Nädal metsas

Posted by the Animal of the Year Team 23.08.2017 in Estonian
Translation Liis

On going to check the trail cameras I met a roe deer family on a freshly cleared winter rapeseed field. It seems to be a fawn and its mother who have also passed the trail camera in the forest. The fawn trusts the adult in everything. The young deer-to-be noticed me but only stopped to observe. When decisions have to be made then the mother decides. The doe however did not notice me and so they nibbled peacefully on at the field verge. 

 Posted by the  Animal of the Year Team - 21.06.2017

From a sea of flowers the roe deer rose and scampered towards the forest. Alone; in the nearest surroundings there was no fawn on the ground. So the fawns are so small that they will not follow the mother yet. The doe keeps them hidden in a sheltered place and goes there from time to time to suckle them. The time in between she spends on nibbling grass and lying down resting. 

Posted by the Animal of the Year Team 31.12.2016

At Soosaare there was plenty of activity in the last week of the year. Badgers as well as raccoon dogs were out. The badgers made longer trips in the forest near the sett as in the previous week. The raccoon dogs were bolder too and seemed to move quite at the heels of the hosts.

Posted by the Animal of the Year Team 27.12.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team 12.12.2016

The wolves are back at the Salumetsa sett. We see one in front of the camera, the pair of eyes of the second one gleam for a moment from the shadow of the forest.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team 06.12.2016  

At the beginning of last week there was still a quite decent winter. The  Soosaare sett was covered by a solid carpet of snow and the badgers stayed napping in the burrow. Neither did the raccoons want to go far from the burrow openings in the cold.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 20.11.2016

Badger on the doorstep of the  Soosaare sett inspecting the freshly fallen snow.

Posted by the team of the Animal of the Year, 06.11.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 31.10.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 24.10.2016

The trail camera recorded unique images of the relations of badgers and raccoon dogs. At least the badger year team doesn’t know of anything similar having been recorded earlier. 

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 17.10.2016

The female badger showed herself in her full glory even in daytime! While otherwise all the black-and-white badger videos have been recorded at dusk then now the female walked across the sett in clear daylight and the camera recorded the first colour video.   

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 10.10.2016

More news now from the Soosaare sett. All three badgers whom we have seen here before the longish break passed in camera view last week. The large fat male badger with the bushy blunt tail, the large fat female badger with a narrower tail and now also a rather fat young badger but with a narrower tail. The younger badger differs from the female only by the proportions. Its body is smaller compared to the head. 

Quite a long time has passed and only raccoon dogs and other visitors come to the bog-side burrows of the Soosaare badger sett where we started monitoring this sett. The badgers that initially were in a playful mood and felt secure at home no longer do so. Their tracks and activities lately are at the rear side burrows only. Two weeks ago we installed a camera there too and the first batch of video clips is here.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 02.10.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 25.09.2016

September 22nd was the autumn equinox. Now night is longer than the day until spring. Evening dusk is already so cool that the breath of the boar herd that came to the sett steamed. It is good to see how the piglets from spring have filled out and that overall the herds in the woods here are large and healthy. A few tens of kilometres away the picture is different. The pest is doing its work and herds dwindle. 

At Soosaare the raccoon dog pair has been frequent visitors. They check precisely that burrow entrance that is in front of the main camera. At 0:15 the raccoon dog looks anxiously towards the bog, probably a boar herd is the cause. The badger shows up too a couple of times. It is very suspicious, it did not even quite enter the burrow. At 0:47 seconds in the video it sniffs the burrow entrance and quickly leaves.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 04.09.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team 29.08.2016

The cavorting of the Soosaare badgers went on in the past week too. In the video at 0:15 one of the many noises that badgers can produce is heard. There seems to be only one badger cub from this year judging from the video records seen so far. It is not clear whether the somewhat larger playmate is one of last year’s young or even the badger female herself.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team, 22.08.2016 

The first camera record from the Soosaare badger sett. The capercaillie cock seems to feel at home here. In the first part of the video it has a late pre-lunch snooze and in the second half we can see how gravel is picked up for the crop.

Posted by the Animal of the Year team  14.08.2016

Posted by the Animal of the Year team 08.08.2016

A roe deer came to pick mushrooms at the badger sett.

Information from the Animal of the Year team 30.07.2016

Since the start of the camera at the end of last year the badger sett has been visited twice by roe deer. Both occasions have been surprising and caused raised eyebrows. 

Information from the Animal of the Year team

Again a week without badgers. There was no sign of them at the sett nor at the second camera nearby placed at the burrows. But despite the absence of our main hero, life in the forest was brisk. 

The familiar eleven-headed wild boar flock at the badger sett. At last the badger also showed up this week.  At the end of the video he is searching for small gravel here in the hazel coppice; in the spruce tops a nutcracker calls.

Author: Animal of the Year team