As promised, finally, some more video from the trail camera.

The camera has been parked at the pond for some time as it’s probably the most reliable place to capture the wood’s wildlife, so all of the action takes place there. Many animals obviously come to drink, but some – for example owls and badgers – seem to visit just because it’s a good place to find food. All in all the pond is an important resource for the wood, and which is why we ask people to keep their dogs under control when they are near it.

Muntjac are to be seen visiting the pond almost every night, more often than other species, but of course others do and with varying frequency. Since the disruption of last year’s thinning operations there’s been a noticeable reduction of roe deer sightings, and no reappearance of last year’s fallow deer (although this may be entirely unrelated). Nevertheless, there’s lots been seen – here’s a selection of drinkers and feeders.

I’ve lots of video of tawny owl visits (the same or different birds?) which could suggest a nest somewhere in the wood. As well as visits to the pond, a tawny owl can sometimes be heard during nighttime clips of other animals.

Here are some more clips of animals showing their skills in and out of the water, and some just passing through. Also some close encounters, most are of roe deer as the camera is just at the right height for their noses.

Probably most video captures happen at night (except squirrels) when the pictures are in monochrome. Here are some nice daytime clips in full colour.

As an aside, you may notice that owls and foxes are clearly very twitchy about the nighttime IR camera light, deer seem to be less so, and badgers are just too laid back to take any notice at all.

Don’t forget that the camera records sounds, so turn up the volume and enjoy the sounds of the wood.

Also, when you’ve finished watch a clip, just click outside the video window to close it. I’m trying using YouTube this time – previously I’ve used Vimeo, but that video service has a space limit that I’m close to hitting. Let me know if you have any problems.

That’s it for now.

Chris