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....

Bigcats-prey and other food sources

Generally,british bigcats are oppurtunist hunters.Their diet changes as the seasons unfold.From late febuary it,s likely young rabbits feature almost exclusively in their diet.At this time of year every doe rabbit is popping out youngsters and she will even conceive again while lactating having 3 to 4 litters a year.Sussex is famous for holding huge numbers of rabbits,something which may explain why the county also supports a thriving bigcat population.It can,t be understated the importance of rabbits to predators like buzzards,stoats,foxes etc and its just as likely they are to cats as well.Rabbits,or the lack of them, could explain why bigcat sightings were minimal in the late "50,s to "70,s only increasing in the mid "80,s and "90,s.1953 saw the man-introduced,dreadful disease,myxymotosis arrive into this country and rabbits were devastated to less than 0.1% of their previous numbers.Even in the 1970,s there were,nt that many about and it wasn,t until the mid 1980,s that decent numbers could be seen again.I think it,s no coincidence that bigcat sightings have increased in step with the recovery of other rabbit predators like stoats and buzzards with the 1990,s seeing a real sightings boom.As spring progresses bird chicks take on an increasing role,as the grass and crops grow rabbits are that little bit harder to catch and as their numbers increase so it,s harder to surprise individuals.Once may arrives,rookerys drop numbers of fledgings onto the ground and annual sightings of bigcats at rookeries support this theory.Late. may and june are roe deer fawn birthing times and i,ve noticed fawnless does in bigcat areas,of course they take adults as well but they are not as easy to catch .Incidentely,the Great Storm of 1987 benefited roe deer by opening up woods leading to a spurt of secondary growth which roe feed on and their numbers have also multiplied since then. July sees a spurt of cat sightings in places not seen at other times of year and it,s thought they,re on the move to fresh hunting grounds,some could be on their way to meet the mass influx of gamebird poults arriving at shoots around now.Sussex woodlands support nigh on a million pheasants with at least 200,000 partridges and such easy targets wouldn,t be missed by such an oppurtunist hunter as a bigcat however it,s doubtful they would be such wasteful killers as foxes.Autumn and although cats would be picking off what they can find,expanding field vole numbers in a dry year year with plenty of seed,a good field can hold many 100,s, and sightings of bigcats bouncing in vole fields seem to point them targeting these.Winter and the coldest months will thin out the chaff in cat numbers as availability of prey diminishes and it,s now,especially with snow on the ground ,that losses of sheep really hit the fan however the share of deer in the diet seems also to increase as does foxes,ive found fox carcases only in the winter/early spring period.Of course bigcats have other food sources and there have been numerous sightings around refuse tips but they are not necessarily scavenging but after the scavengers themselves like rats and foxes.Unbelieveably they have spotted scavenging off bird tables in peoples gardens and off the scrap plates left out for foxes,we had a sighting only this year of this happening.So in fact i could be generalising when i say cats are oppurtunist hunters when they are also pre-determined feeders as well,having learnt what,where and when could become available to them.The picture above shows a field where a recent sighting took place and the rabbit numbers are estimated to be in excess of 200 in this one field.......