Mother otter and her family moved into the newly restored canal in Stroud a couple of years ago. It’s good hunting ground – but it’s a bit busy to live there permanently – so they split their time between the river just above and the canal itself. But moving between the two requires courage and ingenuity – they have to dodge dog walkers, cyclists and even “wild swimmers!”
They’ve worked out how to go back and forth undetected by using the pipes and structure of the locks on the canal. We have lots of good footage of them coming in and out of the pipes but to complete the sequence we’d want to rig the pipes themselves with mini cameras to create a really immersive, fun and unusual sequence.
We also have footage of the cheeky otters at night on their way to raid the local trout ponds in a nearby village. To complete the sequence we’d need to place camera traps within the trout farm itself to capture the thieves in action. And to compliment that, we could film the trout farmer during the day to show how people work with nature in the landscape.
We have some incredibly intimate footage of a badger family that Richard has spent 7 years habituating.
What Richard has learnt is that the most difficult time for badgers is in the summer, when the forest dries up and the soil becomes too hard to dig for worms. He has one tragic scene of a baby badger dying of dehydration – so we know it’s a serious situation. The badgers have to use all their survival skills to sit out the hot spell – searching for juicy snails in the undergrowth, and finding the secret pools of water that sit in the stumps of long dead beech trees. They venture out into the nearby meadows to search for insects after the first cut of hay – but evening dog walkers are a danger, they have to use smell and sound to keep themselves safe – bumping into walkers on the footpath can be a surprise for everyone!
This classic Cotswolds farm is lost in time. Old stone walls encircle a wild pasture full of the rough grasses and wild flowers that mice and voles love to shelter in. It’s so rich with life, that a pair of kestrels live here full time. Their easy life lasts most of the year – but when autumn turns to winter – there’s a new species coming to cause chaos! Short eared owls arrive from Scandinavia, not one, not two, but eight huge birds come to share the spoils of the field – and they’re definitely not welcome! The skirmishes begin and everyone gets involved – even the crows turn up to steal from the owls showing off their incredible aerial acrobatics to thwart the bigger birds.
Meanwhile the poor voles and mice are using all their skills to survive this onslaught – using tunnels and their super sharp senses to avoid danger.