Our most secretive residents

We were very lucky to have local mammal recorder Graham Checkley back in Our Gifford Woods recently to again monitor some of the activity.  This time Graham brought his trail camera along to study our most secretive residents, and he managed to capture quite a few additional users of Gifford Woods as can be seen in the video below (also available on our YouTube channel by clicking here)!

Here's an update from Graham to describe what he did and what he found:

"If you walk through a woodland at dusk or dawn you may be lucky enough to encounter a Fox going about their business.  But most of the mammal activity takes place at dead of night, and that's why a trail camera is so useful; it operates in infrared and is motion triggered, so it doesn't bother the animals at all.

My first camera deployment was in the Speedy Wood, where I recorded Fox and Roe Deer, but Nev suggested that I checked out the Fawn Wood too and I was very glad I did.

I recorded Badger, Brown Hare, Fox, and what looked like Wood Mice at both of the Fawn Wood locations I checked, while Roe Deer were an additional species that only frequented the quieter trails.

It's intriguing to see the number of species that can coexist on a small section of a woodland trail.  You can see Pheasants at dawn, mice at night, and Foxes at the odd hours in between; survival is so often a matter of timing.

But there's also the question of daytime survival.  Badgers have sets, Foxes have lairs and Mice have nests, but Brown Hare and Roe Deer simply hunker down and try to be invisible.  That's what makes visitor behaviour so important.

So if you do take a walk in the woods, especially at dawn or dusk, please try not to disturb our secret residents.".

A big thank you again to Graham for all his work and sharing this with us.