Not in my back yard ... surely? *We have EVEN MORE cubs!*

Dale. said:
Yup, maybe mine had had a feast somewhere at some point yesterday and went to ground early. It does worry me though, as at least twice a week, I hear gunshots on the nearby estate.
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Yes it's common for some of mine not to take any of the food, I think they are well supplied,
Don't like the gunshot though!
 
'Old Fox - New Tricks!'

The older Fox doesn't find it quite so easy to get the goodies from the top of the bush as the young Vixen does :LOL:


 
Confirmed that we have two different young Vixen cubs visiting, the first is the main visitor, confident and ready to eat like her dad the second much more cautious like her mum.




Annoyingly the rat is able to climb the side of the large plastic pot to get at the food ... further adjustments required! :thinking:
 
gramps said:
Annoyingly the rat is able to climb the side of the large plastic pot to get at the food ... further adjustments required!
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If it’s actually climbing you could grease the side of the pot. Though then you‘d have the problem of them (& the foxes) licking it off :(
 
sphexx said:
If it’s actually climbing you could grease the side of the pot. Though then you‘d have the problem of them (& the foxes) licking it off :(
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In the interim I've sprayed the outside with WD40 ... no idea what that will do though. :LOL:
 
gramps said:
In the interim I've sprayed the outside with WD40 ... no idea what that will do though. :LOL:
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WD40 worked for me when I had a rat shinning up a 4 ft metal pole to get to the seed feeder (broad daylight just outside a French window :) ) . Quite funny to see it getting so far then sliding down. I didn’t suggest WD40 for you because I thought the smell might put the foes foxes etc off.

Edit: foxes not foes obviously. As an erstwhile poultry keeper that must have been a Freudian slip :).
 
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sphexx said:
I didn’t suggest WD40 for you because I thought the smell might put the foes etc off.
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Hopefully in the middle of the grass it won't be so bad ... though given their sense of smell it might interfere with the :popcorn:
 
Well there was no bad reaction to the smell of the WD40 which is good but neither was there any appearance of the rat so I don't know if it is a solution. :)


The Bushnell takes a moment to adjust to the light of the early morning.
 
Activity seems to have changed/slowed in the back garden in the last few days, the early activity of the young Vixen has stopped and she now just turns up for a short while around 5am and takes just a small amount of food, so she is obviously also getting food elsewhere. This is a good thing as I was a bit concerned that she was becoming reliant on my handouts and that wouldn't have been beneficial for her. I see nothing now of any of her siblings.
The main visitor seems to be the mum, who passes through at various times during the night, pees over any food and water and moves on, I hope it's not a personal comment! :LOL:

The male visits sporadically and will take a fatball or biscuit from the Holly bush but is also well fed and just picks at the food, often just poking it into the lawn nearby.
I have had no activity from the Badgers now for about 4 nights.
Recent nights have had a heavy mist which, coupled with the poorer quality video from the older Bushnell cameras, doesn't lend itself to useful footage, I hope that I won't have to wait too much longer for my Browning to come back from NatureSpy, hopefully rectified. :)
 
Interesting comment about the reduction in fox activity. We have seen the same in the last 10 days or so. Before then a fox would be in and out of the garden quite a few times a night, anytime from about 6:30pm to 5am. Recently the first visits have been midnight or later. One night last week the first visit wasn't until gone 4am.

I don't know why as I would have thought there was more pressure to get food both for surviving colder nights and in preparation for mating.

I think our local hedgehog has hibernated as we haven't seen it for about a week.

My only experience with badgers is from north west Scotland and at almost anytime of the year, if the weather is rough, they will disappear for a few days.

Hope you get your Browning camera sorted.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
Interesting comment about the reduction in fox activity. We have seen the same in the last 10 days or so. Before then a fox would be in and out of the garden quite a few times a night, anytime from about 6:30pm to 5am. Recently the first visits have been midnight or later. One night last week the first visit wasn't until gone 4am.

I don't know why as I would have thought there was more pressure to get food both for surviving colder nights and in preparation for mating.

I think our local hedgehog has hibernated as we haven't seen it for about a week.

