A bit of Nelson in the rain...

Good news, Nelson returns!

Bad news, I didn't get any good footage of him. The only two videos I did get only lasted 2 seconds each and I have no idea why. So here's a still image of him instead that I've cut slightly to fit the page...

How ironic...

...that given what I said in the last post about him returning every night, nelson didn't return last night. Well he may have done, WildCam's Cammy senses were tingling but I didn't actually get any shots of him...


Oh well, now mousey video as promised...

...and I thought I may as well post the really blurry video of nelson taken from the other day in case anyone is interested...

I think perhaps tonight I will move the camera back to the compost heap. I have a feeling that's going to be a better place for it to be in this weather.

He returns time and time again, if only I could actually get a decent shot of him...

Well Happy New Year I suppose. Actually it wasn't horrific. For the last two years I've been completely alone for New Year, at home, doing nothing. The man and the old woman (the other person I live with) usually go to the man's brothers house for New Year (which I just cant do because there's just too many people and I panic), but once again, as I said at the end of the last post, hes in it up to his neck at the moment (and again i promise i will expand on that at one point) so no new year at this this time. So they stayed here and I wasn't alone, but still nothing exciting happened.

Any-who on a much more bouncier and joyful note, I shall update you on the goings on of WildCam. I abandoned the idea of putting the camera in the trees facing the lane...it caused  too much stress, stress of it being stolen or spotted by paranoid neighbours thinking I'm trying to spy on them, and it was a bloody nightmare trying to get it attached to that particular tree. So bugger it, its back down the garden now and because of the bizarre weather at the moment, WildCam's lens keeps getting wet and blurry and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about that. But foxy woxy continues to return each night. I have dubbed him with the name Nelson. (If anyone else watches Mongrels on BBC3 they will know where the seemingly random name came from). And not only that but we also have a new addition to the WildCam clan. A mousey. Ok, perhaps not the most exciting creature in the world, but it was a very pleasent surprise to get a little English feild mouse bouncing along in the grass. I will post that video tomorrow, hopefully Ill get some better shots of Nelson by then too.

WildCam in the trees, rain in the sky...

...today was a good day. I just spent a good 15 - 20 minutes in the hedge, half way up a tree in the rain. So I'm in a good mood (not sarcastically, genuinely). I was fixing WildCam to his new perch facing into the lane where deer often walk through, whilst trying not to be spotted by any neighbours, mostly because i feared having to attempt socialisation but also because I was in a hedge, looking shifty, wearing a hoody...here, that's usually three boxes checked for criminal activity. A town person has come to steal our lawn mower! Humphrey call the police! I'll fetch the pitchfork, and send the children to cower in fear in the attic! Well it's not quite that bad but you get my meaning.

And note how I said pitchfork and not gun. Very few people have a gun here, even in the countryside. Not like the US were toddlers can wonder round with Ak47s (so the legend goes), which is why our gun crime rate is so much lower, pitchfork crime rate however...

Quote of the day:
(Talking about leaving bait for WildCam)

Labyrinth: Later when it gets a bit darker I'll go and throw some raisins....
The man: ...at people

I don't know why that was so bloody funny, but it just was. We also had a visit from the mans brother today (who insistently, is one of only 5 people I do talk to relatively comfortably), who's really in it up to his neck at the moment, but that's a story for another time.

Testing testing...

For Christmas, courtesy of the man, I got a long awaited infrared wildlife camera. Drunk with excitement, by boxing day I was scaling the garden desperately searching for somewhere that would be both convenient for me to access and well placed to get some good wildlife shots. To be honest with you I was half expecting to get nothing but a few birds and our cats nightly adventures for some weeks to come but low and behold a Christmas miracle.

Day 2 of WildCams life, he was sitting quite contently strapped to a tree down by our compost heap, about an acre away from the house (yeah, I’m a English country mouse, i use acres, mostly because i have no idea what it is in meters...somewhere between 70 and 100 I would think) and who should come walking by....Foxy Woxy!

Behold!

Much later the same day, WildCam caught a strange puddy cat wondering through our puddy cats territory...

Though unfortunately all WildCam got today was a very greedy magpie, and the wind blowing through the trees. Oh well. It's all hit and miss as the man says. All terribly exciting for someone who hasn't been out the house in 13 days though...