Last Friday I dusted down the video equipment which we'd been using to record the recent footage of otters. In fading light just before close of play, satisfied that the kit was ready for action after the festive season shut-down, Nick and I re-installed it on one of the channels in the middle of Radipole with high hopes of getting a further peep into what the resident critters are up to when our backs are turned. It's a site that we know otters frequent, also my favourite bird (the cormorant) fishes here, so I was looking forward to what might be revealed when I checked the memory card this morning.
Herons came and went, the cormorant made an appearance, but alas, it must have been the otters' weekend off (I know, we should have compared diaries). However I was excited to find the camera had been triggered by the presence of a kingfisher which had decided to use a carefully positioned stick intended for just this purpose. Evidently it was finding tiddlers in the water below as once or twice it dropped out of the frame and returned with its prize a couple of seconds later. With a change in the camera position I hope I can get a better view of its fishing attempts in future - we will of course put the results on Youtube as soon as we can. Here are a couple of still frames:
Perhaps the most surprising shot was provided when a heron made a dramatic entrance. It came shooting down towards the bank in a manner more like a gull's enthusiastic approach to chips, then after a couple of seconds emerged from the bankside reeds with what looked very much like a water vole in its beak, before taking flight again. It certainly wasn't the usual furtive, stalking approach which I expect from a heron. Or maybe I'm just not stalking herons often enough to know all their tricks.
Here is the YouTube link to this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHhtinI0vx4
Below is a frame from the sequence showing the predator just before take-off with its unfortunate prey; or is it just following up the gull act with a spoonbill impression? I'm looking forward to its gannet routine.
Water vole, seconds before its wing-assisted exit from this world.
Good post Chris, look forward to the vid!
Seize the day!