My only experience with badgers is from north west Scotland and at almost anytime of the year, if the weather is rough, they will disappear for a few days.

Hope you get your Browning camera sorted.

Dave
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Thanks Dave ... yes I thought it weird, glad to see it's not just me then. :)
 
gramps said:
Activity seems to have changed/slowed in the back garden in the last few days, the early activity of the young Vixen has stopped and she now just turns up for a short while around 5am and takes just a small amount of food, so she is obviously also getting food elsewhere. This is a good thing as I was a bit concerned that she was becoming reliant on my handouts and that wouldn't have been beneficial for her. I see nothing now of any of her siblings.
The main visitor seems to be the mum, who passes through at various times during the night, pees over any food and water and moves on, I hope it's not a personal comment! :LOL:

The male visits sporadically and will take a fatball or biscuit from the Holly bush but is also well fed and just picks at the food, often just poking it into the lawn nearby.
I have had no activity from the Badgers now for about 4 nights.
Recent nights have had a heavy mist which, coupled with the poorer quality video from the older Bushnell cameras, doesn't lend itself to useful footage, I hope that I won't have to wait too much longer for my Browning to come back from NatureSpy, hopefully rectified. :)
Click to expand...


I had one night this last week when my fox didn't show. He has been super active this last 2 nights though. He was early tonight, 6:02 PM.

The night he never came in was cold, it was minus something and the following night was very misty but he was around, from early on.

Mine seems to be a single male just now, first year juvenile I think. Maybe your fox's thoughts are turning towards breeding? That won't be too long now.
 
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Dale. said:
Maybe your fox's thoughts are turning towards breeding? That won't be too long now.
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That was in my mind too Dale, on the plus side there will be new cubs to see, hopefully. :)
 
Interesting about your townie foxes @gramps not visiting as much because I have noticed a definite increase in foxes passing through my woods these past two weeks. I know it isn't just the same fox each time as a couple of foxes are sporting rear leg injuries sadly, and in some videos there is one fox following some way behind another.
On a side note, both my cameras now no longer display dates and times...they just revert to some random date, so have had to switch that function off on both.
Another problem I am having is one camera at night(randomly) is almost greyed out and I'm not sure why.
 
Solo man said:
Interesting about your townie foxes @gramps not visiting as much because I have noticed a definite increase in foxes passing through my woods these past two weeks. I know it isn't just the same fox each time as a couple of foxes are sporting rear leg injuries sadly, and in some videos there is one fox following some way behind another.
On a side note, both my cameras now no longer display dates and times...they just revert to some random date, so have had to switch that function off on both.
Another problem I am having is one camera at night(randomly) is almost greyed out and I'm not sure why.
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Which cameras are you using Lee?
On the two Bushnells that I picked up cheaply from eBay, the time & date stamp defaults if they lose power ... they use 8 AA's and will retain the settings if you remove half the batteries at a time, replacing them with new/recharged.
My Browning doesn't lose the time/date but it was losing its sharp detection rate so is still in for repair.
 
gramps said:
Which cameras are you using Lee?
On the two Bushnells that I picked up cheaply from eBay, the time & date stamp defaults if they lose power ... they use 8 AA's and will retain the settings if you remove half the batteries at a time, replacing them with new/recharged.
My Browning doesn't lose the time/date but it was losing its sharp detection rate so is still in for repair.
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I still use the Apeman H55's
I change the batteries weekly and they both still have charge left. In one I use Energiser Ultimate lithium batteries, and in the other I use the Energiser Lithium rechargeable batteries. Even when I have put new batteries in and reset date/time, as soon as it takes a video it has reverted to something random(no matter how many times I do it). I do also randomly have odd detection rates. One video will show the tail of an animal exiting the screen-in the 30 sec video... and then the next will detect as normal.
I had been tempted by the Browning until I saw yours had something wrong with it.
 
