Beauty in the rain

Yesterday it rained all day. A beautiful photo opportunity presented itself.

Snail on lily

Feathered friends

We have had lots of birds in our garden this week. The sparrows and a great tit come to eat the guinea pig food. There is a magpie who drops in occasionally too. I try to photograph them all but they usually fly off before I can grab my camera.  Happily, I did manage to photograph this beautiful collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto).

Collared dove / Tòrtura turca (Streptopelia decaocto)

Introducing Hoppy the wild boar

Last week we got some excellent footage of a wild boar (Sus scrofa) next to the River Congost in La Garriga. We had filmed this individual before and recognised him because of his hopping gait as he does not put any weight on one of his rear legs. Maybe the leg is broken or the foot is injured in some way. Though he may be in pain, he manages to travel a fair amount as the two areas where we have filmed him are not that close together. This week he was particularly interested in the camera and I am surprised that he did not knock the tripod over.

Snails

It rained during the night on Saturday, so on Sunday morning the garden was full of snails. Here is a photo of one which I found on a terracotta pot. It is easy to take these garden 'pests' for granted, but when you look at them closely they are really quite amazing animals. I thought the shell on this one was particularly beautiful with colours ranging from pale yellow to deep magenta.

Rodents by the river

This week we filmed mice and shrews by the River Congost. We left the camera very close to the river where there was a lot of plant cover but easy access to the water. We put some sardines as bait and thought we might capture some footage of American mink but this time it was only rodents that came to investigate our bait and camera.

A lot of the daytime videos just showed plants blowing in the breeze and maybe some insects buzzing past. Of the 37 videos which had rodents in them, I have chosen two to share here. One shows a shrew (possibly a common shrew - Sorex araneus) coming in from the right and then being chased off by another rodent. It happens so quickly it's hard to see if it is another shrew or a mouse! The other video shows a mouse (possibly a wood mouse - Apodemus sylvaticus) running and jumping about.

A mystery spider

Yesterday I found an interesting spider living in the bottom of our guinea pig hutch. I scooped it out carefully and took some photos. I'm not sure what the species is, so if anyone can help with that I'd love to hear from you! My guess at the moment is that it is a female Steatoda bipunctata but please correct me if I am wrong. This species is also known as the "rabbit hutch spider" which seems appropriate considering where I found it.

A lost nest

Today I found this beautifully formed perfect little nest on the pavement in La Garriga. I'm not sure what bird would have made it and whether it is from this year or whether it is an old nest. The only trees it can have fallen from are quite high so there was no chance to really see where it had come from. It is amazing to see close up how much work birds put into building their nests. This one had been lined with pine needles.

Winged visitors

The aim of the camera trapping so far has been to film and photograph carnivores living along the river. However, sometimes a bird triggers the camera too, which is always a nice surprise. I've tried to zoom in to show the birds more clearly but I apologise for the low quality photos. It looks like we got two pictures of a chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) in February and this week I think it was a robin (Erithacus rubecula) who set the camera off (but it's hard to be sure!). 

Chaffinch / Pinsà (Fringilla coelebs)

Chaffinch / Pinsà (Fringilla coelebs)

Robin / Pit-roig (Erithacus rubecula)

What does the fox say?

We have not been down to the river for a couple of weeks, so I do not have any new videos to share. Instead, here is some footage taken at the end of January showing a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) who was obviously enjoying the sardine bait.

Camera shy? Not the stone marten

Sometimes the animals are pretty interested in our camera and they come in for a closer look. I hope that this stone marten (Martes foina) did not get too blinded by the flash!

Stone marten / Fagina (Martes foina)