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| Caught on camera. Our resident barn owl. |
The snow that has been
with us for the last few weeks has not only brought larger than usual
numbers of birds to our feeds but has also left a trail of evidence
of some of the wildlife that visits in the night in the form of
footprints. Rabbits, stoats, deer and foxes have all left their
calling cards in the snow. We have also found in and around our
buildings the distinctive pellets and droppings of the barn owl that
regularly hunts over the fields behind the shop. In an effort to see
these nocturnal visitors we have set up an motion-triggered infra red
camera that can record both still images, singly or in a burst, and
high definition video. The camera works from four or eight AA size
batteries and is just as capable at producing infra red images in
total darkness using its built-in black light LEDs that do not
disturb the wildlife as it is at full colour daylight images. After
a few weeks of adjusting the settings and trying various locations we
have successfully captured the barn owl roosting getting ready to
hunt in the low afternoon sun.
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Owl food Wood mice are one of the smaller
residents of our back field |
These cameras can
reveal some surprising things in almost any location as was revealed
by the BBC television series The Lost Land of the Tiger. Even if you
don't have tigers visiting your garden these devices can give you an
insight into just what is going on in the rose bushes. The key to
success is patience and taking a trial and error approach to getting
the position and settings just right.
We had a great start with ours
and keep an eye on this blog and our
Twitter and
Facebook pages for
more updates on the secretive visitor to our little wildlife haven.
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