore to eat
Enjoying crab
Herring Gull (no race or age or variant all right?)
Common Seals hauled out on Garbh Eileann

John
 

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View from the hide
View of the hide
Red-breasted Merganser right outside
Our cabin, Marion on deck
Greylag Geese

John
 

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View from Camas nan Geall car park
Loch Mudle
White-tailed Eagles
Red Deer hinds and young stag
Golden Eagle

John
 

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Loch Sunart from Ardslignish
Common Seals basking at the hide
Sunset from above Loch Mudle looking towards Eigg and Skye

John
 

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Common Seal outside the hide
Freshly dug mouse/vole hole by path to hide (not there previous afternoon)
Black Guillemot Ardgour side of Corran Ferry
Ditto

I'll put up a complete list of sightings as soon as I've sorted it out.

John
 

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My brother Dave rang me yesterday and said he'd seen a big mouse come out from under the shed. He normally gets Yellow-necks there so I zipped over with the camera.

As we arrived in his kitchen he pointed and said "there it is now."

After a bit of a stakeout I got a photo.

John

Big Mouse
 

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I dropped in at Fleet Pond this evening to see if anything had done likewise, and was rewarded with two Swallows (patch year tick) and a Common Sandpiper (full year tick).

A drive roudn the lanes afterwards yielded a pair of Roe Deer, with the male still in full velvet but nonetheless intent on sex: had they not both had one eye on my car they might well have got on with it. Both were practically in summer coats.

Less than a mile away a doe was grazing with two yearling fawns. All three were still in full winter coats.

John
 
Opened my account with the canal Badgers for this year last night, trying out the latest evolution of the night rig. As well as the flash on a bracket to minimise retinal glare, it now has a nightscope boresighted with the 500mm and the red-filtered maglite, enabling me to watch and follow wildlife easily in the dark, and take autofocus pictures out to at least 70 feet (I have a feeling the maglite batteries need renewing so it may do better than that). It all takes a bit of toting about (and a bit of setting up each evening) but its well worth it.

Eventually I hope to use it for flying bats but that will take practice.

Some pix of the Roe Deer pair from a couple of days ago, one of the rig and the new Badger pic.

John
 

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Back to the Badgers yesterday evening. Arriving, I met Allen W leaving: he decided to wait for a while longer but he'd got cold and didn't hang on quite long enough.

Sadly I had left the bat detector switch on and the battery was dead, so I had "presumed" Soprano Pipistrelle and loads of Daubenton's Bats.

The first Badger came out at 2105, and trundled about the set for quite a while. I got some pix and she wasn't bothered: peered towards the source of the flash and then carried on with what she was doing.I could see from one photo that his is a lactating female, so we have young to look forward to before long.

I spent quite a while trying to photograph the Daubs but really its a game for a shorter lens than the 500.

John
 

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Sunday after the F1 Grand Prix I zipped down to The Burgh again with the objectives being not only the lingering Rough-legged Buzzard but also the Corn Buntings that seem to remain in numbers, unlike my patch where they disappeared without trace years ago.

There has been a good deal of estate management going on, and in view of how this estate has been lauded as an example of good practice (and I admit the Grey Partridges and Corn Buntings indicate they are doing something right) I was disappointed though unsurprised to find mustelid trap tunnels about every fifty yards, along all the wind breaks, hedgerows and game strips.

Until our country estates are managed sympathetically for all predators, not just BOP, the job will not be complete.

Anyway, enough bitching because by and large I had a good day, with good views of the local pale Buzzard, the Rough-leg (which made me wait three hours for flight views after I found it in its usual hedge) and a very confiding Corn Bunting. I also heard my first Cuckoo of the year, but was quite surprised not to hear Whitethroats from any of the hedges.

I finished with a look at the Arundel castle moat, but for the second time this year saw only Brown Rats, no Water Voles. I did get pix of a rat, a hulking battle-scarred brute with a knowing eye and a scabby, abbreviated tail.

Tonight I was out along the canal again, with another nice Badger pic and a couple of pix of a Wood Mouse scuttling about on the towpath. I also saw Red Fox, Daubenton's Bat, Roe Deer, Rabbits including one with a blackish face and ears (didn't Jungle Cat find Silver last year? I found Blackavar tonight) and Grey Squirrels. Not bad for a chilly April evening.

Pix later in the week.

John
 
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