There were two good sightings on the cameras in the past twenty four hours, with a bit of luck some of you saw them.
At about 9.pm last night I turned the valley camera on and there was a Muntjac Deer. I have never seen one on the camera at night before. I have only ever seen them in the day, and more than not with a Fawn. I always seem to startle them, the Hind going one way and the Fawn the other. I always feel guilty and worry that they may lose each other. Of course the next time I see them they are together again. The Muntjac is not a native breed, although I have not looked it up, I was told that they originated from China, and imported by a wealthy land owner, some of them escaped and colonised in this country.
The other sighting was on the normally SWT Blue Tit nest camera page. The centre Manager told me that when they looked at the nest box, that was put up for the Woodpeckers, there was a Red Squirrel in the box, he immediately put it on so that we could all see it. Unfortunately it was a black and white camera. It was very still when I saw it, looking like a ball of fluff, I thought at first that it was some sort of Mouse, until it moved. It slept in the box for a good while before moving onto the feeder, by the side of the nest box. The Red Squirrel did not return to the box, but there is a chance that it may return and breed. I have sent a colour camera to the SWT centre, to install in the box. If it does return we will be able to see it in colour. The Red Squirrel by all accounts breeds in the latter part of May. It could well be that it is looking for a nesting site.
When the new cameras are installed at the Lock of the Lowe’s centre there will be other wildlife to see. I understand that it could be this weekend.
I managed to install the Swallow camera today, it tuned out to take longer that I thought it would, because of the type of camera it is, it needs a piece of equipment to make it work on my system. This camera is controlled from one of my computers, on the computer it is the correct way up, on your computers the wrong way. It should have been installed in only one position and I forgot. I hope not to many of you saw the picture upside down. I will have to change it around first thing in the morning, then you will be able to see the nest. The Swallow is sitting on the eggs, but I will try to count how many there are.
I lost all track of time whilst installing the Swallow camera, by the time I had finished I realised that I had not phoned the Veterinary about Woody. She has been up on her legs all day and looks a lot better than she did yesterday and the day before. I will contact them tomorrow.