Fallow buck eating mushroom

Just by the rabbits nose in the second pic is the mushroom that the buck later eats,although there is a white fleck on the skin that shows that the rabbit may or may not of taken a piece of it Alice in Wonderland style the trail camera does seem to show that rabbits are not big fans of shrooms.The huge fallow buck though eats not only this big fully ripe shroom but also the half ripe ones next to it or at least just the caps and not the indigestible stalks.I had lightened the pics via Picassa 3 however the viewing improvement hasn,t come through Blogger so each pic needs to be enlarged to actually see not only the mushrooms themselves but the chewing of the deer.All the shrooms that came up in front of this trailcam got hammered by one species of deer or another in a short space of time,i don,t know what species of mushroom they are and i don,t recognise them on any "fit for humans list" but the deer must find them very good to eat.All types of deer are noticeable by their absence in the open fields but a wander through any thick woods about now will throw up sightings of deer......

Muntjac buck eating mushroom

Checked my string of 4 trail cameras this week,3 hadn,t been looked at for over a month so i,ve been treated to more than 15000 pics to check.As a big cat is due to pass any of them all photos,especially the night ones, are scrutinised carefully with the shadows lightened to show up anything lurking there.It,s one hell of a lot of pictures with few duds which just goes to show the intense wildlife activity going on at the moment in the woods.The deer are very active even feeding in daytime and whilst i knew they ate fungi i never realised how much they went for them or that they left them until they are fully ripe.Only the big chesnuts are being eaten but all mushrooms are taken as soon as they are ripe,literally within hours as the next lot of pics will show of a fallow buck eating fungi.....

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

Squirrel flicking tail at pheasant

This squirrel is getting territorial over it,s patch,they can get very aggressive at this time of year and are probably being possesive over the acorn drop.Pheasants eat them too.A friend related a story once of a squirrel launching itself at his terrier which was rooting amongst the leaf litter one autumn,it reminded my friend of one of the last scenes of Watership Down cartoon version when an ill fated rabbit flew at the farmers dog,despite the squirrels sharp teeth there can be only one outcome.In fact only the other day someone told me of a squirrel who came up to them chattering and flicking it,s tail ,there has been such a big acorn drop this year that it can,t be hunger just,i suppose,force of habit on the squirrels part......

Feral ferret

Picked up this white feral ferret on the trail camera the other day.Someone has been releasing them over the past few years in the area and i counted over a dozen different ones that i saw in the course of the season,the dogs mark them first by wagging their tails as i keep 3 ferrets myself,often quite tame but always covered in ticks so they must be surviving,at least for a while.Never see the same one twice though.........

Following the flock/South downs

 

Fallow buck up close and personal

Muntjac doe and fawn

The muntjac doe and her fawn are showing up often in front of the cam,the doe seems to be eating the brown leaves on the ground of the silver birch which i would of thought to be unpalatable.The acorns are dropping at the moment so many in fact that one nearly hit me on the head the other day.Also dropping are the early,smaller chesnuts and these proove to be a big draw for deer of all shapes and sizes which could be one reason for the increase of big cat activity in these type of wooded areas at this time of year.The oak trees are all over the place but the chesnuts are more locally defined and are more favoured by deer who will askew acorns for chesnuts if given the choice...........

Thousand yard stare(from Wonkabar007 on Youtube)

Muntjac doe washing fawn

I am pretty chuffed to get some muntjac fawn pics and this sequence here seems to show the doe being very attentive to her fawn by washing it every now and again.The last 2 pics are 5 nights later so she must be doing it quite often.Haven,t a clue how old the fawn would be but it,s still a bit spotty so can,t be that old maybe 3 1/2 months old if they mature in step with roe but i,m just guessing........

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......

Roe deer is intrigued by bumble bee

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!