John's Mammals 2021 (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

It is good eating. A stall, within walking distance, has starting selling it. You help yourself and transfer the money, They've made a fair bit out of us recently. Was a thermal scope on your Christmas list? I think is a game-changer. I'm going to get one as soon as I'm confident of travel. I wish we'd had one in the Western Sahara.

I've been a bit suspicious of the two-stage nature of using a thermal scope: find the animal then illuminate for ID (I don't know if you've read any of Vladimir Dinets's descriptions of his adventures but having seen his claims for a night-time walk in Oxfordshire I'm certain its 99% BS.) But if the price is right I could be tempted, just for actual finding it seems miraculous.

I've been used to using passive night vision though and that gives you a decent monochrome view with eyeshine from the near-infra-red torch built in: I can walk paths with my monocular to one eye and spot what's going on, so the decision about what to carry isn't straightforward.

Anyway, bottom line: yeah, maybe at some point.

John

 

[Steve Babbs]

I see it as a find it tool. I wouldn't want to watch an animal through it or try to id one with it. Well unless it's an elephant. £870 seems to be the cheapest decent one. I've recently has to buy a new car so it's bad timing but I suspect I will crack soon.

 

[Farnboro John]

Just fed Rip. Her first proper visit this year: she sat and waited to be fed and then ate her first chicken drumstick in front of us, completely unfazed by me taking pictures. Spooked as she finished eating by a neighbour coming home with shopping, she returned as soon as their door clicked shut behind them and scampered off with a second drumstick.

Two regulars back in business: the year is looking up a bit.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Now she's back Rip is attending frequently: early evening, mid-evening and I have a feeling Maz is going to report later that she fed Rip first thing this morning.

Last night both Smudge (Rip and Big Whitey's cub from last year) and Scally (the usurper) also turned up to be fed. ID photos in due course.

So all four of our foxes have visited this year, though I suspect Big Whitey will be infrequent at best as he takes a fairly considerable risk by doing so given his now less than supreme status.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

I underestimated the number of "our" foxes, as last night we had a visit from the entire colony less the exiled Big Whitey: Rip, both of last years cubs, Smudge and Patch, and new dog fox Scally were all on the lawn at once, with a certain amount of tension between the three males.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

I underestimated the number of "our" foxes, as last night we had a visit from the entire colony less the exiled Big Whitey: Rip, both of last years cubs, Smudge and Patch, and new dog fox Scally were all on the lawn at once, with a certain amount of tension between the three males.

John

I underestimated the number of our foxes again, with up to five sitting on the lawn when I open the door of an evening over the weekend (and Big Whitey not among them) - the extra fox appears to be smaller than the males but I haven't managed to sex it yet: I also suspect its not part of the group as nobody seems to tolerate it. Fox wrangling at feeding time is becoming quite difficult....

John

 

[MarkHows]

Found this Bank Vole in the house probably brought in by the cat, safely released after a few photos. Apart from that locally a few fallow deer, muntjac and brown hares of note.

 

[Farnboro John]

Out looking for the first Adders of the year the other week I encountered a couple of Bank Voles living dangerously on the best basking bank in the area: but they were too quick for my camera.

I think that's the only recent new species for the year but the foxes have continued to provide entertainment and pictures in the evenings and lately, in the mornings. We have decided to discourage the latter by not feeding, as they are now turning up in daylight and had a close call recently when a (fortunately) fat, unfit Black Labrador off the lead burst from the archway and chased the three boys briefly.

Marion named the extra fox mentioned earlier "Hoppity" due to a limp on one forepaw caused I rather think by a bite from one of the others. She is small, long-muzzled, long-booted and submissive in the extreme, but the paw has now recovered and as the distance in time from mating season increases, the males are less testosterone crazed so violence at mealtimes has dropped substantially.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

A good day today. Took my regular exercise walk along the River Blackwater at Moor Green Lakes and had two separate Weasels, the first under brambles and scuttling along like an electric toy mouse, and the other working in and out of a log pile long enough for me to bring the camera into action (though the Weasel didn't quite get right into the open and I didn't dare move in case I spooked it). Several Grey Squirrels hurtled along the tree roads, and this evening of course my ginger friends were sitting in a row waiting for their chicken.

