Lancing pawprint

2011 is really hotting up on the sightings front but then, as i blogged before in bigcatsinsussex, late jan usually sees an upsurge,4 in 8 days is a little unusual though,the latest today in Lancing.A large black cat,the usual thing,small head,long body,chunky legs and very long tail(typical British bigcat) was seen trotting along a hedgeline at daybreak.I was due to go far east on trailcam duty and verify some photos but that could wait for a cat seen trotting in an arable field on reasonably muddy ground meant the very good chance of finding some pawprints.After several phonecalls to the witness,many thanks for your patience candy floss Carol!i found the exact spot and true to form there was the expected furrow which the plough leaves at the edge of the field and is harder than the surrounding ground and so easier walking and i,ve noticed that cats along with other animals like hares tend to follow these,they are also sunken in the ground and less muddy.Padding without clawmarks was also found and it wasn,t until the chalk-with-flints soil gave way to a brief outcrop of clay-with-flints,noticeable by the brown rather than grey tinge that i found a decent mark.Though the best i found wasn,t complete as the recent fierce cold,easterly wind had dried out the ground on exposed spots such as this it certainly was discernible.Also a bird kill was found which is usual when attending sites and also this sheeps foot which was completely bizarre.What is usual for me is to try and contact any farmers in the area who i might know or not and see if they have any info they would like to input,sometimes they do and sometimes they don,t but if you don,t ask you don,t get is my experience.So,a call to the chap who kept the nearby flock of mixed breed sheep was met with sincerity and he very kindly met me there for a chat.He hadn,t seen sight nor sound of a cat day or night and his sheep had never ever been touched which has left me wondering where the sheeps foot came from,the nearest other flock,he told me,was a couple of miles away to the north.Anyway,it had turned out that we had met before briefly at the South of England show and i took the chance of telling him about our talk night coming up in Lewes and that the acclaimed bigcat author Merrily Harpur,who i had just contacted for the first time, in conjunction with her publisher, Roving Press of Dorset,had been very generous in these hard times to offer one of her books Roaring Dorset for the charity raffle,"oh yes,i know them"he said,for the publisher is married to his relative.It,s a small world!It,s also a very crowded one for after going back to fetch some plaster to take a cast,i returned to find the pawprint to be trashed by a human walking all over it..............

Pair of foxes courting

The dog fox (2nd pic)is hanging around this glade a lot,the smaller,redder,sweeter looking vixen(3rd pic)passes through frequently,though a little less often.By the 22nd he is around for a lot longer and that evening he doesn,t seem to go anywhere else much and seems to be waiting,sitting on haunches at times(1st pic)The vixen shows and they do this sort of snarling while standing on the hind legs sort of caper,i believe the dog fox is on the left.I think this is some sort of prelude to coupling ,a bit like foreplay and it,s possible they were in later pics but right on the outside of the infra red.Never mind,still pleased with what pics showed up........

Vixen and 2 hen pheasants

The foxes continue to perform in front of this cam,this vixen is heading in the general direction of those 2 hen pheasants.The fox and the bird on the left are missing in the next picture taken 8 minutes later,what happened in between only they know..........

Deer of all shapes and sizes/trailcam

There has been up to 3 woodcock at a time at this camspot but only every few nights or so.There are also all sorts of deer of all shapes and sizes showing up like 2 different muntjac,4 different roe(3 at the same time) and these 4,fuzzy,fallow as well as other fallow i,ve not counted yet or got an idea from identification.Not a single badger or hare and infrequently a fox, a kill site from 1 of a rabbit i found not that far away from the cam.Rabbits are here but not in great numbers but mice are,there are alot of them about......

Different Muntjac?

Can,t quite decide if this is a different Muntjac from the one i blogged last as it does seem a bit bigger and fuller in shape.Then i actually checked back through the blog and then the album and yes it is bigger and doesn,t have horns.......

Bigcat Evening Talk

We are holding an evening talk night to raise money for local good causes.It will be at the Lamb inn,Fisher street,Lewes with the date to be tuesday the 22nd febuary.Entrance is free but as it,s for charity a donation would be most welcome(all money raised to go to good causes)Meet at 7.30 for a 8pm start with various Bigcat issues on the packed agenda including evidence never seen before in public (photos etc) as well inside information as never revealed before on what the Bigcats get up to on the downs and surrounding countryside of Lewes.Bigcat investigators will be discussing what they do,why and how as well as the reasons they think British Bigcats have become an indespensible, intrinsic part of the countryside.I,ll post further updates as and when they come in.If you would like further info call 07722274033.......

