Activity Statistics >  Last 7 Days | Last 4 Weeks | Last 12 Months | Year on Year

We monitor Red Squirrel activity at our Squirrel Feeder and publish statistics of various aspects of this activity as Charts on this Website.

Click on one of the links above to view Charts for the period of interest.

Red Squirrel Activity is recorded by counting the number of times the lid of the Squirrel Feeder has been lifted by a Red Squirrel, or other animal (eg. pesky jackdaws) and recording it in a datalogger.  There is a radio data link between the feeder and the datalogger, and a WiFi link between the Webcam and the Server PC.

The Squirrel Feeder consists of a cedar wood box with a hinged lid and a transparent plastic front, and is filled with nuts.  There is a small platform in front for the squirrels to stand on.  This arrangement is more-or-less 'Bird Proof'.  The squirrels lift the lid with their heads and reach inside to retrieve the food.  An actuator connects the lid to a microswitch that closes an electrical contact when the lid is raised.

The image on the left shows the Squirrel Feeder being monitored.

In the charts, this activity is usually labelled Nuts, but this is only an approximation, due to the following factors :-

• When squirrels are taking nuts from the feeder to bury, they spend longer in the box, and are presumably gathering more than one nut in their mouths.
• Squirrels that are new to the feeder sometimes lift the lid a few times before gaining enough confidence to dive in.
• Sometimes a squirrel will dive right inside the box and stay there feeding for some time.
• A jackdaw has recently (June 2006) learnt how to operate the squirrel feeder, but I've restricted the opening (16 June 2006), which prevents him getting in, although he still has a go sometimes.
• Other animals could possibly use the squirrel feeder, but I'm not aware of any.  The Webcam monitoring software takes a 'snap' every time a large movement is detected, and these will be examined to see who has been visiting.

These charts are automatically posted to the Website by XLeMs software.  This software and the datalogger were designed for SHM Communications Ltd for use in Energy Monitoring systems, but they work very well for wildlife monitoring too.