Muntjac Deer in the Garden

Imagine my surprise when checking through the trail camera captures and seeing some clips of a Muntjac deer ambling round the garden. Looks as though it spent a good half hour there. Then it was followed shortly after by a visiting fox. Misty video as the lens fogs when the temperature approaches 0C.



One thing is for sure - a fenced garden is no barrier to curious and determined wildlife.

While Humans Sleep

Some more video clips from the trail cameras with a cameo appearance from the four legged boss.



I set up a camera inside the hedgehog house to video one feeding. It worked - but - suddenly the interference, video distortion, I was having last Summer has started again. It seems to be a 100Hz constant signal of some sort. Very puzzling. It is affecting three out of five cameras which are powered from 12V power supply wall warts. I will try running the 'feeding' camera from a 12V battery to see whether that clears things up. If it does then there is a fair chance the problem is transmitted through the mains supply. Strange that it hasn't shown up at all throughout the Winter.

Two Hedgehogs Visit

A hedgehog visits and enters the hedgehog house where there is a dish of food. (I have added some bought hedgehog food to mix with the crushed peanuts I mentioned in a previous post.) Soon after that another arrives. What appears to be a fight between them is the male trying to persuade the female he is ready to mate. There are short gaps in the filming as the trail camera pauses for a while after each fifteen seconds of video capture.



The camera keep reporting a low battery voltage even though it is connected to a mains six volt power supply. I think the long connecting cable from the PSU is causing the voltage to drop when the IR LEDs switch on so they are automatically switched off again. Something to sort out here.

P.S. Moved things around so an extension cable is no longer needed. Once that was done the reported power went from 75% to the full 100%. The cable I had bought is too thin, with too much resistance causing a voltage drop when a lot of extra power was needed to light the IR LEDs.

Mind Where You're Walking

I always have to keep my eyes peeled for any life in the long grass





This frog obliged by keeping still while I poked the Nikon within a few inches.
It was quite large so several years old. Haven't seen any froglets yet this year in the garden.

Wetter

Recent flooding in my back garden had gone down nicely - until more rain arrived late yesterday.
Over an inch of rain in eight hours and still steadily precipitating this morning.
I've seen it far worse than this in the past.
Fortunately the lawn is lower than the building so not a danger to property.

Result


Not all bad though.
Blackbirds love it as it forces the worms to the surface


Just the sort of morning to have a bit of a change to my usual breakfast.
Instead of my daily Weetabix I cracked open a tin of country vegetable soup.
Sliced a burgerless burger bun and covered the slices with Pro Active spread.
Dunked in the hot soup - lovely jubbly.

Anyone For a Paddle?

Sheesh. Talk about wet. Easter Monday saw about 14 hours of relentless rain. Not a tropical deluge, just non stop from around midnight. I  will not have been alone in this. Here are a few screen grabs from the Government Environment Agency Flood Warning pages:

For England:
 

My nearest river is the River Lud which flows through the market town of Louth about four miles away from here though it looked as though some of the dykes surrounding me were in danger of flooding:



Water flows down from the Lincolnshire Wolds and through Louth which is in a narrow valley so the water level can rise quite rapidly after heavy or persistent rainfall:
 

My back garden had started drying out nicely after the last lot of rain and now:
View from the kitchen window:
 

From the back door:


Finally a short video from three of my cameras:



As the path was well under water I had to wear my wellies when topping up the bird feeders. It looks bad but is still a long way from causing any damage to the building. It has been worse than this just once in the past. The state of the front garden? Fine. The only time that started to flood was when a water main burst at the top of the lane and the lane turned in to a raging torrent.

It looks as though recent inclement weather conditions have damaged my weather station. No rain recorded and the temperature it reports looks to be about 7C too high. It got water logged once before. I had to open it up to empty it out when the drain hole for the rain gauge got blocked. Also the rechargeable batteries may need changing. They don't last for ever.