Solo man said:
I still use the Apeman H55's
I change the batteries weekly and they both still have charge left. In one I use Energiser Ultimate lithium batteries, and in the other I use the Energiser Lithium rechargeable batteries. Even when I have put new batteries in and reset date/time, as soon as it takes a video it has reverted to something random(no matter how many times I do it). I do also randomly have odd detection rates. One video will show the tail of an animal exiting the screen-in the 30 sec video... and then the next will detect as normal.
I had been tempted by the Browning until I saw yours had something wrong with it.
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Ah, well I'm not a particular fan of the Apeman cameras but I didn't have them long.
I would suggest doing a complete default reset and re-programming if you haven't already tried it, I found mine needed that when 'weird' things happened.
The Browning is the best I've had and even with the recent problem is far better than any of the others I have used.
 
also noticed a slowdown in the visits the last couple of weeks.. Although I think that the roadworks near me may be a more significant reason - they are deforesting by the nests to allow for a smart motorway to be installed. Had 2 visit for over 1/2 hr 2 days ago though...
 
gramps said:
Ah, well I'm not a particular fan of the Apeman cameras but I didn't have them long.
I would suggest doing a complete default reset and re-programming if you haven't already tried it, I found mine needed that when 'weird' things happened.
The Browning is the best I've had and even with the recent problem is far better than any of the others I have used.
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Yes, I've seen your issues with the Apeman's... I still haven't convinced myself it's worth spending on a Browning in case it gets nicked.
I'll try a reset and see if that helps.
 
Last couple of days have seen even less activity from the usual Foxes and still no acctivity at all from the Badgers.
Last night saw a couple of new young Foxes appear, one with a leg injury, or so it appeared as he was holding the leg well up off the ground.
The good news is that NatureSpy have finished examining my camera and have advised me today that they are sending me a completely new unit as a replacement so can't fault their customer service.
 
Had been concerned about the Badger no shows (now over a week) when I suddenly hit upon a possible reason.
My neighbour has a small pear tree in the garden, quite close to my fence, and every year he decks it with small 'fairy lights' that are left on all night.
I remember reading somewhere that a possible Badger deterrent was glowing red lights, so I wonder if the small 'fairy lights' are deterring the Badgers and possibly even having an effect on the Foxes (though the male still comes and dosses down on the lawn, seemingly unconcerned).

Now getting around 12-15 video clips a night compared with 50-200 through the rest of the year.
 
gramps said:
Had been concerned about the Badger no shows (now over a week) when I suddenly hit upon a possible reason.
My neighbour has a small pear tree in the garden, quite close to my fence, and every year he decks it with small 'fairy lights' that are left on all night.
.

Now getting around 12-15 video clips a night compared with 50-200 through the rest of the year.
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Tin snips should sort that problem, just make sure the lights aren't switched on. ;):LOL:
 
The lights might scare them initially bit they get used to it
More likely that this a dormant time for them, they will be back when they
get hungry
 
Well the good news is that one of the Badgers returned for a brief visit last night, just caught sight of him through the mist but otherwise activity is still very low.
I have taken to leaving the cameras untouched for a couple of days as the activity doesn't warrant checking them ... the 1st Bushnell had 20 clips from 2 days and the 2nd Bushnell just 5.
I am not putting food out now because of the Rat, I find myself feeling irritated every time I see it make an appearance ... may sound silly but it is taking the joy out of the visiting wildlife for me as I can't really put the food down in a spread as I did. I've tried various ways of seeing it off but not successfully as of yet, I'm sure it isn't the lack of food that is reducing activity, I've only stopped doing that for a short while and have a couple of times in between put out some out of date pate.
My new replacement Browning camera arrives today but I am thinking of selling it and just sticking with the two older Bushnells, the level of activity doesn't warrant taking the new one out of the box at the moment, maybe get another next Spring. :(
 
gramps said:
Had been concerned about the Badger no shows (now over a week) when I suddenly hit upon a possible reason.
My neighbour has a small pear tree in the garden, quite close to my fence, and every year he decks it with small 'fairy lights' that are left on all night.
I remember reading somewhere that a possible Badger deterrent was glowing red lights, so I wonder if the small 'fairy lights' are deterring the Badgers and possibly even having an effect on the Foxes (though the male still comes and dosses down on the lawn, seemingly unconcerned).

