Tag Archives: Redwing

Looking for Foxes 8

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22nd January 2025

It has been quite some time since I last shared a video showcasing the wildlife around the garden. Sightings of foxes have been infrequent, mostly limited to them passing through the garden without settling. They have not yet taken over any rabbit burrows for breeding purposes.

Looking for Foxes

The most notable sighting was that of a Grey Heron, which appears to have made the field pond its new habitat. I was fortunate enough to capture footage of the heron stalking across the pond after sunset. There is one particular moment where it can be seen holding a frog in its beak, and another where a fox is seen walking behind it. You can find these scenes using the YouTube chapters.

Please note that the dates displayed by the cameras follow the American date format (Month, Day, Year), as the cameras do not support localized date settings.

Bird species recorded by the cameras include: Blackbird, Chaffinch, Heron, Crow, Jay, Moorhen, Pheasant, Redwing, and Starlings. Mammals observed include: Domestic Cat, Muntjac Deer, Fox, and Rabbit.

Looking for Foxes

Blasdale Home Posted on by

20th January 2024

As the new year begins, it is the season for foxes to find a home to raise their young. Next to our field pond, there is a large mound of earth that is friendly to wildlife. Rabbits use it to dig their burrows. In early January, when the weather was sunny, many birds came to feed amongst the fallen leaves. We saw starlings, redwings, fieldfares and garden birds, including a cheeky blue tit that pecked at the camera. We also had many rabbits, a squirrel who luckily has not discovered the bird feeders, and a mouse. The fox visited several times, inspecting the holes. It won’t be long before the rabbits move out for a while when the fox cubs arrive.

Please ignore the date on the camera, the day and time are correct, but the month is wrong. This is January, not March.

Rabbit Spring Cleaning

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We have several rabbit holes under and through the compost heap. Often, they get taken over by foxes and badgers. Here is a video of one rabbit digging some earth out of its burrow. Instead of digging and scattering the dirt into a mound behind itself, this rabbit also pushes the soil forwards using its front paws, spreading it out into a low flat low layer. Very neat. It worked alone over a couple of days. Starting just before sunset on January 28th, and then over a period of 40 minutes on the morning of the 29th. It was amazingly neat. Finally in the last minutes of digging, a Redwing bird comes and helps out.

Birds who use our bird feeders

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A few pictures taken around our birdfeeders, not birds who feed on our food, but rather birds who feed on the birds feeding on the feeders.  So there is a Kestrel, and a regular visitor, a Sparrowhawk.  Last year we were sitting in the garden when the Sparrowhawk struck and removed one feeding bird.  There was silence for a few minutes when all others disappeared.  They soon forgot and were back out.  This Sparrowhawk regularly comes and sits on the bird feeders, but had been rather camera shy.

The Redwing and Fieldfare were photographed in out field.  There can be flocks of 40 – 50 at a time.