Trail Camera Footage on Barbed Wire Fence

This week you get two blog posts (lucky you) as my previous one didn't post until I checked just now.

A few months ago I set up my Bushnell Trophy Cam HD 2014 on a barbed wire fence that is the boundary between our 4 acre woodland area and the whole of bedgebury forest (owned by the forestry commission). The fence goes along about 200 metres between two fields. We knew the deer had to cross the fence somewhere as we had seen deer in our woods on a regular basis, but we did not know where about they got through. We walked along the fence line and found an area where the fence was a bit lower than all the rest. We also saw a bit of deer fur on the barbed wire fence. I placed the camera on the fence and waited. After the camera had been left for a week I went and checked it and saw a few fresh deer slots in the mud on one side of the fence. These footprints belonged to a Roe deer doe and buck that had just come and sniffed the camera without jumping it (which I was quite pleased about because the camera was not in a very good position as it was aiming too high so that all you could see was the deer's head).

After readjusting the cameras position a bit, I left the camera for another week and then went to collect it again. This time the camera was in a good position and I got the same Roe deer buck, another smaller Roe deer buck and a Muntjac buck. None of these jumped the fence either just walked up to it and walked past.

Finally after two weeks of waiting a deer finally crossed the fence. Unfortunately they didn't cross the fence how I had expected them to (jumping it), instead they went through it. It was the same Roe deer buck that I had been getting for the last two weeks but this was the first time he had actually crossed the fence.

 

 

 

After this Roe deer had got the ball rolling all the deer were doing it. Two more does joined him by going through the fence and another two bucks also did it. This was obviously a well used track for the deer. The next week, I got my best video yet. It was the bigger buck chasing the smaller buck. Not only that, but they both jumped the fence together, (had the Roe deer rut started early?)

 

 

 

 

I was really pleased with some of the videos I got of the deer crossing the fence and got about 50 videos of 6 different deer over the period of a month crossing through that small area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracking the wild boar in the Forest of Dean

This post was written in April but didnt post (again).

On Wednesday, My family and I went on a trip to the Forest of Dean. The plan was  to get some videos of the wild boar on my Bushnell Trophy Cam HD 2014. On the first day we arrived we didnt venture to far into the forest before we saw signs of the boar. They dig up the roots and bluebells and cause huge distruction (we guessed this was the reason why so many people dislike the boar).

A few hours of walking later I found what I thought was a good place to put my  Trail Camera. We placed it and went back to the B&B we were staying at. 

The next day we decided to go on a scenic route round the forest in the car. After 10 minutes of driving my sister Hannah shouted out, "Boar". We parked the car a few minutes up the road and me and my dad walked to where the boar had been spotted. At first we didnt see anything and walked around for ten minutes looking for signs. Suddenly from a few metres infront of us this huge boar came flying out of the bracken and heading towards the road. I ran round the boar in an effort to scare it away from the road to avoid a car accident, it worked. The boar headed up the hill away from the road. I slowly followed it but made sure not to get too close to the boar. Then suddenly a few metres infront of me I saw some movement. I looked down as about 6 young wild boar (still stripy) dispersed into the undergrowth. I continued to follow the big boar and managed to get a good but slightly blurry image on my iPhone. 

I decided to move my camera here for the last night as I felt that I would get more footage here than I would get at the previous place. We went to get my Trail Camera from position A in which I got one video of a Fallow deer. When we got back to the place I wanted to move my camera to the Boar had all gone, but we decided to put the camera there in hope that the mother and her babies came back that night. We found a small wallow under an Oak tree and put the camera there. 

Once we had placed the camera we continued the drive around the forest. A few miles up the road we saw another group of wild boar, and up the road from that we saw yet another group of wild boar, meaning that we had nearly 30 wild boar that day, (which was very suprising as everyone we told said that we would need to be very lucky to see any boar at all). 

The next day we went to go and collect the camera. In the mud by the camera I didn't see any footprints which made me think that maybe I hadn't got any footage. I had to wait for the four hour journey before I could check the camera on my computor at home. 

When I got home I was very suprised to get 7 videos of a wild boar (It was a sow as it had teats but unfortunately none of the piglets were in shot of the camera). 

All in all I was very pleased to get any boar on my Trail Camera let alone to have seen them in the flesh.