UK Big Cat Hunt March 2018 - Plus Trailcam Pick Up

Now some people would say we're right in the middle of nowhere here but actually we're pretty much in the middle of everywhere. And I say we're in the middle of everywhere because about a mile to the west and a mile to the south we've got very highly productive and active pheasant and grouse shoots and to the north and the east we've got some very active and productive pheasant shoots. You've got two sides of this wood that has a reasonably busy-ish country road on it. And there's roadkill on there all the time, all year round. You've got a reservoir approximately half a mile south of this particular location. And at present, it's absolutely heaving with ducks and also geese. The fields are full of geese as well. It's just a really, really rich area. Plus, you've got fresh water as well. So you've got cover, food and fresh water. That's really, really good for people. It should also be very, very good for animals, predatory animals. And big cats in particular. And already, although the snow has mostly gone now, we've got fresh rabbit tracks just here. And we've got some big dog tracks as well. Just to give you an indication of the size of that. It might look gigantic, but obviously it's swelled up because of the melting snow. It was probably half that size when it first was made. Here we've got a lovely little watering hole. Or, in fact, a big watering hole. It's frozen over at the moment, but as soon as that ice goes, This place gets full of frogs, toads and newts. Not only is it a source of water right throughout the year, it's also a really really good hunting ground as well. Now running through various parts of this forest we've got fire roads. I'm on one now. This is a real highway, I mean look at all the footprints here. A lot of them are people, quite a lot. Hello. I wish that was a better one. That's a mighty big print. I can't see any claws because it isn't clear enough. I'll try and find another one. That's near it. That's of a dog. You can tell a dog's been running around excitedly. Yeah, there's another one near it as well. You've got very pointed toes, which would indicate there has been claws there. So that's not a big cat. I kind of lost my flow there, after seeing that footprint. But yeah, there's fire roads that go through a lot of this forest. From there, you get a hell of a good vantage point. This one's just on the edge looking right across the moor, like two miles that way you've got a reasonable size village but you've got nothing for miles and miles this way apart from moorland. From this fire road looking up into the wood you can see how dense it is, that's a bit of a track through there but on the whole you could have something sitting five or six feet back from the edge of this wood and you would never ever see it as long as it stayed still. Here's an example of how something can swell once the snow starts to melt. This was obviously made a few days ago. Look at the size of that print compared to my hand. Now I'm pretty sure that's a dog print but that is absolutely gigantic. Obviously it wasn't that big when it was first made but that's how easily you can fool yourself. Now although we're approximately maybe eight, nine hundred feet above sea level, here is actually pretty warm because you've got this exposed bank side going all the way along here. Sun's beaten down on it for the majority of the day. You're absolutely sheltered by the wood. There's not a breath of wind here. That would be a lovely place just to bask in the sun. Right, I'm going to have to decide where to put these cameras pretty soon. I'm going to have to put them somewhere that I can remember. So just off this corner, we've got a Scots pine tree here, a little one. And I think I'm going to set the cameras up in here because we've definitely... Where are we? There we are. We've definitely got a bit of a run coming down here. Definitely got one there as well on the right-hand side of that tree going up there. This is a confluence point. I can't really put a camera on the path because people are going to see it and steal it, but I could certainly get in amongst all of that heavy brush and set some up in there, I think. And having identified a couple of trails coming down there, the bottom of it, we've got some fairly melted deer prints. And as I'm going up here, I'm trying not to leave any footprints in any of the remaining snow. Just inside the wood margin now. Up there is the trail coming down to the exit point here. I'm going to set a camera just behind me looking back up. I'll probably stick one on the other trail and if I can go a little bit further up and find any sort of a clearing I'll put one on there as well. All right that one's setting the base of the tree. Probably is taking a picture of us now. Just come a little bit further up and we've got a drainage channel that's been cut probably at the time when they planted the wood. These make really really good paths. Hopefully you can see through there, what a really accessible area that is going all the way through here as evidenced by melted tracks. Now they are really really melted, but that's off a deer. So I think we'll be pretty safe strapping one to a tree here, probably gonna go for that tree, get them coming up here. We're about 15 yards away from the main fire road there. This shouldn't be seen, but I think I might I might, um... hide