Ghostly-looking roe deer

These 3 roedeer look a bit ghostly to me,the cam didn,t seem to flash right but it still reflected off their eyes amid the eery half light of dawn.They are definitely on high alert,probably wary of the cam and may of moved up here to these hilltop forests from the river valleys below that are swollen with water.A first for this family group to be in front of the cam........

"Pairing up" in readyness for spring /scrubcam

Events have shifted forward a little from the last installments of pics from scrubcam.A gang of 3 cock pheasants have started to make a regular appearance in front of the cam but just on bright days,in fact on the sunny 9th it was a hive of daytime activity with also a magpie,a squirrel and a pigeon showing up but the foggy 11th they mostly stayed away and the wet and windy 14th produced no daytime pictures whatsoever.This only goes to show that providing animals have fed well preceding this sort of weather they will hunker down in deeper cover and wait for better.Our Master Buck rabbit is still doing a little digging and has been on his own since the New Year saw his doe dissapear but the 15th saw 1 doe show up briefly and by the 17th she seems keen enough to stay,these young bucks are not the best choice though as this shows,they don,t remain on guard properly while the does eat,he can clearly be seen to be not actively alert but will be alert enough to escape a predator before the doe will.The pair of foxes that would like to eat them are hanging around a lot together now though not all the time,DNA research has shown that,at least in the research area undertaken,most litters of cubs will have more than 1 sire so vixens do often mate elsewhere as do the dog foxes,he may have a vixen with him but he still must mark his post,this pair should already have mated,but i use the term "pair"in it,s broadest possible sense..........

Worthing woman,s finger bitten off by fox

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8790212 worthing woman,sfingerbittenoffbyfox Once again i,m struggling to put links up but this story has just come in off the wire.If your,e interested,Google "theargus.co.uk"(Brighton)then search the above title.Foxes,fed by well-meaning people,are increasingly coming into conflict with and even enter inside peoples houses which just isn,t a good thing,this sets off a wave of hysteria where everyone(foxes included)are losers.Personally,i only feed the birds in the garden and don,t bait any of my trailcams because i want to try and get the most natural poses from the animals that are about although they do often notice the cam and look straight into the lens.Baiting any camspots just isn,t my thing though i have tryed it in the past ,however i can understand why people would want to do it seeing as it can make things easier, plus, feeding foxes and badgers in your garden can be rewarding seeing "wild "animals just outside your door.However it can increase the likelyhood of disease and overcrowding due to the overabundance of food and indirectly cause the above news story......

Rabbit digging and foxes marking in front of the cam

I really like this camspot,although there are no deer around like Fallow or the exotic Muntjac to be snapped there always seems to be something going on in front of it.This Magpie has found something interesting to eat from under the leaves,the Master buck Rabbit is still here and has decided to do a bit of digging or maybe scraping is a better word,there,s not much goodness in the grass in these dark months so he might be after roots or bulbs of some kind.The vixen is marking where the dog fox has sniffed or is it the other way round?On sunday night the sliver of moon gave just enough light for a bit of a trek to hear the foxes at it barking and screaming to each other and i even heard 1 pair mating in some scrub making a right old racket........

What use do wildlife surveys offer bigcat research?

