Woodland fence trail camera

Back in May I left a trail camera in the woodland where a new fence line had been recently installed. Part of the work included leaving apertures in the fence wide enough for foxes, badgers and other mammals to pass through. This can result in wildlife being funneled through to certain spots, making it a very useful place to put a trail camera.

Below are a selection of clips and the final result is at the end of the post.

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

A male Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) notices the camera for the first time

Second male Roe Deer (slightly different tines on his antlers)

Once the wildlife gets used to the presence of the camera, more natural behaviour starts to come out...

Fox carrying food

Male Roe Deer chasing each other

This particular Fox looks like he might be a new visitor, as he is nervous of the gap in the fence.

Lovely to see a family group of Roe Deer; the young (called kids) will only have been born sometime in the past couple of weeks.

It looks as if this female Roe Deer might be being courted by the male. The strange breathing sound is his communicating. A lot more creepy than attractive in my opinion.

The male Roe Deer were chasing each other up and down the fence several times per day, and this lone female on the other side was obviously interested...

An hour later, and she solved the problem.

Total number of movements through the aperture over the 6 days (likely an underestimate as not every movement may have been recorded):

• Fox = 14
• Rabbit = 1
• Roe Deer = 1

A forest owl in Hungary

Last week I traveled for a brief trip to Nógrád County, North of Hungary in search of the Ural Owl (Strix uralensis), a larger relative of the Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) which we commonly hear in the UK.

We were in upland Beech forest, mixed with Oak, Ash and some Larch, which is managed sensitively for timber. After rain showers the previous night, there was a lot of low cloud and the vegetation was still dripping wet.

Forest groundflora; Woodruff (Galium odoratum) 

and Sanicle (Sanicula europaea) both in flower

Our guide brought us to an area of more open forest, with mature trees surrounded by a misty backdrop. All was quiet except for the 'rain calls' of numerous Chaffinches.

We were alerted by the gentle alarm call of a Robin; David spotted a dark silhouette which took off, gliding silently away but accompanied by the strident calls of Song Thrush and Chaffinch.

Things settled down and the forest became quiet once more. A White-backed Woodpecker drummed in the distance, with a characteristic speeding up at the end, like a dropped ball bearing.

Our slightly surly guide Adam began to loosen up, perhaps getting more comfortable speaking English (our Hungarian unfortunately being non-existent). We asked him about the carnivorous mammals in the area: European Wildcat, Eurasian Lynx, European Grey Wolf? He explained that the numbers for these species are very low in the area and DNA samples are collected by anyone who comes across the....

Guide: 'Erm, how is it called...?'

David: 'Faeces?'

Guide's deadpan response: 'Sh*t, yes.'

In an interlude between looking for owls, Adam introduced to us some of the rare plants which makes this a specially protected area of forest.

Sword-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia), 

 Lesser butterfly-orchid (Platanthera bifolia)

Violet Bird's-nest Orchid (Limodorum abortivum)

An hour or so later, the sun had begun to burn off the low cloud. We walked back to where we started, hearing Robin's alarm call again with a Coal Tit joining in. The female Ural Owl is a dark outline, perched down low in the same tree. A smaller Ural Owl (a male) sits further back at the edge of a clearing, seemingly more nervous. Adam tells us the male and female will mostly hunt in separate territories, coming back together to tend the chicks.

The owls were a little too far off to photograph, so we decided to call it a day and returned to the vehicle. As we watched the forest pass us by out of the window, David again spotted something in a clearing through the trees...

Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) adult female © David Plummer

Preening © David Plummer

For more of David's wildlife images, follow his Instagram feed: https://www.instagram.com/davidplummerimages

Gatwick Goes Wild 2019

Every year during May half term Gatwick Goes Wild as the Greenspace Partnership hosts a week of events to help local people learn about wildlife and find new ways to enjoy their greenspaces.

This year’s activities began with a Family Holiday Club in the Gatwick woodlands near Crawley. Our guests started a fire with fire steels and produced a tasty cordial from the abundant elderflower along the woodland edge.

Collecting Elderflower

Later, we learnt all about the local trees; collecting leaves for ‘hapazome’ leaf prints and turning willow into charcoal for pencils. After lunch, we wandered across the meadow and were lucky enough to spot a Gatwick Grass Snake.

Searching for snakes

Wet weather for Wednesday’s guided walk along the River Mole meant only the hardiest nature enthusiasts made it along. The wildlife took cover but one sharp-eyed girl spotted several tiny species sheltering from the rain. Among those identified were Wandering Pond Snails, a Short-fringed Mining Bee, froghopper larvae, soldier beetles, Glow Worms and even a Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

The exclusive invites to the Butterfly Ball and Grasshoppers Feast, were gratefully accepted by both insect and beast (especially of the human kind). The moth trap was a real highlight and the ever-popular Poplar Hawk-moth stole the show by getting up-close with some of our guests.

Can you spot the Poplar Hawk-moth?

We headed across the meadow, where Slow Worms, Grass Snakes and demoiselles joined the party, before putting pond nets into the water to see if the aquatic invertebrates had received their invites. No ball is complete without a masquerade mask and an impressive array were crafted that afternoon.    


                                    

It was back to the River Mole again on Friday evening when Martyn Cooke of the Surrey Bat Group brought his expertise (and an array of exciting equipment) to help spot some elusive winged mammals after dark. Whiskered Bats were seen emerging from their roosts on an infrared camera, Noctules were picked-up on the bat detectors calling loudly over the floodplain and Common Pipistrelles swooped on their prey directly overhead.

Getting ready to track some bats

Our last day and the first day of 30 Days Wild saw our Mammal Detectives following tracks and soon sniffing out ten Longworth traps set in the Gatwick Woodlands. After freeing four innocent voles from the humane traps, the trail continued. Badgers took the bait and left their mark in their latrines and foxes posed in front of the trail cams.

Meeting a vole and getting a closer look at some foxes on the trail cam (below)

Once in the woods our detectives dissected owl pellets, made some tracks of their own and carefully crafted critter shelters for our woodland mammals.



This year’s Gatwick Goes Wild was the best yet with more people, more wildlife and even more fun. We would like to thank everyone who came along to join in and all the staff and volunteers who helped to put on a wild half term.

Why wait another year to ‘Go Wild’ when the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership have plenty of events running throughout the year?
https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/gatwickgreenspaceevents

Next up is the Gatwick Wildlife Discovery Day on the 22^nd June – a bioblitz event for all the family where you can help us to identify and record as much wildlife as possible in 24hrs at the Gatwick Aviation Museum.

Find out more here: https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/whats-on/2019-06-22-gatwick-wildlife-discovery-day-22062019