Now getting around 12-15 video clips a night compared with 50-200 through the rest of the year.
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All animals are different but I'd be surprised if the lights were the cause.

The badgers in NW Scotland caught on the trail camera have shown no concern about the red light from the camera or if an outside light above where they were feeding was on or off.

The foxes we get in east London are similarly unbothered by lights. Perhaps they are very used to lights close to towns.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
All animals are different but I'd be surprised if the lights were the cause.

The badgers in NW Scotland caught on the trail camera have shown no concern about the red light from the camera or if an outside light above where they were feeding was on or off.

The foxes we get in east London are similarly unbothered by lights. Perhaps they are very used to lights close to towns.

Dave
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I think you are right Dave, I guess I'm just looking for reasons for the drop in activity.
 
Well I put a small amount of the dried food out last night, just in case the Badger came back (he didn't) but I did get a visit from a wretched specimen of a Fox.
Clearly had an injured hind leg and was badly affected by (I assume) Sarcoptic Mange ... sad sight when compared to the other visiting Foxes. :(

Amazes me to hear birds singing through the night!

 
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Aww, he's had a rough time, certainly carrying that hind leg.
 
The call of the wild!

The middle of December and the vixen is calling.
(Taken on the very old Bushnell trail camera hence the poor quality).

 
Well all 3 foxes are back to visiting nightly - at least the last week.
Copper (the friendly one) has come back - carrying an injury on her front leg. Significant limping but getting better each day. Fairly nervous I think due to the limping but that may take a little tie to build some trust back up. Was sat on the path looking at our window last night - lol
Shadow - I think is her possible twin sister - looking good but fairly timid - the girls were playing together last night....
Brutus - much much bigger & I think is the dad. He will come to my voice if I throw something for him - otherwise is a very very healthy adult
 
gramps said:
The call of the wild!

The middle of December and the vixen is calling.
(Taken on the very old Bushnell trail camera hence the poor quality).

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This reminds me of a time that I was out photographing a waterfall nearby, it was a bit of a hike out as it was deep in the woods. It was dusk and getting dark quickly under the tree cover. I heard this very same sound and at the time, had no idea what it was. It really did give me the hibbies, I don't mind admitting, I was happy to get out of those woods and into the car.

Anyway, good to hear your vixen about Roger, more cubs next year maybe?
 
Dale. said:
This reminds me of a time that I was out photographing a waterfall nearby, it was a bit of a hike out as it was deep in the woods. It was dusk and getting dark quickly under the tree cover. I heard this very same sound and at the time, had no idea what it was. It really did give me the hibbies, I don't mind admitting, I was happy to get out of those woods and into the car.

Anyway, good to hear your vixen about Roger, more cubs next year maybe?
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Certainly hope for more cubs Dale, would love to see them younger too.

As a youngster I did a lot of hiking and camping on Exmoor and the Quantocks, I often sat in a small tent wondering what on earth that noise outside was :runaway:
 
Haven't had the cameras in use for a few nights, needed to get rid of the rat before putting more food out.
Put some food out last night and set the cameras but this morning they are both thick with a layer of frost and just two video clips of brief visits, one by the male and then one by both male and female together but no food was eaten.
 
Dale. said:
How are your foxes getting on Roger?
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Been a bit neglectful TBH Dale, our daughter & son-in-law & family have all bee quite ill with Cocid-19 and one of our close friends has just gone into ICU with it so our minds have really been elsewhere. That coupled with the cold and wet conditions have distracted me but I know the two adult foxes are still visiting ... with your reminder, I'll try the cameras again tonight and see if I can work up the enthusiasm again. :)
 
gramps said:
Been a bit neglectful TBH Dale, our daughter & son-in-law & family have all bee quite ill with Cocid-19 and one of our close friends has just gone into ICU with it so our minds have really been elsewhere. That coupled with the cold and wet conditions have distracted me but I know the two adult foxes are still visiting ... with your reminder, I'll try the cameras again tonight and see if I can work up the enthusiasm again. :)
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Sorry to hear that Roger, all my best wishes to you and yours.
 
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