it a little bit better. That's a lot better. Hitting the strap and when you're looking up from the path you're not really going to notice that. I've come a lot further into the wood now and you can see it's very very sheltered here. The snow's still lying and there's been some people through about 10 minutes ago. I saw them on the brow of the hill before I came up here. That's all their prints. That's their dog prints and there's some other people's prints here. They look very very fresh. Dog prints are I think it's a new as well, but cutting across the path. You've got this. The size of the wood prints. And because the snow's still here, these ones haven't swelled much. Look at the size of that. That's absolutely gigantic. I'm sure it's a dog but I would not want to meet that dog. Now just through here we've got that fire road where those huge prints were. This is not far into the woodland. Just look how dark this is and quiet. I love it. Almost back onto the path where I'm going to go. Just noticed a bit of a carcass here. Not the remains of a bird. Breast bone. It's just there and it's got two wings. That's most likely off a sparrowhawk or a other bird of prey, possibly even a goshawk in here, although because there's no feathers around it, that particular part of the bird's probably been picked up by a crow elsewhere and just dropped. When I was walking up here, I saw a bird fly out of here. It looked like some sort of bird of prey and as I'm walking up, I notice something just on the top of this little mound, just there. Looks like a carcass, so let's take a look. It is indeed. Pretty difficult to tell what that is or was, but I would say that probably is a woodcock. Yeah, it's still got some feathers on. That's a woodcock. It's the sort of game bird we have in the UK. Well, I won't disturb it. I'll leave that there for the bird of prey to finish off, because he'll no doubt be back before it gets dark. It's a good find. Pheasant tracks here. We were actually heading the opposite way to where it was going. It was coming towards us. There is a bit of light in here. And if you needed proof that these were deer tracks, there you go. Deer crap. A couple of days old, that one. Just an example of how dense this is. All these little branches go right down to the ground. I mean, you'd have to get on your belly to crawl through there. It's a bit of a risk to put a camera in here, unfortunately. But that point looks as good as any. I think if I can just put one in here, pointing back towards me, it might not be seen from the path. If it is, I'll lose a camera. I'm loving that. That's an easy one to set. Now, hopefully nobody's going to see it from there, because it's shielded by the trees, and certainly coming the other way. It's on the back of the tree. So unless somebody actually steps off the path, I don't think they're going to see that one. There's a bit of a tree uprooted here. I'd love to set one in there looking back over here. We've got this hill going down here. We've got access to a stream down there. We've got the edge of the wood there. But it would get nicked, I'm sure of it. I think I might have a go in one of these log piles. There is a bit of a stile here. I imagine people would walk along the side of here. But if I stick one up there, looking back down there, I don't think they're going to be able to see it there. Got what looks like an old stone gate post here. I don't know, it's a boundary marker with a C on it. God, that'll be some age. Yeah, we'll stick one round here somewhere. Very dense piece of wood, stream just over the edge there. Moorland, piles of wood. There's all sorts. Be a good hunting ground, this, I would imagine. This is the one I'm most worried about. Because to me, that's pretty obvious. But the sun's going down, and I've still got one to set. Here we are looking at the other side of the boundary marker. This one's B, but this one could be Mr. Brown's side and that one might be Mr. Cook's or Mr. Chapman's side or something. You know what? To hell with it. I'm going to set the last camera up here, right next to the path, looking onto the path and beyond. To many people, they would never ever dream of putting it there, but you've got a lovely vista this way, so anything or anybody walking up here is going to be captured. If I can disguise it well enough, it won't be seen. It's very hungry work for these cameras, taking loads of pictures. I go through a nation of batteries. But unfortunately, the rechargeable ones just won't cut it. I think the voltage is just a little bit too low. So I've got to constantly buy pretty good, cheap batteries. Each camera takes eight. We've got five cameras set when this one gets set. Eight times five, you do the math. Now the risk factor with this particular placement... is pretty high but the payoff could be good it's in a really really nice place and hopefully if i get to retrieve this one if it doesn't get stolen it should yield some really nice pictures all i'm doing now is just using some really hard lumps of heather to kind of pin this in so it doesn't fall forward because the last thing we want is for this to fall forward roll down onto the path and somebody to pick it up that would be a tragedy if you notice all those bits of conifer that i've put lie in the same way as these ones that are still attached to the tree so they look exactly the same if you flip it upside