Southwater Country Park - 10th/11th August

First attempts at filming wildlife at Southwater. I could have easily called this Blog ‘The Trials of Filming Wildlife’ because it’s taken a few goes to get some footage but, I’ve had some success at last! Before we get to that though, although I couldn’t replicate the Brown Hairstreaks of mid week there was some good butterfly action with many Gatekeepers and Common Blues around by Quarry Lake. Gatekeeper I first started using my Bushnell Trail Camera when I was volunteering for the RSPB at Loch of Strathbeg in Aberdeenshire last year and I’ve been itching to use it at Southwater. Last weekend, I tried to film Purple Emperor’s by baiting with dog poo...as they are attracted to the horrid smell to get nectar. That fundamentally didn’t work and only attracted flies. While walking round the park though I noticed that quite large fish come into very shallow water close to one of the bridges around the trail. I then saw an opportunity to film the fish by putting my camera inside a fish tank and submerging the tank. Unfortunately, not fish appeared and the camera failed to record any of the Moorhens (that I may have baited with Twiglets...) that did come right up to the tank. I’ve not given up with that idea as I think with refinements it could produce results. Common Blue However, quite by chance while I was taking the camera back in, I noticed a flash of blue and a Kingfisher landed in a tree right next to the water. I watched him for a few minutes (I think it’s a he as it appeared to have an all black beak, females have an orange lower mandible) and saw him catch a fish! While I was still watching it, the bird flew off at I saw my opportunity to ‘bug’ his perch. It worked and I recorded the bird sitting on its perch and thinking about diving...but it didn't! Kingfisher That all happened on Saturday afternoon and so first thing on Sunday I put the camera back up and left it there for the whole day. When I looked at results later, I was delighted to see that after less than an hour the Kingfisher, even though it flew off soon afterwards. It turned out that it was the only time it appeared during the whole day. Looking again at that film of the Kingfisher, a bird flies low in front of the camera just before the Kingfisher on the branch flies off. It was another Kingfisher and the first bird flies after it! As it turns out, you can have too many Kingfishers! To view the Southwater Kingfisher film, please click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Nz_hmw1hY I will keep trying with the camera and hopefully I can record the Kingfisher catching a fish. Until next week,  Tom.