When no-one is about

We wondered what visited our plot to clear up the pumpkins that we’d discarded… Well, here’s the answer….using our Ltl Acorn Trail camera, with 30second captures every time it was motion-activated. Resulting in 518 videos - you’ll be pleased to know this video is very selective!

We’ve seen squirrels in the hedgerow and suspected that they had enjoyed some of our sweetcorn. Well, this one clearly likes pumpkin seeds. You can see him (maybe her) burying the seeds very close-by. That’s apparently common behaviour when they find a hoard and they may re-bury the seeds elsewhere later. That’s if the night-time mice don’t find them! The mice made constant visits throughout the night; taking about 2 minutes to take the seeds somewhere then return for more. I think we’ll find their stash near the toilet or our polytunnel.

The cat making an appearance was a surprise but clearly not for the mice who didn’t appear while she (maybe he) was there. She was very patient but walked away with nothing. We were pleased not to see rats but would have liked to see an owl swoop in, or a fox 🙂

Did you notice the crazy twirling worm (bottom right) in the first capture? What is it doing? I can’t find any information online but may well be using the wrong search terms.

The magpie arrived too late for most of the seeds; the mammals had already dealt with them. Originally we thought a thrush saw off the blackbird, but I think actually it’s two female blackbirds and finally our big fat pigeon, ‘Pip’ trundles into shot 😀