Otter Holt Flood Alert!!

When I built the holt at Yew View, I knew it was going to flood at some point…. just didn’t think it would be quite so soon!  The River Severn is pretty volatile and a lot of rain in Wales means that , within 24 hrs, the river level will begin to rise. I had not anticipated quite how quickly it would rise. When I built the holt, I created something that should cope with flood. It usually only happens a couple of times a year and the top chamber should escape most of them. I built it from breeze blocks and put in drains in each chamber. The cameras are mounted on removable set-ups so they can be pulled out quickly.

Unfortunately,  by the time we got to them, the lower chamber camera was already under water….

The camera actually filmed under water for about an hour until the water got into it, sadly.  It is drying out in the airing cupboard and I have not given up hope yet. The top chamber camera was retrieved and is safe.

In this picture, you can see the top chamber and the lower one is somewhere under the river!!

Before the river had risen, I had started to film some visitors within the chambers, even though it wasn’t quite finished yet.

I am really pleased with the image I am getting with these Hikvision dome cameras. I can zoom and focus these from the PC.

The badgers are also feeding regularly and not fussed by the white lights on this camera which illuminate the area.

A few foxes are also visiting regularly now and one even turned up with his own food!…

After quite a long period with very little action in the badger sett, we have had several individuals visiting and some staying all through the day; something that has only happened a few times since I built the sett. The trouble with staying in there all day, is that sometimes you get caught short… not sure I would want to do this in my bedroom!

This would probably not happen in a larger sett, where there would be more chambers and the chance to safely move from a sleeping chamber into another chamber to relieve yourself. This individual did not seem too worried, so maybe it does happen more than we might think!

Finally, it was good to see this kingfisher back on her post and catching a lot of fish from the wildlife pond. I hope she starts visiting more….

 



from www.wildlifekate.co.uk https://wildlifekate.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/otter-holt-flood-alert/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2019 off to a reasonable start

Image
Overcast, 5°, light NNW. A Little Egret seen today on the way out to Lollingdon and appeared to drop down near Amwell Spring. The hill hosted around 100 Fieldfare and a flock of c50 Meadow Pipit for a time before moving off over the top. Several Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer around the hill and a single Corn Bunting . A small flock of c20 Pied Wagtail feeding out with the Sheep. A few more Fieldfare and Redwing scattered around the Lollingdon area, a Goldcrest , Grey Heron , Kestrel , a couple of Jay , 2 Bullfinch and several Starling amongst other species. A Brambling in a private garden. Per Alan Dawson. 2 Blackcap in TW’s garden and 2 Chiffchaff at CSW. The flock of c60 Golden Plover still around Cholsey Hill. Brambling (courtesy Alan Dawson) from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-off-to-reasonable-start.html
Read more

A Butterfly day

Image
Another sunny day, 24°, light E. A walk alongside the Bunk line from Church road to the bypass. Butterflies were the order of the day with literally hundreds of Meadow Brown on the wing today. They were everywhere. Another 8 Painted Lady seen with some looking very tatty after a presumably long flight and ageing. Best one of the day was a single Silver-washed Fritillary seen flying around a large garden before disappearing from view. Good numbers of Marbled White all along the route. Other species noted were: Small Skipper , Large Skipper , Large White , Small White , Green-veined White , Brimstone (1), Brown Argus (3), Common Blue (8), Red Admiral (6), Small Tortoiseshell (c20), Comma (3), Speckled Wood (2), Ringlet (12) and Small Heath (2). Some thistles were in flower on the edge of a bean field and these held the majority of Painted Lady , Small Tort and Marbled White . Dragonflies: Banded Demoiselle (M&F), Large Red Damselfly and Southern Hawke
Read more

A Great Start to 2020 at Yew View – Tawny Owls & Interesting Feeding Station Meetings!

Image
We had a great year at Yew View last year, with lots of great wildlife and some amazing insights into the lives of our local wildlife, especially our lovely Tawny Owl pair who raised  their beautiful owlets to fledge into the garden. We built an otter holt, with cameras and encouraged as much wildlife as we could into this 7 acre site. We have lots of exciting ideas and projects for 2020, of course. Hopefully, after months of high river levels, we will get our otter holt up and running with its two cameras. It has spent more time under water than above water so far and the cameras are sitting up in the office, waiting for the river to be stable enough for me to feel confident about reinstalling them! We are also going to upgrade some of the cameras we have, as well as creating some new feeding stations. We have a new piece of land that is also going to be developed for wildlife this year….. a large pool and boggy area for dragonflies and damselflies, wild flower meadow, tree planting
Read more