Introduction
On 14 July 2019 we were granted permission to construct a temporary bridge onto our neighbour's land that would allow us to maintain a narrow strip along the opposite side of the dyke that forms our mutual boundary.
The neighbouring land was allotted to the poor of the parish as part of the arrangements under the parish's Enclosure Act of 1806, hence the name "The Poor's Allotment". Apart from maintaining the land, from time to time we also mount a wildlife camera on or pointing at the Poor's Allotment.
It's also worth mentioning that the dyke is the boundary of the "Broads National Park". Ruston House is just outside the park area!
You may notice that, in some years, this area of the site has relatively few posts. However, the photographic record was maintained and you can expect new material to be added when time is found. This means the new posts may appear anywhere and not just in the current year's page. The best way to ensure you miss nothing is to visit the What's New page where you can find the address for an RSS feed that will keep you notified of updates to the site.
2022
13 November 2022 - White Pheasant And More
Over the last week the wildlife camera has been triggered some 230 times. Most were the usual collection of Muntjac images. Here we show the almost daily visits by a fox and a Chinese Water Deer. However, the highlight of the week is probably the visit by the white pheasant that seems to be resident locally and was captured for the first time a month ago.
30 October 2022 - Red And Chinese Water Deer
It's been another week with a lot of deer activity. Twice the wildlife camera has captured a Chinese Water Deer and, for the first time it is just possible to make out the tusks that are one of the distinctive features of the male of this deer. Then we see a group of eight Red Deer moving past the end of our bridge. On Sunday morning the camera captures a distinctive Red Deer stag that appears to have lost one of its antlers. The final clip shows a Red Deer followed a few seconds later by what appears to be its young.
24 October 2022 - More Sightings Of Red Deer
The last week saw a lot of Red Deer activity. Unfortunately, I had not been able to charge the camera battery and by the Thursday it was in a state of collapse. In daylight the camera continued to work and on Tuesday the camera captured a lone female near the bridge. On Thursday morning the camera was still being triggered by movement but was not switching to day-time colour mode and not illuminating the infra-red lighting. By the end of the week, on my count there eight deer are seen passing the camera.
17 October 2022 - A White Pheasant Captured Again!
Last Thursday the Wildlife Camera picked up a White Pheasant. The bird has probably been in the area for a couple of years. I recall attempting to take a decent photograph of it, but this is probably the best image we have. We've taken a segment of the clip and panned across it to follow the bird but once it is out of frame reverse the pan in order to re-connect with the male Muntjac that was in frame initially.
26 September 2022 - Barking Muntjac And Red Deer Captured
After having had the wildlife camera stationed in the Grounds by the bridge to the island for the last two weeks, this week it was returned to the Poor's Allotment. You'll find two videos on the page. The first shows a variety of wildlife including, a fox, squirrels and, for the first time a barking Muntjac. The second shows only the Red Deer captured this week.
5 September 2022 - Red Deer Seen Again At Last
This week we feature Red Deer for the first time in a while. At 06:40 on Tuesday morning we see the head, neck and back of a Red appear. He seems fixed on something going on on the Ruston House side of the dyke but after 15 seconds moves out of frame to be followed immediately by three further deer. There are more seen again later in the day.
22 August 2022 - An Otter Seen Again
This week's we have a single short clip. If it wasn't for the fact that it was difficult to make out the otter in last month's video I might not have included this single clip this week. Unfortunately it's rather blurry and short. However it does seem to prove that an otter was in the area on Saturday 20 August at 04:23, a second visit captured within a week.
15 August 2022 - More Behaviour to Examine
This week's clips include more from a Muntjac family and a kestrel, perhaps the same ones we saw Two Weeks Ago. We see four Muntjac. Two proceed across the bridge towards Ruston House land, leaving a pair on the Poor's Allotment side. The second clip shows another visit by a kestrel. From the way it jumps, it appears that the bird has prey at its feet.
1 August 2022 - A Look At Behaviour Patterns
You'll see that we missed out on providing a set of clips last week. Apart from one, showing a kestrel, none offered anything especially noteworthy. So this week we include the exception with more from this week. We follow them with some that show Muntjac family behaviour.
11 July 2022 - A Bolder Cat, Curious Deer And A Bat
It's another week and we have a collection of clips that starts with the cat that we saw last week. Next we see a Roe Deer and finally capture a blur that can, if you freeze relevant frames at least be identified as a bat.
