Roe buck following doe

I think i,ve found an explanation for the roe buck still sniffing one of his marker trees in the previous post,although the pic was taken on the 10th august i assumed the rut was over which it was but only just,for i,ve just found this sequence of pics from the 5th which quite clearly show the buck hot on the heels of "his" doe with his nose outstretched very near the does rump.This usually means mating is very near ,a matter of minutes,as the doe has successfully been broken down in her unwillingness for the buck to get close to her as not being herd animals rarely touch each other this is preceded by much chasing around by the buck but from a distance.Roe very often mate in the daytime and strangely enough hot sultry evenings in late july see a peak,there must be something in the air!
In the last pic the buck is seen sniffing the ground around midday.
The rut seems to always be later here than it does in other areas for some reason but i have seen i presume to be the same pair in the same field for the past couple of months and previous pics i,ve posted show buck hanging out with doe in the spring.Personally and i,m going out on a limb here,i think they sort of pair up in spring in a roe kind of way but being non-contact animals stay together for a bit then later keep their distance.They are not always completely monogamous though and implanting of the embryo is delayed till autumn i think.As for the does kid,well it,s left somewhere for the time being to it,s own devices but from now on will spend virtually all it,s time with it,s dam as future trail camera pics will hopefully show,it,s also from now onwards that fawnless does in area could show that a big cat has been actively pursuing them so i look out for this also.......

Fox bounds after rabbit

I,ve been flat out these past few weeks,flat out at work and with the hobbies then flat out(horizontal) at home exhausted.Trail camera-wise the pics have taken a bit of a nose-dive but then it is late summer after all,pick of the crop for me is this clump of 3 pics showing a fox spying some rabbits then in the next one bounding after one,top left hand corner,then the last pic showing a rabbit bolting for home.The 2 cubs here have disappeared from trailcam view and presumably moved to elsewhere in the area.The badger/s still pass through as do the roe buck and the doe with it,s fawn.

All the evidence points to the big cat that was in the area in spring being miles away in it,s late summer area but i,m hoping for it to return in october as it has done for the last 2 autumns and it just might wander past this Bushnell which i didn,t have last year.

You may be wondering why i have posted a poorish pic of the roe buck sniffing where he has marked in weeks gone by,but not recently,well the roe rut is well and truly over that i can make out but it seems that this buck still makes sure that he has some scent left on his marking trees.I had thought that that roe bucks only scent mark around the rut which this one has but never knew that they still display some interest much later on like this one has.Yet another interesting facet of behaviour that the trailcams have revealed............

Doe and it,s fawn

Camaflage qualities of a merle coat

 


Something a little different to the usual fare,this is what my dogs get up to.This is Mist standing stock still for half an hour while the rabbits moved and fed seemingly unaware around her.I,m sure the mottled coat of the merle collie colouring hides her somewhat from view as the rabbits were very close at times......

Roe buck marking his territory

Roe buck up close

 

For a filled up card there,s not a lot to show for in this dried out boggy bottom but this roe buck showed up on occasion.....

Fox cub pooping

 

This cam set was in situ for a couple of months in which time it burnt out it,s batch of rechargeables and filled the card with 6000 odd pics,annoyingly a lot are dark due to shooting into the light,the cam faced north east and so each and every morning pic had to be lightened with the photo editor like this picture and hence the poor quality of the shot.Even so it,s not the usual type of foxy pic to be seen so i posted it!

One eyed fox with rabbit pic

 

Here,s a pic of that fox with a rabbit,I have set a cam just below the other,one on pics and one on video.Strangely enough i usually get 2000 odd pics a fortnight off the cam here but since i,ve set one with video this has dropped down to 1000 odd.I,m sure this is due to the longer(15 sec.video length) infra red flash scaring creatures off a bit but due to the high amount of activity here and the interesting behaviour being shown setting a cam up for video was a must.A 10 minute delay on the video set also was needed as the rabbits tend to hang around here for long periods and interesting though they may be watching an hour of rabbits chewing can get very laborious.As it is i sit through about 2 hours of video every time with the 2 cams set whereas with pictures even 2000 pics can be scanned through far more easily.The vid sets are well worth the effort though and there is not the blurry night time pics that often plague these Bushnells.I see Bushnell have brought out a covert,no glow cam with HD and audio vid,one of these added to my small string of trail cameras would be ideal for the high activity places but at 300 odd quid a pop it will have to wait.Most farms around are getting stuck in to the corn harvest and what with being august there are a lot of people about,these 2 factors usually contribute to a leap in big cat sightings but whether this happens this year we shall have to wait and see,one things for sure that trail camera theft incidents also leap at this time of year and so only safe and sound sets are on the cards for the time being.......

I still can,t seem to suss out how to comment on even my own blog but where there,s a will there,s a way etc.etc.
Thanks for your comment John i had to laugh,i,m only assuming it,s injured as it,s eye doesn,t reflect any light when it passes the cam at nightime.Hope your Willows leg is healing up....