Muntjac in daylight

I,ve waited a long,long time to get some pictures of the rarely seen muntjac in daylight and i thought it would only be in these light months that any might materialise so,whilst not perfectionist perfect in composure,exposure or pin sharp,i,m pretty chuffed with what the Bushnell Trophycam has been able to capture.......

The fox cubs are on the move

All over the place the fox cubs are on the move away from their den sites,i also picked up some pics of a badger in this new cam spot and pics of them are as rare as chickens teeth in areas where a big cat has been active (where i try to put my cams)so maybe one hasn,t been here after all as lack of badgers is my new litmus test of an area that cats like,i really don,t know if a cat has been here or not just assumed it was a good place as there are hordes of rabbits and plenty of thick hedgerows,the roe should be here as well but seem to be lacking for some reason,they haven,t showed up on the cam yet but i did see some little signs of them(some poo)The roe doe in the 2nd pic from the other spot seems ready to drop as she,s looking very bulbous........

Heavy looking roe doe

After some teething or should i say seething problems with this cam spot i think i,ve sussed it now so why should i move it?Well this stream on the right of the picture had a fair bit of water in it 4 weeks ago when i first
scouted out the place but now there are only little pools of water.Although we are in the middle of a drought,a spit of rain only since mid march,this stream ,as i realise now,is a winterbourne and offers a perfect little summer run which the fox cub (you may have to enlarge and squint a bit to seeit) in the first pic is
using to it,s advantage.So next time i go will be to try and move it and get the stream in as well as the main run which goes just to the left of the cam as it is now.The roe doe looks about ready to drop and according to deer expert Richard Prior ,who,s forgotten more about roe than i will ever know,they start dropping fawns from mid april to june with a peak around the 20th may.
Near the top of my wish list is a roe fawn with it,s mum but a gaggle of fox cubs will do,the cubs are starting to move about a bit with the vixens now and although grey looking are starting to look like proper foxes......

Roe buck or two

I can,t quite decide whether this is 2 different roe bucks,the last 2 pics could possibly be of a younger one and it does seem to be of a lighter build and have slightly smaller antlers but then that may be a trick of the light.The other thing i,m not sure about is whether in the 4th pic the buck is drinking from the stream as roe deer are not meant to hardly drink at all ,it,s an obscured camera angle and i may try and put the cam in a different spot here to try and include the stream bed in the middle of the action but it was hard enough setting it up here in the first place.False triggers due to the vegetation meant 6000 odd pics to go through from the first day and the following few days the cams battery had gone so who knows what went past it then.
Anyhow ,it,s all change on the cam front in the quest for the Holy Grail of wildlife pictures,those of a big cat, so we will have to wait and see what this cam spot throws up,one was seen just half a handful of fields away from here.It,s no good putting a camera up where it,s been unless i think it may come back,sometimes they do,sometimes they don,t........

Fox has rabbit at night

Not the best of quality these pics i know,but they do illustrate just how much the rabbits are getting hammered.This won,t affect their general numbers though ,all areas have exploding amounts of them by now...........

Jay getting nesting material

Crow cleans it,s beak

Vixen shows up

It looks like the vixen has showed up,i suspect she has cubs and is hunting day and night to keep them fed.The drought we are having,barely any rain since mid march,means the worms are off limits so the rabbits here are heavily on the agenda......

Cock pheasant crowing

There is only 1 cock bird walking past this trailcam at this time of year and it,s this one.They,ve all got their own territories and our friend here has this prime spot that he struts around crowing from time to time ...........

New coat showing through for the roe

The new,reddish fur of this roe doe
can be seen coming through and may be why it,s itching a lot........