Tag Archives: Brown Hare

Sweden: Nocturnal Animals

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We’ve just returned from a week’s stay in the Swedish countryside and during our stay I put out my camera trap for several nights. I usually place it in the forest behind the summer house but this time I placed it in the garden and put out some peanuts to see what might pay a visit.

On the first night we had this nervous looking brown hare…

After a couple of nights of no more than pigeons and blackbirds, I caught this badger snuffling up the peanuts…

…and on this last night, I caught this fox, again nervous around the camera.

These are lovely little snippets of life in the darkness outside while we slept. There were some mammals missing that I would love to catch on camera at the summer house. We didn’t see any red squirrels at all during our stay, despite them being very common, and we have caught a moose in the camera viewfinder out in the forest before. Most of all, I would like to snap a pine marten which have only been seen once from the house in the last few years that my family have been going there – maybe next year!

(Ignore the date stamp on the videos – I didn’t reset it when I inserted the new batteries).

May Breeding Bird Survey – Bagmere

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With an extra day at home following my return from Ramsey Island, I went out and did the third of four spring Breeding Bird Surveys at Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s Bagmere Reserve. The reserve has changed hugely since my last visit with the trees now all out in leaf and the willow tree ‘fluff’ floating on the breeze and sticking to my clothes.  The warm sun made it feel like summer rather than spring.

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The reserve was strangely quiet this morning and I only recorded 17 species, compared to the 28 and 24 species I recorded during the March and April surveys respectively.  However, I did record five new species for the site; blackcap, whitethroat, sedge warbler, sky lark and reed bunting.

The whitethroats were particularly excitable and angrily called at me as I strolled past.  This summer migrant is amber-listed for conservation but still has over one million breeding territories in the UK.

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While the survey is focused on breeding birds, I noted mammals and butterflies as I made my way around the site.  Two large brown hares ran past me, momentarily stopping to check me out, and then loped off into the long grass.  I also identified large white, small white and painted lady butterflies as well as the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly, for which the site is known.