Just as an experiment, I pointed the camera at one our feed areas in the garden and set it to take a photo every 5 seconds. I left the camera for about an hour. Then I selected 60 shots and merged them to create this single shot. The sun was a bit too strong and still high in the sky, so the photo is a bit washed out, but not bad for an experiment.
It just goes to show how busy the feeders are!
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Just had a great few minutes watching a Common Toad wedged between 2 rocks in the garden ambushing any Beetles in his range.
I grabbed the camera but as I was only working with light from my garden flood light it was difficult to get a pin sharp photo due to his throat movement and no chance of a tongue out ambush shot.
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Over the last week I’ve spotted a pair of Linnets in the garden. Our back garden is mainly surrounded by Hawthorn seperating us from farmland so the perfect habitat for many birds including Linnets.
Today I spotted just the male frequenting the electric cable that feeds our house. As the sun was setting I decided to stick the camera out of an upstairs window to get a shot of him. As a complete fluke, he hopped on top of the Hawthorn right in my line of sight and a perfect angle to the setting sun.
I had a 1.4x teleconverter attached to my 500mm f/4 so expected a small amount of sharpness drop-off but still a shot I’m happy with.
There is no sign of the female, but it’s only the female that sits on the nest, so hopefully he’s just keeping lookout and bringing her food.
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I’ve not been monitoring the (Rural) Foxes we have in the garden as much as I did this time last year, however, last night I set the Bushnell Natureview up in the garden.
We occasionally leave out some food scraps (no cooked bones!) and sometimes some treats, but not enough for them to rely on us for food.
Foxes will collect and store food that they don’t eat in food caches but the “Cramming” we are seeing is exactly what happened this time last year. As you can see on the footage, the Fox crams as much food in it’s mouth in one go and carries it off. I think it’s because it’s taking it back to the Den to feed the Vixen who is babysitting her newborn. The food could even be for the young if they are already old enough.
A few weeks after this happened last year, and the Vixen made an appearance in the garden with a single cub.
This repeated behaviour is hopefully a sign that the Vixen has given birth again.
{Remember to watch in HD if possible}There are a few Male Blackbirds busying themselves in the garden collecting what I can imagine to be food for the Female who will be sitting on Eggs.
This Blackbird has been visiting the garden collecting Worms all day, so I grabbed the camera and took this shot from the bathroom window.
He saw me with the camera and jumped onto this rock almost as if he was posing!
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A while ago I noticed a small hole in the ground at the side of one of the Pond Filters in the garden. I’ve been wondering if anything lives in the hole or not.
So, I put a small amount of Bird Seed near the hole and pointed the Bushnell camera at it and left overnight.
Nothing came out of the hole, I just think it’s where there may have been a void below the filter housing and it’s collapsed in. One of the Mice does take a look down inside though and the Bird Food was very much appreciated.
The footage was captured over 7 hours last night. If you look at the Mice, particularly the little nips out their ears you should be able to count 4 different ones visiting.
{Remember to watch in HD if possible}