Sunday 13 November 2016

Trail-Cam season

The best thing about late autumn early winter, is that it's time to get the trail cameras out and situate them in some interesting areas. I spend the summer months making mental notes of places I visit that I would like to put a trail camera in. Pete also has a list of places he fancies setting a trail camera at, and we also have favourite spots from previous years.

We positioned two cameras recently and left them out for 12 days. One was in an old favourite spot, a nice way to start the trail camera season off, and the other in a new location. At the end of the allotted time, we collected the cameras in, and went to the pub for the evening along with my laptop to wade through just short of 900 pictures.


The new location did produce some interesting results, but the tried and tested spot again produced the goods. Day and night visiting foxes, a pair of badgers, one being a old acquaintance from encounters involving actual observations when badger watching, and previous captures on trail camera. I have recorded this particular badger with the light stripe on its back and flank at two different setts some distance apart.

An Old Friend

I believe the current smaller sett that is located near this trail camera was probably an emergency refuge or satellite sett in the past, but as the population of the original sett increased, these badgers relocated on a more permanent basis.

Badgers in the mist

Foxes were also busy in the area, this is a natural animal highway and no pre-baiting or artificial feeding was carried out. From the pictures, it looks like three different foxes regularly pass through the area. This is one of them, the most photogenic and a real poser.





The real surprise was what looks very much like a Polecat. I will have to put a camera back in this area to try and recapture it and hopefully get some clearer images.


I'm looking forward to seeing what the trail cameras record this winter.