Author: Georgia Locock

Hen Harrier Day 2014.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

Today, 10th August, is Hen Harrier Day. It is organised by a coalition of Birders Against Wildlife Crime, former RSPB Conservation Director and leading activist Mark Avery, broadcaster and conservationist Chris Packham, the country’s leading wildlife charity the RSPB, and the North West Raptor Protection Group.

Just a few hundred years ago Hen Harriers were a widespread and common bird of prey. Now, in 2014 only three have bred. In 2013 the last remaining Hen Harriers didn’t manage to raise one chick and who knows what will happen to the chicks of this year.

Hen Harriers have been illegally shot since driven shooting first became popular by Queen Victoria in the 1800’s. Grouse shooting takes place between the 12th of August and the 10th of December each year and moors are managed year-round in preparation for this. Species like red grouse are entirely dependent on heather for food and shelter. Unlike pheasants they can not bred in captivity. Instead gamekeepers are employed to manage the habitat by burning patches of heather to create a mosaic of old strands for nesting and young plants for the birds to eat. They also carry out illegal and legal activity and intense control of generalist predators such as foxes, crows, stoats, weasels and birds of prey like our endangered Hen Harriers.

Last year I was out walking with my Granddad near where I live in Staffordshire in a horrible downpour. All of a sudden a large grey bird flew over our heads, at first I thought it may have been a seagull because of the noise it was making but it was much bigger. When I got home I discovered that it was in fact a male hen harrier. The next day I went back to the place where I had seen it and I returned quite a few times after that too. On a couple of occasions I managed to see the bird again but it was from a distance. However I still felt, and still do now, extremely privileged to have seen the bird as I may not ever see one ever again. Here’s a reason why you should get involved and help our Hen Harriers.

To help and get involved you can follow either one of these links for more information, to sign the petition against driven grouse shooting and much more. http://www.raptorsalive.co.uk/    http://birdersagainst.org/projects/hen-harrier-day/

henharrierA male hen harrier – taken by Pete Walkden. You can see more of his bird of prey, including hen harrier, images here – http://www.petewalkden.co.uk/PreyGallery.html

 

Otter glory!

Posted on by Georgia Locock

For over a week now I have setting my trail camera up at a spot on a nearby river in the hope of filming an otter. The area which I set my camera up is near the National Memorial Arboretum. There has been sightings and evidence of otters here in the past but no photos or videos. This made it a real delight to see that I had filmed an otter on my trail camera! This is the first time that I’ve ever filmed an otter and I was extremely excited about it! Here’s the footage that I got:

When I looked through my footage I also found these clips of a moorhen and some Canadian geese.

Teenage striped triplets.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

As most probably know over the past year and a half I have been following the life of some badgers at a nearby badgers sett. Even though I don’t always post the footage that I’ve recorded I visit the area most weekends. The last time I shared footage of the badgers was around three months ago when the cubs were coming out of the sett for one of the first time. Over the weekend I set my trail camera up to film the badgers and I have captured the three cubs but they have grown a lot since the last time I posted footage of them but they’re still lovely and it was great to film them again!

It now feels as though I have more of an idea about who is who in this sett and everything going on after observing them over a long period of time and watching the cubs grow up over the past few months.

Here’s a video of the cubs from three months ago.

Here is some of the footage that I got on Saturday night.

The Eridge Fox Family.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

Last week, from Wednesday to Saturday, I spent four days at my Uncles who live in Eridge, near Tunbridge Wells. As you can see from my last blog post his garden was amazing and I managed to see plenty wildlife within it. On bit of kit I brought with me was my trail camera to see what I could record in the garden at night. To my surprise on the first night a vixen fox came along with her two cubs then they visited the night after and the night after that too! I was extremely pleased by this and each night I managed to record over an hours worth of footage! Here’s some of my footage from all three nights.

Night One.

Night Two.

Night Three

I wasn’t the only one excited to see what I had recorded on my trail camera in the mornings, my Uncle was looking forward to see what had been captured in his garden over night too.

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