There are many conflicting theories on bigcat behaviour and 1 of the most interesting ones,to me,are the prey that they are living off at different times of the year.The research on this is also tied up with their movements through a home range and their migration from 1 home range to another.In the years past,before trailcams,it was necessary to make in depth,time hungry wildlife studys of certain areas of the Sussex countryside where it was believed that a bigcat might spend a proportion of the year to a greater or lesser degree and this was and still is vitally important to quantify seasonal variation in the diet.In other words what i would do is study a place by on the ground evidence and actually seeing what animals were about at the proposed seasons and determining what prey would be available for a bigcat to hunt,in Sussex this is chiefly roe and fallow deer,rabbits and other small mammals,birds of various kinds to a greater or lesser degree.I would then,when a bigcat has either been sighted in the area or has been found to be there by other evidence,determine by evidence of kills like deer and fox carcases or say birds that are either definitely bigcat kills or are not attributed to other predators.I,ve already covered in this blog about deer but not so much about birds and an example of this is say a pigeon kill the only evidence of which would be a small spread of soft breast feathers on the ground as the carcase was already gone.If,say within yards of the feather spread there were a much smaller drop of courser back feathers and in line of sight of beyond thiswould be a line of trees,it would be reasonable to assume that a sparrowhawk(probably female)had taken it as their method of usual attack is to fly in using any cover available to them,strike then land with a heavier bird such as a pigeon,if the carcase had gone then it would be likely a fox had taken it.Another predator a fox,bites off the flight feathers to leave scissor-like cuts from their sharp teeth,the more jagged the edge the blunter the teeth ergo the older the fox.It would be reasonable in finding a neatly skinned out meatless carcase not attributed to either a fox or a badger and with few feathers scattered that are also mostly breast ones in an area where a bigcat has been active to assume that it might well have caught and consumed the said bird.Once the probables have been eliminated(foxes etc)then the plausibles(bigcats) become highly likely is standard procedure.Where trailcams have come in so useful is that i can do a wildlife survey on a place with little disturbance to the area ,if this would of stopped me before maybe,at predetermined times of the year and quantify the available prey and then when a bigcat shows up i already know what is around for it to eat or not as the case may be.This is connected to why i think that a lot of the autumnal sightings peaking in october before the leaf fall proper are merely cats migrating through as opposed to being truly active in that i would most likely already know from past experience what is around there at that time of year.I have a theory that bigcats snack on relatively easy prey like rabbits on these sort of travels as less time would be invested in catching them whereas it certainly does seem that they have to put far more time and effort(stalking and ambushing) in tackling the big game that are roe and fallow deer.A case in point is the sighting at Southwick tunnel in sept"10the area is open downland with only small scrubby woods with an easily identifyable small population of roe,to the best of my knowledge none were taken and the cat spotted most likely only spent a couple of nights there if that so it would be reasonable to assume it only took the odd rabbit of which there are lot and rapidly moved on.So(if you,ve made it this far!)although i,ll continue to place trailcams with the principle aim of getting a bigcat picture i,ll also continue to do wildlife surveys as i,m principly interested in studying the behaviour of bigcats and the knowledge these surveys give me and in turn you through this blog if your interested in this type of thing.In any case they yield all sorts of interesting facts about other types of animals i like looking into such as rabbits.Now if only i can time,using a trailcam, how long a rabbit is chewing the bark off trees like holly and willow as they are at the moment (they like the oils that are stored in the cambium layer beneath)i might be able to determine whether this is a top food source for them or just a snack because this sort of thing fascinates me as well...(related article;bigcats-prey and other food sources ,1.8.10)...........

Careful now!

Not the best place to stick up a trailcam this isn,t but i was champing at the bit to put 1 here.The place offers everything a bigcat would want at this time of year and when i asked the farmer for permission and told him this he very kindly said i could put it up for as long as i liked so the chance to put a cam up in this wood had to grasped with both hands"but careful now!Be warned,people wander all over the place since the Open Access bill came in,i,ve even had people wandering around the garden,pointing at maps and walking right into the house asking if i did cream teas"in fact,his garden had been mistakenly included in the Access area,his house was,incredible but believeable considering the last (hopeless)labour government we had,listed as a tea shop and he had to go to some office somewhere to get it all taken off.Well i,ve taken some risks in putting the cam up in some places just to try and get that Golden Fleece of pictures on the understanding that most people seeing something not guarded wouldn,t just take it but now i just can,t afford to take those sort of risks as i just can,t afford to replace it for the foreseable future and although i,m not sure even if the person in the picture saw the cam it does mean that someone goes there and that,s dangerous for the cam.......

Giant fox shot in Kent

I,ve been unable to put a link up to this story but if you Google" Telegraph.co.uk" the online newspaper then search the site for "giant fox shot in Kent" there is a story about a fox that has been shot(by a veterinary) in the 27lb bracket i think it was,the length from nose to brush tip measured 48" or 4ft,this is massive seeing as a dog fox would normally only be about 14lb tops......

Muntjac at night and Fallow in snow/trailcam

At last,some half decent pics of a Muntjac.Are they really deer at all ?I wonder every time i look at their strangely composed bodys,still,they are tough little buggers and they,ve been very successful at spreading through the country from the Midlands.I remember them from Oxfordshire in the mid"80,s and they were virtually unheard of anywhere else,escapees i think they were.However they have failed to penetrate a 10by10 sq.mile block of country to the south of Horsham for some reason,10 years ago i found the odd track from them (they,ve got very tiny,petite hooves)but since then nothing,very mysterious,must be something to do with the type of cover they require as it is with most animals.Ignore the dates on the pics unless you want to add 33 days......