4 July 2022 - An Owl, An Otter And A Visiting Cat
This week's video starts with a blur but it soon becomes clear that an owl has just landed by the bridge.. Then we have to stare into the gloom to make out an otter but in the final sequence it's easy to recognise a domestic cat.
27 June 2022 - Stoats, Birds And Muntjac
This week's collection of clips starts with some very bouncy stoats and continues with some of a Jay and a Moorhen with a very brief glimpse of a Tawny Owl and concludes with three clips of a Muntjac mother with its young.
30 May 2022 - Roe, Muntjac, Squirrel And Heron
We start this week with two clips of Roe Deer. Late in the second you discover there was a second deer in the area. Then we see clips taken over successive days of a lame Muntjac. These are interspersed with daytime visits by a Roe deer, a heron and squirrel. We finish with a pair of Muntjac that seem to be courting.
23 May 2022 - Heron, Roe Deer And A Kestrel
Notable this week was a sequence of clips of a heron that were captured. I have put them in a separate video as, to many, its seven minutes may appear as interesting as watching paint dry. In the second video the clips include a Roe Deer, the first to be seen crossing the bridge and a kestrel, another first to be captured by our wildlife camera.
16 May 2022 - Roe Deer Are Seen Twice This Week
We start with a clip captured on Monday 9 May at 00:19. Unfortunately, the Roe deer never makes it fully into frame. On Wednesday evening we see three Muntjac although not all are seen initially. Thursday is, perhaps the highlight of the week. We capture a good daylight visit by a Roe deer. It's patchy coat suggests that this specimen is part way through its spring moult. On Friday we see what is probably our resident heron on the bridge. It stood for a while before making its way to its favourite fishing spot.
9 May 2022 - A Fox Is Captured Twice This Week
After some two weeks when the camera was set up close to the house and on the island to see activity at the goose nest that was discovered during a tour of the grounds it was returned to the Poor's Allotment. Our video starts with a glimpse of a fox as it passes by the Poor's Allotment end of the bridge. Next we see a squirrel that climbs a tree where it then gives an prolonged tail shake. I read that this is a form of alarm call for a squirrel.
10 April 2022 - Muntjac, Heron and Mooorhen
Excluding all the Muntjac clips from this video was considered as we see them so consistently often the clips fail to offer anything new. However, a change of camera angles does reveal something I hadn't realised. Again, it may be the heron that offers the most interest this week. Certainly they're almost rivalling the Muntjac in terms of use of our bridge.
3 April 2022 - A Heron Patrols The Dyke Bank
This week there was only one clip captured that wasn't of Muntjac deer crossing the bridge to the grounds of Ruston House. In it a heron appears from the bridge and then proceeds northwards inspecting the bank from time to time. The clip was captured on Sunday morning, 3 April, at 11:43. As always the clip ceases after a minute, when the bird seems to have been too far away to trigger a second minute of recording. We must assume the bird took flight at some point after the recording finishes rather than coming back towards the camera.
29 March 2022 - A Stoat, Muntjac and More!
This page holds a compilation of some of last week's activity captured by our wildlife camera. It was good fortune that the camera had been set running by a Jay that perched on a tree in the foreground as then, in the background, the image is clear enough to identify the creature running along the boardwalk as a stoat, our first seen in a daylight video. We only show a limited number of Munjac clips, plus two of a fox and the pheasant, that seems to be a regular at the moment!
21 March 2022 - Badgers, Foxes and Chinese Water Deer
This page holds an eight minute compilation of the week's activity captured by our wildlife camera. One lunch time a pheasant appeared to want to display directly in front of the camera. Most common of the animals captured are Muntjac Deer, both male and female with, on one occasion, a young being suckled. This week we also saw the rarer Chinese Water Deer. Smaller animals include several appearances of foxes and badgers and once we see a squirrel.
14 March 2022 - A Badger Crosses The Dyke
Last night shortly before 21:00 the wildlife camera set up on the Poor's Allotment and pointing at the bridge from our grounds captured a badger. It's the first acceptable video that our cameras have captured. Ever since a mystery creature first photographed on 6 May 2018 we had been hoping to get some decent video of the what had been a mystery creature for over a year.
