Tag: wildlife

Surprise!

Posted on by Georgia Locock

On Friday night I decided to set my trail camera up in my Nan’s garden. A few weeks back she noticed a hole had been dug underneath her fence and we weren’t that sure what had done it so I decided to set my trail camera up in her garden to find out. When I collected my camera yesterday morning and looked at my footage I was surprised to see that I had recorded a rat! This was the first time that I had properly recorded rats on my trail camera. We think I may have recorded more then one but we’re not sure. Unfortunately I hadn’t set the settings on my trail camera right so I only have some screen shots. Here they are.

rat rat3 rat2 rat5 rat4

pigeonAnother visitor that I had before collecting my trail camera in the morning.

Fungi quiz answers.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

Following Thursdays wildlife quiz here’s a post with the answers on and some information about each of the three fungus’ I quizzed about.

Image                                                                  This fungi is called witches’ butter (Tremella mesenterica). This photo of mine featured on BBC Autumnwatch Extra last year and BBC Winterwatch Unsprung. It is normally found on a tree however this had fallen off onto the floor. 

Image                                                                                               This one is called Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria), it is a very iconic toadstool and is commonly depicted in children’s books. The fungus is dangerously poisonous and the name fly agaric derives from the fact that since medieval times it was commonly used as a fly killer.

Image                                                                                                                  This one is known as a shaggy ink cap (phylum Baasidomycota) and can be spotted in meadows, woods and roadsides verges. They are common and widespread in Britain and Ireland and it is also found throughout mainland Europe, from Scandinavia down to the southern edge of the Iberian Peninsula and the shores of the Mediterranean. It also occurs in Northern America.

Next weeks quiz is all about British butterflies!

Spring spikes.

Posted on by Georgia Locock

On Monday night I set my trail camera up in my garden for one of the first times since last Autumn when the hedgehogs went into hibernation. When I had set it up a few times over the past few weeks I had no luck and the hogs were obviously still in hibernation but last night I managed to record the first one for Spring 2o14. Over the next few weeks I hope to get the old Autumn visitors coming back so I can record them on my trail camera. Here are two of the videos which I recorded, In one of the videos the hedgehog is doing some very unusual behavior and in the other he is eating a mixture of the dried dog food and meal worms which I left out. On Tuesday morning before I collected my camera I also had a magpie visiting which I captured on camera.

magpie

 

Is it a fox? No it’s a mouse!

Posted on by Georgia Locock

On Sunday night I decided to set my trail camera up around a local nature reserve in the hope of recording foxes. I know there are foxes in the area as I’ve seen and heard them here in the past, so I set my trail camera up and put some dry dog food down. This was the second time in the last few days I’d set it in this area but the first time I had no luck. When I returned the next morning all the food had gone and as soon as I got there my dog, Max, started to roll around in the area in front of the camera so I was pretty certain foxes had been there through the night. But when I looked at what I had recorded I hadn’t recorded anything but a mouse! I’m not sure If it’s a field or wood mouse as the quality isn’t very good and he’s so small. To have not recorded foxes I think my camera had obviously stopped working at some point in the night but I’ll be back soon for some fox footage!

Here’s some of the videos I got of the mouse: