….I had been noticing lots of deer action around the corn bins in my local wood. I had also been seeing lots of deer droppings which were full of [...]]]> I know that ‘Buck Fallow & the Corn Hopper’ sounds like a Country & Western duo! Well it’s not, so please don’t be put off reading this….

….I had been noticing lots of deer action around the corn bins in my local wood. I had also been seeing lots of deer droppings which were full of corn. It got me wondering how many other animals and birds utilise this abundance of corn left out on feed rides and in hoppers for the pheasants. I set up one of my Bushnell trail cams for a few days just to see what else was taking advantage of this food supply over this cold and snowy period.
The camera was out for three days and it picked up pheasants, pigeons, jackdaws, rabbits, rats, squirrels, roe deer and fallow deer. The highlight of the clips was this section where the male fallow uses his rutting skills to bring down a corn bin. The problem the buck has is that his antlers make it difficult for him to get his head under the bin when it’s upright, and impossible to get his head inside it when it’s lying down. So the only way he can get his fill of corn is to get the bin tipped over and then to get the corn tipped out, which he appears to do with great ease.

It has been seen a few times over the past two weeks around the churchyard in Ampleforth so I decided to go and have a quick look. I didn’t really think there [...]]]> Probably the least exciting video I have ever posted but it is my very first Hawfinch sighting so it is memorable for me.

It has been seen a few times over the past two weeks around the churchyard in Ampleforth so I decided to go and have a quick look. I didn’t really think there would be much chance of seeing it but thought I should make the effort anyway….I’m glad I did. As soon as I entered the churchyard and looked up I could see it at the top of the trees over the road. I saw it for about two minutes! I set up the camera and then started to get a good look with my binoculars and almost immediately it vanished. I waited for nearly an hour but it never appeared again.

You can see on the video the hawfinch’s main distinguishing feature which is its very large and pale beak (shining in the sun). What isn’t obvious on the clip is its size! When perched next to greenfinches which are already a decent size finch. You could see just how much bigger they are!

It’s great to get a new tick in the book

Last Saturday after snow ploughing my drive so I could get out, a friend and I ventured out to a hidden valley between Old Byland and Hawnby. I usually manage to get a few quick [...]]]> It is not my normal nature & wildlife content but it was quite wild and it was in Ryedale.

Last Saturday after snow ploughing my drive so I could get out, a friend and I ventured out to a hidden valley between Old Byland and Hawnby. I usually manage to get a few quick runs each winter on my snowboard here in the North York Moors but last Saturday the conditions were particularly good. The sun was shining and there was up to a foot of fresh fine snow. Here is a quick clip of my friend Matt X having a play on his board. We did six runs each and were exhausted with all the walking up hill through deep snow. Sorry the clips are so bad but my phone lense was all steamed up and I was breathing very heavily.

Just to add a wildlife slant we did surprise a few hares who could only just see over the top of the snow and were having to jump large distances to cover any ground. We measured their jumps at over 2 metres each leap….Anyway back to the snowboarding:

As mentioned in a previous post I have been experimenting with infra-red motion sensor wildlife cameras over the last couple of months. It has taken a few weeks to work out where to position them and which settings to use and so far with only limited success. However, since putting one of the [...]]]>

As mentioned in a previous post I have been experimenting with infra-red motion sensor wildlife cameras over the last couple of months. It has taken a few weeks to work out where to position them and which settings to use and so far with only limited success. However, since putting one of the cameras in an area of my local woods which is used by deer as a place to lie-up(rest), I have started to get some good shots. Tell-tale signs give away the fact that the deer use this spot. Signs such as: smooth depressions in the ground (sometimes still warm), hoof prints, hoof scratting marks and deer hair.

I have had one of the Bushnell cameras on this spot for a couple of weeks now and have started to get some great footage.
This spot is regularly used by 2 different adult female Fallow deer (Does) and their fawns and also one juvenile male and at least two mature males (Bucks). The one year old juvenile males are called ‘yearlings’ or sometimes ‘prickets’ due to the fact that their small antlers are just pricking through.
Already after only a couple of weeks I am starting to recognise the different family members and the variety of colour markings within the Fallow species. As mentioned in earlier posts many of our local fallow deer seem to be almost black including a black rump without the characteristic white horse shoe markings around their tails which are normally their identifiable feature.

I have also started to note some interesting social behaviour. There seems to be a dominant male who regularly scrapes the ground with his front hooves and sprays (scent marking) the area and then lays down where he has marked. There is also another adult male who passes through less frequently and a younger male who comes along and scrapes and scent marks in the exact same place. This is part of the autumn rut routine, these scrapes in the ground are produced to mark territory and to set up rutting stands.

The female and her fawn always come along and smell these areas and then seem to get excited by the smell and have a mad few minutes running and skipping around. It appears that the pheromones in the males scent is causing this excitement.

This is an ongoing work project so I can’t show all the footage just yet but here is a taster of what’s to come just to whet your appetite and will provide links to more clips when we have edited them into a watchable format.
 

(more fallow info click: here)