down look how different that looks that's something to bear in mind you know everything needs to blend in that blends in quite nicely wow I cannot see anybody seeing that standing in the middle of the path here and that's where we've got our camera up there And hopefully nobody will be around when it's dark enough to set that glow off, because it does give quite a noticeable glow, even though it's described as being low glow. Some people are going to think I'm insane, leaving a 200 quid camera just around the corner here, but when people are walking up here, they're going to be looking at the view. They're not going to be looking into a dark woodland. At least that's what I'm banking on anyway. I know every time I've come up here, I've been looking in that direction, because quite simply, there's more to see that way. Well it's almost dark now and that's all five cameras set and if you notice I only used one of the straps that was on the second camera that was set. That was the only one that was strapped to a tree. All the rest of them are at ground level or nearly at ground level. Cameras don't always need to be strapped to a tree although the instructions will tell you they need to be about a meter off the ground blah blah blah blah blah. It purely depends on where they're set. Look at Look at that, we've got a bankside behind us there. If you strap it on a tree someone's just going to see it, but if you hide it in that bankside it's pretty unlikely to be seen. People generally aren't scrutinizing every little detail. Unfortunately I'm the type of person who does scrutinize every little detail and I assume that other people have that kind of like OCD Do you, uh... affliction as well, so that's why I go to great pains to hide the cameras from people like myself We've got pretty good eyesight. I like to do a lot of thinking and I like to hide the cameras in places that'll hopefully yield either a good result or an unexpected result. And unfortunately the more elusive and observant the particular creature is that you're after, the more time you have to take to get the positioning just right. I might have got all five positions absolutely wrong. Now if anybody's interested in hearing specific stories about the big cat, Or the big cats that I'm after. I think I'll make a... I will make a separate video. I'll call it something like high strangeness or something like that. Because this area does have a lot of reports of big cats. Historic ones and also some quite modern ones as well. This wood is more or less bang in the middle of all the sightings that I know of. Because this is my local area. I haven't heard of any sightings from this particular place. But if you go 5 to 10 miles in any direction. Around here you will hear stories of big cats. I mean I've seen one clear as day, at night, with a lamp on it, not very far away. I'll include that story in my high strangeness video, but other people have seen them running across roads really close. I've got a really funny story about a friend of mine who saw one and it turned him white. Um... Watch out for that video, a lot of people think I'm stupid because There's going to be some really strange stuff in there, but it's absolutely 100% true. Everything that's in that next video will be true, the high strangeness video, so look out for that. If you're not into that, if you think it's nonsense, just ignore it. But I'm looking forward to doing that one, because there's things that happened years ago that are still going round in my head. And there's one thing in particular which I just cannot explain at all. I'm just starting to ramble now. Haha. I never ever plan what I'm going to say, you know, so this video probably runs about three hours, so what you've seen has been edited down from hours and hours worth of footage of me just rambling on. Well, camera's been out for about three weeks now and I was exceptionally worried about a Bushnell one, but I've just seen it, it's still there. Hopefully it'll have some decent footage, I'll collect all the cameras in and then we'll have a good look at what they've managed to capture in that three week period. Now, I've just been talking to a really nice couple from a nearby village. They actually pulled up into the car park at the same time as me to come into the wood. Now, the mystery of the big dog footprints has been solved by them. I knew it was a big dog of some sort, and apparently somebody walks a St. Bernard up here. That explains it perfectly. I can see it. It's still there. See how these damn trees look so similar, especially when it's covered in snow. I've got twigs in front of that one. Hopefully that's just happened since the snow. Well, I've just had a quick look on that camera. Captured a few things, one of which is becoming increasingly rare. And it's something that, although this is a coniferous woodland, I never thought I would get, especially in the winter. So, I'm excited about that. This is where I came up with that couple and their little dog. But apart from our footprints, we've got some fox prints. That's really unusual considering how well-kept all of this land is around here. To see any signs of a fox is pretty rare up here. Now, if you're in the mood for watching more game cam videos, I can't provide them every week because I tend to have the cameras out for quite a long time. So, I'm going to recommend three different