I mentioned a few weeks ago in my first first blog post that I had ordered a wildlife camera. I’d hit that fine line that nature lovers often find themselves toeing where I wanted to learn about and experience as many different animals as I could, but my interest was starting to affect the day to day activities of the local wildlife. I felt that the fallow deer especially were sick of moving on whenever I snapped a twig under my boots and spooked them away from their evening browsing spots. And at the time without any work to occupy my lockdown days, I was out in their favourite spaces a lot more than they were used to! 

As a young person without family money, who has recently given up her career and spends most of her time volunteering and wandering the hills looking at birds, it’s probably unsurprising to hear that I don’t have a lot of money. When purchasing my wildlife camera I went to Amazon and without a great deal of fuss or effort, I bought the cheapest model (~ £38 I think). Memory cards are also pretty cheap so I got a decent sized one to fit my new camera and I splashed out on rechargeable batteries. I may be broke but I’m not buying disposable when I can get reusable and I already have the charger, easy choice. 

The camera has turned out surprisingly good. It records quality footage day and night and it was super easy to set up. The manual was crystal clear despite some sketchy English in places and the only confusion I had was that the sensor light used to test it is blue not red as described. I won’t say how long I agonised over this tiny inconsistency because it’s embarrassing.. 

Sometimes the camera freezes when viewing on the display and it can be a little slow to start recording video after it takes its initial motion activated photo. It also makes an odd repeating, clicking noise when it’s on and I move it around in my hand. It sounds like a kind of mechanical fault and it’s a bit annoying but it stops when I stop moving it and as far as I’m aware it doesn’t do it while I leave it out recording. 

Besides those little hiccups it works perfectly and I’m really happy with my budget purchase! It’s really nice that compact, sturdy, weatherproof wildlife cameras are accessible to those without heaps of money. I’d have killed for something like this when I was a kid and I think it’s a great gift for anyone who would enjoy learning a bit more about nature. Being out in the wild in the dark is a source of fear for many children and adults that I know, especially those that have grown without much experience of nature and camping etc. Cameras like this are great to show you exactly what is making all those rustling noises outside your bedroom window at night and I love the little glimpse I get into the mysterious lives of nocturnal creatures. 

I’ve had a fair bit of success capturing creatures on the camera from the start. The very first night I put it out I left it fairly close to the house and overlooking a streambed that seemed like it saw a fair bit of traffic by deer passing through the surrounding woodland and pasture areas. We got footage of a lone fallow deer and a fox that night! And some early morning blackbirds chucking leaves around. I adore foxes so I was thrilled to see him/her slinking furtively along the edge of the wall on the left hand side of the frame, probably on its way to nose around the chicken hut!

After a few nights in the same spot I started to move the camera around a little in the hope of filming a few different animals. The fox doesn’t visit all the time, he just checks in every now and then to make sure we shut the chickens away! And the deer I was catching mostly just graze and look terrified so watching them freeze for 2 minutes solid, eat a bit of grass, then freeze for 2 more minutes got old quick! I like it most when I get footage of a lone deer in the early morning, around 5am. It’s just getting light around this time and the lighting is so soft and magical. From what I’ve seen on the camera, the deer seem more at ease as it starts to get light and in the early morning they’re often travelling to more secluded areas as the world starts to wake up and make more noise around them. They walk with an ethereal grace, lifting their legs high above the grass in dainty long legged steps. The detail is obviously better in daylight too and their faint white spots and big liquid eyes are a lovely sight to behold as they ghost past the camera. 

I also managed to film a hedgehog! I’ve never seen one around here at all and I’d worried about why they might not be able to live here. But, evidently they are here, just well and truly nocturnal and very good at hiding! Knowing that they are in decline nationally it’s been reassuring to see a few healthy hogs on the camera, previously I didn’t even know they were here!

This is where my wildlife camera tribulations began. I was so excited to see that there were hedgehogs nearby that I wanted to help them out if I could. After a bit of research on google I decided to put some cat food out as a little snack to help any hungry hogs coming out of hibernation or struggling to build body mass. Around the same time the land around the house gained a large number of sheep. As a result of my charitable efforts and the influx of farm animals my camera was inundated with clips of greedy cats and sheep that somehow look directly into the camera as if in mockery of my naturalism! The fox and hedgehogs showed up again though and I was determined to stick to the same spot to try and get more footage. After over a week of hundreds of clips of sheep, prancing lambs, every cat in the valley turning up for a midnight snack and too many blackbirds to remain interesting I gave up on the food bowl and on the location! 

I’m currently trialling different locations around the valley. I’ve learned to avoid ferns or the motion sensors go off with every gust of wind and to leave the camera a few days at a time. The battery life is good and I’ve had more luck with footage if I give it time. I guess human and sometimes dog scent will hang heavy around the camera for the first night or so along with memory of our loud passage. