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John's Mammals 2008 (2 Viewers)

Farnboro John

Farnboro John

Well-known member
First of January and a century of birds, just a few incidental mammals.

10 or more Brown Hares around Greywell, showing well. One cluster of four seemed to be already thinking about mating. Well, its pretty mild at the moment, but they might get a shock soon!

Rabbit while dipping Red Kite.

Grey Squirrel sitting pretending to be cute on a fence post at Moor Green.

Brown Rat, a big, sleek, well-fed happy looking rodent raiding a grain bin to the consternation of a bunch of Red-legged Partridges. Think I prefer the rat - at least it hasn't done for the Grey Partridges across swathes of Britain.

I promised Marion no listing this year (obviously I can go for ticks) so the emphasis will be on photographing the ones I have no or poor shots of. That means Wildcat, Polecat, Lesser White-toothed Shrew, (Black Rat if I can afford the trip), Common Vole, Harvest Mouse (all no shot) and Weasel, Water Shrew, Mole (to be improved), among the terrestrials. I can already guess which is going to be the last to fall....

John
 
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Second day of the year and a simple shopping trip turned into a disaster when the sports shop I get my running shoes from was shut and so was the barber. Fortunately Plan B was ready to run and I had my first session in the Moor Green hide this year. I saw a hugely bushy winter-coated Red Fox on the walk in, licking up the last of the grain put down for birds on a concrete ground level feeding station. My brother Dave sees his garden foxes doing the same thing. Great opportunists.

I chucked bait out and very quickly it attracted a couple of Wood Mice (6 for the year, no I'm not listing, just counting). They came in and out for two hours and I got some decent pictures. One was much calmer than the other, sitting feeding while the camera flashed at it. The other bounded off every time I took a pic of it, and gave me a laugh on one occasion when its first leap smacked it into an upright bramble stem from which it rebounded to sit startled for a couple of seconds then run (rather than leaping again) away in a different direction.

No rats all night - suited me, left the mice more settled.

As I walked out I found several Rabbits with the nightscope by their eyeshine and listened to a Little Owl shouting its head off - could have done with that the previous evening!

John
 
Saturday lunchtime Clare gripped me off with a Weasel at Moor Green, she even got what she described as a rubbish photo of it. Consequently I spent the afternoon there, to no avail.

I did get cracking pix of an adult female Roe Deer (all right a doe then) and her first winter offspring. They had got themselves into the corner near the Colebrook hide and there was sufficient traffic on the path that they couldn't sneak away to the open fields. From the hide I was able to get full frame pix of them standing around, feeding and once or twice when they tired to make a break for it, running back towards me when they met humans in their way. Excellent value.

On Sunday I spent most of the morning at Moor Green but still no Weasel: Grey Squirrels and Rabbits plus a single Roe Deer. In the afternoon I went for a wander near Greywell and picked up Bank Vole for the year as well as seeing a few Wood Mice and Brown Hares.

John
 
Following Saturday evening revisited Greywell with bait and camera, getting good pix of Bank Vole as a reward. He got well fed so it was a good deal all round.

Earlier in the day both Roe Deer showing well at Moor Green again but not as close as last Saturday.

Yesterday (15th) dashed up North in response to call that my Dad, ill for a long time with cancer, was on the way out. He left before we arrived, after a long drive in horrible weather that still didn't stop a single Red Kite going on the year list at Stokenchurch.

Dad took me to zoos and into wild places in my extreme youth so takes some credit for who I am now. Bon voyage.

John
 
Thats very sad news John.

Kate and i will be thinking of you and Marion.

Regards and our sympathy to you both.

Daf n Kate.
 
dafi said:
Thats very sad news John.

Kate and i will be thinking of you and Marion.

Regards and our sympathy to you both.

Daf n Kate.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. We're getting through it.

Got to go up North again for the funeral on Friday. I was reckoning on visiting the Water Shrews at Fishpond Woods but the car's crook and my brother isn't into wildlife as much as me so that's off the menu. Should still get Black Grouse for the year at Langdon Beck.

Fingers crossed the weather doesn't dump on us.

Cheers

John and Marion
 
Just remembered: I had a hide session at Moor Green last night, the first fine still evening for some time. On the walk in I had a fox snuffing round the bird seed platform. Only Wood Mice came to the bait and I am starting to think the Brown Rats have had a collective accident of some sort, haven't seen one there for weeks.

On the way back up to the car I found a Yellow-necked Mouse under the hedge and got photos (that's how I ID'd it) despite a lot of vegetation clutter. It was a huge, burly mouse with a broad muzzle and fur that was almost bright orange: one pic clinched the breast band.

Half a dozen Rabbits feeding in the paddock were the only other rodents: a couple of Tawny Owls were calling around the area.

John
 
sorry to hear your news John - very sad indeed.

I'm interested in how you have approached the subject of photographing bats. I know you've done some bat box checks etc and seen lots in-hand. Did you photograph these? I believe you require a license to photograph bats but not sure if it includes these circumstances. Is it only flash photography that's prohibited without license? Even if not, do the bat workers generally turn a blind eye?

I'm curious as I've done much of this sort of work but never with a camera on me. Now I'm getting more into photograpy I'd like to go back and get some pics but haven't yet spoken to any batty friends about it. I'm anticipating it to be only an issue with roosting bats on hibernaculum checks.
 
Thanks for your sympathy James.

On Bat box checks there appear to be no restrictions on photography. Indeed I would say most of those who run them encourage it as a means of reaching and enthusing a wider audience (anyone who goes, and takes pix, is going to show them around further, right?) Legally I believe the thought is that a bat that has been disturbed legally by a licensed bat worker is not further disturbed by being photographed so no offence takes place.