channels. These are guys that I've watched for quite a while. First one is Wilsherman. He has just recently got a game cam. He's already having great success with it. Second, English Woodsman. He has had game cams for a while with mixed success, but there weren't particularly good ones. He is getting better ones. And he makes a hell of a lot of videos. Third one is... Isle of Wight Bushcraft's second channel called Wild Nature Views. Now I only found out about this one recently when, oh god, please I'm gonna get the name wrong, Simon, Steve, either Simon or Steve from Isle of Wight Bushcraft, I'm terrible with names as I say, my memory's shot, was watching one of my videos and he said, oh do you know I've got a second channel? I'm like, I had no idea, never seen any of the videos, he has great videos as well. I'll put links to all three channels in the video description, so please check them out. If you're not already subscribed to them, please subscribe. Right, let's zap back home. I'll edit out all of the hopeless videos and pictures, of which there's probably hundreds, and I'll leave you with the good stuff. Okay, so you're probably thinking, well, I didn't get the big cat, what's the point in this video? But really, setting these game cams, even if I am looking for a big cat, which most people think doesn't exist, it's a win-win situation because there's a potential for getting unusual animal activity or capturing unusual animals and in this case I managed to capture a red squirrel which in this particular area is very very rare grey squirrels have pretty much taken over and it was in the depths of winter when you're even more unlikely to see a red squirrel and I also got a woodcock as well which I've never had on the game cam so they were two great results but There's one picture which I haven't shown you yet which is extremely inconclusive and probably not what I would like it to be but take a look and give me your thoughts on it. I'll just give you a little bit of background as to where that camera was. It was the first one that I set and it was basically just looking up to a confluence point of two different trails. It shows a jumping animal that really had no need to be jumping where it was jumping. It looked like it had been freaked out by the camera. There was no other anomalous pictures or videos that gave me any clues as to what this thing was or is. I had another camera set approximately 80 to 90 yards further up the trail, looking onto the trail. So I managed to capture everybody that walked backwards and forwards with their dogs. Not one of the dogs was anywhere near a similar colour as this particular creature. They were all dark, you know, anywhere from like a really jet black Labrador sort of thing to like a dark greyhound, you know. That's not to say that this particular creature isn't a dog, it most probably is. The people might just not have walked up to that next cam, they could have just turned around and come back. Or the dog just might have ran away somewhere up into the wood and not been captured on that next cam. But it gets me thinking, it definitely gets me thinking, and I did have two, three out of the five cams either malfunction or not get any shots whatsoever. The one in the wood pile just didn't take any shots, apart from me setting it and me picking it up. Which is really unusual, because even if a bird flies past or a leaf falls, you know, sometimes it gets triggered. You might get nothing on the picture or nothing on the video clip, but it would at least get triggered, and it was out there three weeks or so. One of the Bushnells just blinded itself, and that was my own fault, because it was a low glow one, and the Bushnell low glow, you can see from miles away. And it comes on with like a flash, and then the flash dies down, and on a night when it was really, really dark, everything that was in front of the camera was just illuminating and blinding it, so I was losing the first 8 to 10 seconds of footage on that one, which was a bit of a bummer. And the third failure was another one of the Bushnells. It was the no-glow camera. This is my most expensive camera. It got pictures of me setting it, and then the batteries completely drained in it. and it didn't take any further pictures and yet when I picked it up I could see prints of a fox walking right in front of it so I was almost certain I would have pictures of a fox there anyway I'm rambling on, let's take a look at that picture that'll be the end of the video I'll also put like a composite picture that I made up of three similar creatures in similar pose and It could be one of them, it could be something else. Let me know what you think and I shall see you next time. Thanks for watching. I'm gonna go now. If you've liked the video, hit the thumbs up. If you're not a subscriber, check out my other videos. They're all in playlists for easy viewing. If you wanna subscribe, subscribe. Share the videos wherever you want. There's a lot of educational ones on there as well, which I'm particularly proud of. I really like doing anything with some sort of educational content. So if you could share those ones on relevant sites, that would be awesome. Thanks very much for watching, see you next time. Whether it's the no-glow or the low-glow one, I don't know whether I've just got an older model or mine have got faults on or what, but I've actually got to take... Whoa!