There is SO much happening at Yew View that it is difficult to keep up! The warm weather has really kicked things into action and our bee hotels were simply buzzing this week… lots of activity which was fantastic to see!
There is new life starting everywhere… there are blue and great tit families hatching in a number of the nest boxes and the jackdaws are well settled in the Tawny box, with their eggs due to hatch any time soon. We are getting some lovely clips from this box and I’m looking forward to seeing the footage when the eggs hatch!
There are more swallows appearing every week and I have been trying to predict where they would nest so I could get the HD camera on one! I took a gamble and I think it has paid off, as the female has been visiting this spot a lot for the last two days…
There are a number of artificial nest cups which the swallows regularly use. in the old stable. There is an upstairs room and access via an open Velux window and a number of these artificial cups are up there too. Last year a pair of Pied wagtails nested in one of these cup and I really wanted to try to get a camera on them this year. I saw them popping in the window, so set up a Bushnell to see which nest cup they were using. I have set a camera up on the nest, but it is high in the roof and impossible to get the camera any higher. This clip was taken just as the light was fading at the end of the day, hence it is in black and white..
Of course, I was keen to see if the otters had been back. Sadly, the footage only showed one visit in the last week, by a single individual….
On speaking to a number of people who are much more knowledgeable than me on otters, I understand that they may have a number of holts along their stretch of river. These will all be used as they travel up and down their territory. Also, young male and female otters will often spend time with families, so the male we saw last week may well be a grown up sibling!
I would imagine our Kingfishers have a nest somewhere, but they are still visiting the post nearly every day, although maybe only once. I lifted this clip as the light was beautiful and this male just looked SO vibrant! I have not adjusted this footage at all… that is really how stunning he is!
I am lucky enough to be able to expect footage from all of these species each week… but every now and again, we capture something a bit different! A week or so ago, I captured this clip….
This is the first hedgehog I have seen at Yew View and it has been several years since David and DJ have seen one. Great to see it ambling its way through!
Also, spotted this footage of a stunning green woodpecker feeding outside one of our badger sett entrances..
… and at the same site, this lovely fox who came through just before it got dark….
Next week, I must try to get some photos of the bees… both those at the bee hotel and some of the different species of mining bee in the soil I have seen… my macro lens need to come out as I am not too good at identifying them and will need some help from my Twitter experts!! Hopefully our jackdaw chicks will have hatched too… it’s going to be fun watching them on this HD camera!
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