Fox carrying carrion at night

I think it,s some sort of dead bird this fox has found,whatever it is i,m sure it will go down well as food is a bit hard to come by at moment,even the worms they often eat will be thin on the ground as it,s been so dry and frosty........

More fox,a roe buck and a woodcock at night

A few more fox pics and a young roe buck showing off his new antler buttons....

Where are all the woodcock pics off the trail cameras?I was asked recently for last winter i had loads showing them probing through the leaves in ones,twos and threes.Back then it was very cold from november onwards and these little birds feed more in the woods when it,s frosty and frozen where it,s sheltered and they can more easily probe with their beaks in the softer leaf litter.Not so this winter with temperatures on most days in double figures, the nights barely dropping below 5 and only the second batch of frosts coming last week which have enabled the woodcock to keep on feeding out on the open pastures,not in the woods where my cameras are.Still time yet for some more pics of them but this is all i,ve got so far........

The (dead)squirrel,the stoat,then a fox

Still on the squirrel theme i placed this squirrel carcase in front of the cam to see what would happen.Predictably the local squirrel took a look but never hung around the area while the carcase was there,a stoat showed up but didn,t touch it(only the second time i,ve captured an image of a stoat)then it took a few passes before a fox decided to take it.Coincidentaly,Camera trap Codger placed a squirrel carcase in front of one of his cams around the same time but on the other side of the world and incredibly another squirrel took it(see his post in the blog list)I don,t often bait my camera traps but when i do there is often something of interest so may do it a bit more......

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.....

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.......

Fox carrying rabbit

It looks to me that this fox is pausing in front of the trailcam to adjust it,s grip of the rabbit in it,s jaws.The fox may of just caught it as they do tend to run off with it a bit while it,s still wriggling and then once they have a firm hold will carry the rabbit by the middle with the belly facing downwards for balance to somewhere and eat it......

Sitting fox

The fox and the fallow buck

Thinking back at some of the titles i,ve used for posts they have been very simplistic and often,the above is a classic example,sounded like the title of a fable from Aesop.Well this story goes like this;A wise and ancient fox wanders during a nights hunting into a wooded glade and pauses,the heavy scraping sound of hooves coming closer is familiar but not scary and could be helpful,he sits down semi-hiding behind a tree just to make sure.Maybe if he got a little closer the buck may stir up a mouse to be caught.Then,he scratches an itch while waiting,maybe just to be seen to be not bothered in the presence of such a large and majestic animal.Hold on,the buck with the huge antlers is moving,he had better move too just so he doesn,t miss anything.Then both catch sight of a strange glowing red object in front of them that they haven,t seen before which is the trail camera,the fox is wary of it things like that usually have a lot to do with humans and he has learnt to stay out of there way for the most part,not much puts off a buck of this size but both don,t hang around and are gone.Neither the fox didn,t get to his grand old age by not taking notice of out of the place happenings and acting accordingly nor did the monster buck reach his size,stature and ownership of such a huge set of antlers by waiting for something that could get disasterous to happen.
Not anything like a fable i know and i,m just guessing the bit about a mouse but i wonder if the likes of Aesop saw animals like our buck and fox together who don,t normally mix and then came up with a story to match,just like i have done i suppose......

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............

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....

One eyed fox with rabbit

Fox eating at night

Can,t be too sure what this fox has got to eat but this place is one big hive of activity for foxes.They are backwards and forwards all day long,night and day,often with some sort of thing in their mouths........

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...........