Actually, although I got it from the same place as my good trail cameras, this is actually a bird feeder camera, as I rarely get much good bird footage from the trail cameras of birds other than pheasants, ducks and the very occasional woodpecker.
The camera is quite small (and was on offer, which says something), and takes perhaps 150g of bird seed at a time. It has solar panels to keep the batteries charged up, which seem to be very effective, and takes a 32Gb SD card. We have it strapped to a redundant lamp post in the middle of the Garden by the Shack.
I first installed it at the end of December 25, and brought it in during the week to clean it out, see if it had done anything and to check that the solar panels keep it fired up - spoiler alert, they do. Getting it programmed isn't as easy as I had hoped, hence the date/time stamps on the following photos being rather weird, and there are no videos, although it will do them. Having said that, with 10,218 photo files to go through from about a month in situ, I think the burst of photos are probably all I need to go through!
So, what have I seen?
Well, as you can see, tits are inquisitive and hungry.
They also like to pose and know which is their good profile.
And the good profile isn't the same for every bird.
Occasionally, you get a really good action shot of an arrival.
Or leaving.
And there are occasional excellent shots of a bird in flight, like this.
Or this.
But there are an awful lot like this - perhaps 90% of the photos - which just need to be deleted.
So far there is a very limited range of birds using the feeder: there is the great tit.
There is the blue tit.
And there is the robin.
Or at least that is who was using it for the first 2,000 files that I have been through thus far. If I spot anyone else, obviously I'll let you know!
And a reminder - here is what the camera looks like in situ. Overall, Num'Axes have done me proud again. The feeder will be out now until the end of March, when we stop feeding birds and let them raise their young naturally.
I'm not sure what this week will bring, but I hope you have a good one!
