24/7 global wildlife

On a dreich and dank November morning, on an island contemplating months of wild weather and long nights, thoughts inevitably turn towards jigsaws. Even a rudimentary scan through my social media feed shows that our puzzling season peaks between December and March, and this year we have a new dining table to christen.

However, I suspect that this Winter might be a little different, as back in the Spring, we upgraded our television. Megan wasn't totally enamoured about the prospect at first, but once we realised that the online experience was equal to or better than live tv, allowing us to watch the sorts of things we want to watch, when we wanted to watch them, she was completely on board.

Quite quickly, Megan discovered that even if it was blowing a hoolie outside or it was dark or we were feeling under the weather, we could still be watching wildlife, and from the comfort of the sofa. And so followed a growing list of Youtube sites with 24/7 access to wildlife around the globe.

Her first find was an absolute diamond. In the north of Denmark, cameraman and film maker Morten Hilmer has a couple of wildlife cameras set out on his property: forest cam, looking at a small stream as it flows through a wood; and, hill cam which concentrates on one branch of a tree, looking out over a wooded valley. Food in the form of nuts, seeds and the like is put out several times a week, and an enthusiastic band of subscribers faithfully record all the wildlife which shows up. I guess it's a little artificial, but it is also a window into the interactions between different species which we wouldn't be able to see any other way. During the day, all manner of birds tend to take centre stage, but it's evening and night when the cameras come into their own. Native foxes, badgers, squirrels and martens forage alongside non-native invasive Raccoon Dogs (escaped or released from fur farms further east), mice, frogs and toads scurry or plod about, and the online community hope that a spider doesn't sit over the camera lens.

Cookie and Mocha have cottoned onto the fact that there might be mice!

Not content with the same continent, Megan then found a bird table in North Carolina, which gave us the challenge of learning a whole suite of new species. And what a colourful bunch they are, especially the male Northern Cardinals. Again, there's a group of followers recording sightings and providing info, but we couldn't guarantee that they would be online when we were, so I purchased Birds of the Carolinas by Stan Tekiela to help us with identifying the various visitors to the feeders. It has been very interesting watching the cast of characters change during the Autumn (Fall) migration.

Here's a wonderful moment, with seven species present: L to R, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse, Purple Finch, Northern Cardinal and Eastern Bluebird

Quite why it took us so long to find the next cameras, I do not know. When out and about, we often use the Merlin app on our phones to help with birdsong ID. This app was created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York State, and they also have a suite of cameras streaming from around the world. Currently, our go-to camera is in Panama, which features a wide range of fantastically feathered bird species, several mammals, the Blue Morpho butterfly and the occasional reptile (Common Basilisk). Just when we think we've seen the most outrageously preposterous plumage and we're all out of Wows and Whoas, along comes another rainbow-hued creature which takes our breath away. So although the Clay-coloured Thrushes are a bit like a paler female Eurasian Blackbird, just about everything else looks like it's just popped by from the Hindu Holi festival or a desktop printer advert. Special mentions here for the Keel-billed Toucan, the Rufous Motmot and the Chestnut-headed Oropendola.

Collared Aracaris

Black-chested Jays

Fortunately, the Cornell Lab All About Birds website has handy guides to all the species to be seen at each camera.

Mocha and Cookie on watch for Blue Jays and Evening Grosbeaks at the Ontario feeder cam

A real treat for me, three species of woodpecker in the same shot at the Sapsucker Wood camera. You could not do this in the UK. L to R: Hairy, Downy and Red-bellied.

This last shot got me thinking. We have only three resident species of woodpecker in the UK, so to have that many in one photo, just how many species of woodpecker are there in North America?! Well, apparently there are 23 resident species in the United States alone. Wow. Scanning through the list of Black-backed, Golden-fronted, Ivory-billed, White-headed and Red-[insert body feature here] woodpeckers and sapsuckers, I was surprised not to see any reference to, apparently, the most popular thing in the States at the moment, the Orange-faced Headbanger?