I have been continuing to experiment with the Bushnell before I take it a little further afield. This time, I decided to set it up on gate on the other side of the field that my foxes feed in. I know that this is a place that they often come through on their way to the feeding station so I know I would get some footage. I set the camera up a metre or so from the ground, facing away from the house, onto the adjacent field that they come across.
This photo shows the field they come across to come to my feeding station…. you can clearly see their tracks….
I took this shot, so you can see my house and my office window upstairs. When the evenings are light, I can see the foxes come under this gate, so I know it is a regular pathway.
I wanted to find out a couple of things, placing it in this location:
1. What is the IR like, without the ‘help’ from the wired IR camera, as all the shots so far have been with that also in range.
2. Would I see any reaction to the Bushnell that would indicate they could see it? I would have expected ‘normal’ behaviour in this location.
On retrieving the camera on Sunday morning, I was delighted to see that there were 140 captures of 30sec video. The problem is wading through all of those! There is no indication, when you upload the card, of which have footage. I thought the file size might be an indicator, but it is not. Of course, you have to watch all of them…. just in case. It took a while to discover that there were only 3 captures of foxes. They must have been close enough to trigger, but not to come on shot. I also got a couple of rabbits!
Here is the footage……
On seeing this footage, I set the Bushnell up in a dark room… and crept toward it….
I was quite surprised to see that, on trigger, all 32 LEDs glow red. It is not bright, but a clearly visible glow that would be quite noticeable in a pitch black field. No wonder the foxes look at it! That explains their behaviour when I first put it out. At least I know now that that is what is happening. I wonder how many other animals will be spooked by this, or whether foxes are particularly sensitive to it?
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