Fox catches squirrel

This fox hunting a squirrel has appeared to be doing it for some weeks now but it,s the first time i,ve caught it on camera.In the first pic the squirrel can be seen in the top left of the picture and in the next pic is caught.To the extreme right of the 3rd picture shows another squirrel safely on a branch,there has been quite regularly 2 squirrels scampering about here together.After that another squirrel pokes about and then the fox shows up again quite obviously after another one.I,ve never seen a picture of this happening before and can only remember finding a squirrel carcase that could of been attributed as a fox kill only once before.Some foxes,like most predators,can specialise in targeting certain quarry.

Annoyingly though i checked this cam today to find that the card had filled to 6000 odd pics,still with battery life left mind and had left the last 2 weeks unguarded so to speak.I last checked it a month ago and have been cutting it a bit close to the bone every time as this spot is a hive of,mostly squirrel and rabbit,activity as each time the card has been close to filling or the batteries near to running out.Who knows what has happened at this camspot in the meantime in fact noone will ever know so it,s every 2 weeks to check from now on,live and learn as they say.....

Woodcock probing the leaves

The first,i hope of many more and closer woodcock pictures this winter.I first saw one in the second week of october but the early ones just pass through until the stayers can be seen regularly in areas from november onwards i think.They lie up in the daytime usually in deep cover found in all sorts of woods but the thick rhodedendrons like here suit them well.They flight at dusk from these places just before the duck do on the way to their nocturnal feeding grounds which they prefer to be dampish meadows but also downland grass fields and golf courses,mostly flying low a bit bat like.At some places they can be seen individually but in numbers of up to a dozen shooting over hedges and dropping,bomblike,out of the sky to feed on some favoured fields.Not often recorded is their probing in woodland leaf litter at night at a place where they could very likely be roosting(on the ground)during the day so pics like these are quite a catch of one of the most interesting of birds.It is quite probable that,just like duck,they do not always flight at dusk if their food is so close to hand,there is no point in exposing themselves,in flight,to unnecessary risk......

Muntjac and fawn lying down at night

What are they up to these 2?The fawn at the back seems to be submissive(expected)of the doe and they are the 2 that have featured regularly on this blog.In the last pics the fawn appears to try and suckle but it must be getting a bit old for that now although the last pics of it doing this in front of the cam were not that long ago so the doe may be weaning it.These fawns spend at least their first year with their dams so she might be discouraging it from suckling but gently so it stays with her.......

2 foxes curled up

It,s strange how things can happen in groups.Earlier on in the year the infra red flash from the camera traps was,if not scaring,at least making them more wary ,this month though most subjects appear well at ease and accepting what is an alien object in a semi-natural enviroment.I have had a fox curl up in front of the cam before but not 2 so this sequence of pics may show a dog fox and then a vixen show up who have either mated before or maybe just bonded many weeks before mating.Or they could be sibling cubs.I suspect the former......

Muntjac in daylight

I couldn,t resist posting this snap of a farm cat.The muntjacs are showing nicely in front of the cam in daylight but i expect this to change once we get back to normal season wise as it feels like it,s a month behind and we are still in october.There,s still a fair amount of leaf on the oaks and some ponds i have seen from all across the county are dry as a bone.......

Roe fawn eating mushrooms

This roe fawn is eating mushrooms.This was the last time that any of the trail cameras have recorded this type of behaviour from the deer.We have had such a mild and dry autumn overall,about 3 or 4 degrees above the norm,that it,s been only a below average mushroom crop and yet all species of deer have been targeting them specifically.I don,t know why but mushroom eating amongst deer rarely ever gets a mention and if it does(no pun!)is right at the last of their stated food lists.I always thought that they went for the nuts more but not so or maybe just when the fungi are not quite ready yet....

Fox gets starling that fell from roost

I knew that foxes and big cats wandered beneath rookerys for fallen or fledging chicks especially after storms but i didn,t know until i saw it on Autumnwatch once that in very hard weather foxes,at least, had been observed snatching up fallen birds dying from the cold.The bird does look head up and alive in the first 2 pics but definitely dead by the third.Why this bird ended up on the ground we don,t know but what does seem obvious that when this fox showed up later after the badger did the badger was in the distance and came no nearer.I,ve seen this before and i can only presume that a sense of ownership,for want of a better word,exists from the predator that made the kill.In other words if say the badger had got the starling first it would then most likely have dominance in the area in the aftermath over the same fox.A sort of "finders keepers losers weepers" mentality.......

Leaf litter

Mixed bag from set C.No story to tell,no behaviour to comment on just a collection of pictures of animals out and about on their daily activities.The pics stretch out over a month though ,earliest first and show just how deep the leaf litter has got......