Weasel is, to me, one of the more difficult mammals to see - you can know roughly where they are likely to be, but achieving that conjunction in space and time is another matter. Two in a day was very satisfying.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Weasel pictures below.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Weasel at Moor Green again today, a very good view but very close to me and going like the clappers for a minute or so - no chance of pictures unfortunately! A Red Fox was lying in the sun by the brambles on the North shore of Colebrook North, watching Rabbits feeding to within twenty yards without bothering to try and catch them. Grey Squirrels quite prominent in the trees and under the hazel coppices.

It was a good walk for birds as well, with the Great White Egret showing on Colebrook North and six or more Littles around the place as well as plenty of Goosanders. Two male Bullfinches topped it off.

John

 

[Weasel1]

Excellent Weasel work, John...probably my favourite animal.

 

[dantheman]

Nice Weasels, yep. Only thing new for me last week was a Pygmy Shrew - lifted up some old carpet and one shot out from underneath and headed straight for new cover.

 

[MikeInPA]

The most exhilarating sight of the year (I know its early days, but he's been my boy for four years):

View attachment 1362671
Big Whitey waiting to be fed outside the garden for the first time since late November.

John

Nice image indeed.

 

[Farnboro John]

Nice image indeed.

Thanks Mike!

Yesterday's walk at Moor Green was more than half in search of the recently prominent Weasels, but of course they didn't show - there is little that is more random than a Weasel!

Many Rabbits including some half-grown juveniles were enjoying a daylight feed in the sunshine, and creeping along the brush piles by coppiced woodland looking for Weasels produced a bit of rustling that turned into a Bank Vole sighting. The vole seemed to be quite small for the species: probably one of those individuals born late autumn that arrests its development at about 80% full size, limiting its Winter resource requirements and completing its growth as Spring makes new food available. Good trick if you can do it!

Grey Squirrels were chasing each other through the trees in twos and threes, I guess in squirrel mating rituals.

John

 

[birdmeister]

Enjoying the thread as usual, John. I've got a couple quick mammal notes from here in PA, though no pics unfortunately.

Monday saw me standing on a lakeshore and enjoying ducks as the spring thaw begins. A Muskrat surfaced with a mouthful of grass, right near a little pod of Buffleheads. They all stopped courting and fell in a line to swim after the little fella! As soon as it neared shore, they all resumed diving like nothing had happened.

Last week, I noticed a roadkill ahead of me and thought Red Squirrel due to size. Unfortunately I couldn't stop, but to my surprise it was a very dark nut-brown with some white visible below the chin. Might this have been a weasel sp?! I've seen Mink before and this looked a good bit too small.

 

[Farnboro John]

Enjoying the thread as usual, John. I've got a couple quick mammal notes from here in PA, though no pics unfortunately.

Monday saw me standing on a lakeshore and enjoying ducks as the spring thaw begins. A Muskrat surfaced with a mouthful of grass, right near a little pod of Buffleheads. They all stopped courting and fell in a line to swim after the little fella! As soon as it neared shore, they all resumed diving like nothing had happened.

Last week, I noticed a roadkill ahead of me and thought Red Squirrel due to size. Unfortunately I couldn't stop, but to my surprise it was a very dark nut-brown with some white visible below the chin. Might this have been a weasel sp?! I've seen Mink before and this looked a good bit too small.

I guess it could be, though the North American habit of referring to Stoats as (something) Weasels confuses me. Our Weasel is really very small (allied to being proportionately very long and slim) while a Stoat is nearly the length of a Mink but proportionately much slimmer.

John

 

[birdmeister]

I guess it could be, though the North American habit of referring to Stoats as (something) Weasels confuses me. Our Weasel is really very small (allied to being proportionately very long and slim) while a Stoat is nearly the length of a Mink but proportionately much slimmer.

John

Guilty as charged! Thanks anyway, John. Learned something new.

 

[Farnboro John]

A socially distanced walk with Clare this afternoon yielded some unexpected but very welcome small mammals: no less than eight Field Voles (which are normally very difficult) and a Common Shrew, which has become more difficult for me personally as I have lost shrew call frequencies from the top end of my hearing. Along with a year-tick Brown Rat I'd call this a very successful afternoon - pictures of all three species - and we had three Roe Deer and a couple of Grey Squirrels on top of that.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Monday afternoon after a day in the office I went for a walk at Moor Green in the hope of another Weasel encounter. No such luck, but a Bank Vole obliged with a few sallies from a hole by the path down from the car park to the river and I got a couple of record shots, my first pictures of Bank Vole this year.

John