Allotments 4 All

On Saturday we put our young chickens out for the first time, and thinking the local fox might be interested I put the camera on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAk7TgfGWw

...then on Sunday night I put the camera near the gate to see if that's where the fox is getting in and filmed this instead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvAXOqs1Vw

Cheers!

That's really intersting elhuerto
i'm no expert but I never realised a Barn owl would spend so much time on the ground, obviously listening all the time for movement.
Thanks for sharing :)

Foxy is definitely interested  :o

The owl looked like he thinks there should be something there for him to catch!

Thanks for sharing  :)

Its another world at night isn't it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

You're right, it is another world at night. I'm going to move the camera around over the next few days to see if I can find where the fox is getting in. I didn't catch it on film last night but it was definitely about, two large stones had been knocked off the chicken house along with the protective plastic from the roof.

The owl's probably after insects and worms, which they can't find effectively from the air. They're not exclusive mouse eaters by any means. Sometimes pellets are full of bits of beetle exoskeletons, other times they can be quite earthy, from the contents of lots of worm intestines.

Still trying find where the fox is getting in so putting out the camera out each night. This is what it picked up last night (first 15 seconds with action only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bk8EA9I0Lg

It's a large cat, right?

Looks like it to me - wild cat

Domestic cat.

Very big cat.

These videos are fascinating.  Hope the chickens don't get distressed with the fox so close to them and hope you can deter the fox and keep them safe.

The owl was lovely. 

No sign of the fox coming back in the last week so hopefully the fence repairs have done their job or maybe it's just lost interest now. I guess if that cat can get in a fox could do the same though.

I started a thread last year about plants being removed from the pond overnight and last week it happened again so I'm going to try to get that on film and see what has been doing that.

I'm wondering if digging the pond was such a good idea. There's very little water around here so it's an obvious magnet for attracting critters to the allotment.

fascinating footage elhuerto! Thanks for posting, particularly the owl - beautiful !