In this month’s Gosforth Nature Reserve Journal, NHSN naturalist, Christopher Wren, shares some unexpected encounters caught on trail camera
Trail cameras are usually set up with a specific target in mind but obviously they can record whatever comes in front of them. Often the non-target captures are of little interest (there seem to be wood mice everywhere) but sometimes interesting behaviour is revealed that otherwise would go unnoticed. The cameras in Gosforth Nature Reserve have recently recorded three examples.
Crows are pretty smart but this one wasn’t quite as clever as it thought. A carrion crow appeared at the water’s edge with a piece of dried bread. It dunked it in the water to soften it (clever) and ate half. It decided to hide the rest for later (also clever) and then flew away. However, that night a wood mouse found and ate the bread, and although the camera didn’t trigger as the mouse stole the bread the evidence is pretty damning. The following afternoon the crow returned for the bread but couldn’t find it.
Stoats are elusive creatures that range over large territories and are rarely seen. They also move very quickly and are often so fast that the trail cameras don’t have time to react. On this occasion a frightened moorhen triggered the camera so we are able to see the stoat as it ran by.
The reserve is home to many herons, deadly efficient hunters that will target anything not too big to swallow. They mostly eat fish but will also take frogs, ducklings, invertebrates and, as on this occasion, small mammals. This is the third time in less than a year that the camera has recorded a heron taking a water shrew, suggesting that it may be one of the shrew’s main predators.