Tawny owl fly past

Roe buck walking past

Young muntjac buck walking past

Blonde badger /erythristic morph

I had heard the myths,but never seen any myself until now when one of the camera traps has picked up some snaps of the legendary blonde badger.Stories abound,some fantastical and far fetched like the one we heard as kids of blonde badgers being previously like normal black and white badgers but were thrown out of their setts in broad sunlight by the others for doing some cardinal wrong like fraternising with foxes and the harsh sun had bleached their fur.Never seen with the others they were relegated to a solitary life of loneliness while being even shirked by their former foxy friends who found the now weird looking blonde badgers not striking enough to hang about with.Other country myths said they were ghosts of badgers not quite in the process of leaving this earth and wandered about forever seeking that sett in the sky that eluded them.That superstitious rural Sussex of the early`70,s that i was brought up in has long gone along with the characters that I came across on my childhood ramblings but their stories still live on in memory as do my memories of them.....

Red fox scratching

2Roe buck in velvet

Mandarin duck flying off the log

Hen pheasant flies off log

Fallow calf jumping log

Badger walking along a log

Mink marking log over stream

Curiousity of the fallow calf

The curiousity of young,in this case youngish animals always amazes me and a calf of this herd of fallow deer had a good go at the camo net around the trailcam.It,s just one of those things that animals do so i wasn,t too bothered and at least the cam still managed to take pics and the net didn,t obscure the lens too much.I often wish that we had bears in this country to take pictures of but then i realise how such powerful beasts can trash a cam totally after seeing some of the posts of our fellow camera trappers over in America......

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........

Snow covered South Downs

Mystery cat in West Sussex

Never had a domestic cat in 9 months on the trail cam before at this farm and 1 week in a different part of the wood it,s picked up what looks like a big feral cat so nothing to get excited about.Hopefully the cam will get closer shots of this cat so it,s size and type can be confirmed but have no corresponding pictures of other animals in the same place yet to verify it,s size but the lack of an extra long tail would discount it from what we are really after.....

rear view of roe doe at night

 

Roe doe in the winter sun

 

Roe buck in velvet scratching

 

1st year roe doe eating leaf

 

roe doe in a bit of snow