You require a license to photograph bats at roosts or in their places of safety or whatever the phrase is - as per Schedule 1 birds, so if they are out and flying you are OK: I wouldn't like to take that to the extreme of setting up outside a bat roost and flashing them as they come out. The hibernaculum checkers don't, I think, allow photography.

Your local bat group can probably shed much more and perhaps more authoritative light.

John
 
thanks John - looks like I'll be snapping lots of bats this year, after allB :)

Farnboro John said:
Thanks for your sympathy James.

On Bat box checks there appear to be no restrictions on photography. Indeed I would say most of those who run them encourage it as a means of reaching and enthusing a wider audience (anyone who goes, and takes pix, is going to show them around further, right?) Legally I believe the thought is that a bat that has been disturbed legally by a licensed bat worker is not further disturbed by being photographed so no offence takes place.

You require a license to photograph bats at roosts or in their places of safety or whatever the phrase is - as per Schedule 1 birds, so if they are out and flying you are OK: I wouldn't like to take that to the extreme of setting up outside a bat roost and flashing them as they come out. The hibernaculum checkers don't, I think, allow photography.

Your local bat group can probably shed much more and perhaps more authoritative light.

John
Click to expand...
 
An old girl in my local supermarket (one of those that keeps talking to you rather than just swiping items quickly) told me the other day that "her" Hedgehog is visiting nightly at the moment and she is giving it dogfood since its hardly likely to find insects this time of year. I rather agree with her, although if it came to my garden the damn slugs and snails are well active. Is anyone else seeing Hedgehogs just now? It has been ridiculously warm so far this winter.

John
 
With mild wweather and little wind yesterday I tried a session at the Moor Green hide, with no result at all despite putting plenty of bait out. It seems the local rodent population has crashed despite the mild winter - or maybe I have just been unlucky lately.

On the way back to the car, I heard a male Tawny Owl hooting not far away, so hooted back to try to call it in. It responded, then another started up in the line of trees next to me and I was able to shut up and listen to them going at each other.

First one then the other closed on my location and I eventually found both of them using the nightscope and their eyeshine. I got a blippy picture of one and a goodish record shot of the other. Focus outside about fifteen feet remains the problem at night (especially among tree branches), I can find stuff with the nightscope boresighted with the camera but then have to guess or experiment to focus on them. The owls last night gave me plenty of time, probably because they were more concerned with each other than with the silent lightning going off every few seconds.

Absolutely cracking views! I just hope they had more luck with rodents than I did.

John
 
First visit of the year to Pulborough on Saturday, no mustelids but nice views of the dark Fallow Deer and a cracking shot of a tree-rat pretending to be cute. The Rabbit population is much lower than this time last year but not quite as devastated as my local area.

Sunday morning I finally caught up with the Cove Brook Little Egret, first from the end of the road, then from my bedroom. Marion was quite understanding about the curtain hooks that got annihilated when I shoved the window wide open to get a picture of it from inside the house (and that was after taking a much better one from where I first saw it.

Wonderful warm sunshine all weekend as well!

John
 
I forgot: Common Shrew for the year at Watchmoor reserve (a tiny place behind Sainsbury's on the A331), running about in damp birch woodland spending most of its time under leaf litter.

John
 
I decided yesterday lunchtime not to waste the fantastic weather, so played hookey from work for the afternoon. I went first to Bramshill plantation on a hunch and indeed found a cracking male Adder basking in the sunshine, curled up on a patch of heather. He was undisturbed by my careful approach and I got pictures down to a couple of feet, retreating still without shifting him (this is what a good stalk should achieve - if you get pix but then flush the animal you have only done half a job).

Nearby I found a Common Lizard also warming up, and managed the same trick. On the way back to the car I had a Red Kite overhead (first local one this year) and Grey Squirrels and Rabbits dashed across the track in front of me.

I transferred to Crookham Wharf where a Common Shrew tantalised briefly. I wandered up and down the canal till dusk and ended up near the far siders' sett. I heard a rustle and saw the ground ivy cover heaving, then a nose tip with black fur behind it stuck out - for about a second and a half I was looking at a Mole. Pity it didn't do that last year while I was counting! It withdrew fast and although I could see its movements in a run just below the ivy and leaflitter I didn't see the animal again.

Across the canal the first Badger of the year began dragging fresh bedding down one of the fortress-like excavations: it was a big Badger with a clean cut face pattern, obviously an adult in the prime of life.

Returning to the car park - by now it was nearly dark - I found a Wood Mouse by its scurrying and eyeshine in the nightscope, then out of the cutting I scanned the fields and spotted a Roe Deer feeding in the open. Seven mammals in an afternoon: not bad.

John
 
With all this warm weather I was considering checking out my local Adder population. I've never seen a British reptile this early in the year but I guess if I don't try I never will.
 
Took my brother and his girlfriend to see Badgers on Saturday. Fortunately they performed well, and we had good views of 4 far siders and 2 same siders. I got one decent pic of an adult on the far side of the canal.

Before heading down there, Dave checked the traps in his loft (he had removed 5 juvenile presumed Yellow-necked Mice during the week already) and found another juv had trapped itself. It was the size of a Wood Mouse but still clad in its juvenile clear grey coat. We translocated it far enough to prevent it finding its way back to his house. The following day he nailed an adult, so perhaps he will be gaining ground over this wnter's infestation. In summer they are not a problem because they move out to underneath his garden shed.

The only other mammals were a very bushy Red Fox, a Bank Vole and a female Roe Deer during a canal walk Saturday afternoon, but none were photographable.

John
 
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