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Writer's pictureWildlifeKate

Wildlife Activity… too much footage to cope with!!

I love filming and recording and documenting what is happening in my garden, but it does sometimes mean that I have so much footage, I simply cannot find enough time to process and edit all the fantastic action! It has become an obsession, with me rising early to look through my i-catcher footage (the system that monitor all my cameras) and to collect the Bushnell trail cam SD cards and look through all those clips, choose some and upload them!

This week has been one of those weeks and yesterday, as the thunder storms rumbled overhead, I attempted to catch up on some of my footage as there have been some great things happening this week!

Let’s start with the reappearance of hedgehogs! I have been a little concerned that I had seen none in the garden at all up until last week, but delighted to say I have a regular visitor…’Tufty’ who is spending up to 2 hours in Prickly Diner, over several sessions, making the most of the food on offer. This individual has distinctive tufts of hair above his ears…


Watch out for him on my live cameras at night… he will appear any time from 10pm onwards, usually!

I also set up a new camera on the kestrel box on my neighbour’s barn this week. The old camera had failed and last weekend, a pair of kestrels were spending time around this box. It is pretty late for kestrels to consider breeding, but if their nest has failed, they may be thinking about it. There is a case in Dorset, I think, where a pair have only just laid.  Again, the camera is monitored by  i-catcher, so I can look back at any footage captured by the motion detection system.

A male had visited my Barn Owl box earlier in the week…


In fact, I was at my computer when this young male appeared on the Bar Kestrel box… very quickly to be chased away by a jackdaw.


It all happens SO quickly! I then went back through the footage, a frame at a time and captured some stills….

I will be keeping a close eye out to see if these guys re-appear!

I have also got a lovely wren nest in my garage port and have set the Bushnell NatureView with the 25cm close-up lens on there. As you can image, I have LOADS of clips, so selected a few to show what is happening. There are 4 chicks, but you only ever get to see 3 at a time due to the size of the entrance! The adults are in and out very quickly, but the Bushnell is coping pretty well. It is quite dark in there, so most of the time, the footage is using IR with illuminates the area nicely. If the sun shines, there is sometimes enough light for a colour image. I have uploaded toe footage into a playlist on YouTube … worth a quick look at some of the clips…


Finally, I have also been doing quite a lot of videoing of my rats! There are some babies around, so I used the Bushnell NatureView again, to set up some areas for them to feed. some of the clips you will recognise from Springwatch… of them appearing from under the patio slabs to feed. These clips are with the 46cm lens attached…


I then attached the 25cm lens… not much depth of focus, so the food has to be in a very specific position! I placed some on a log and it was not long before they appeared! The clarity is amazing. These units film in 1080p HD, so make sure you select that on the YouTube video to watch it in all its glory!


Finally, an interesting encounter between stock doves and jackdaws in the Studio Box! The jackdaws have been fiddling about in this box for a couple of months and I think they are a young pair who may breed next year. In the torrential rain yesterday, a pair of stock doves took up residence… the jackdaws were not impressed when they returned!….


That’s all for now… the sun is shining and there are lots of projects to get on with in the garden! Keep an eye out on my Hub feeders on my live cameras, for two new stunning male bullfinches who have started visiting!

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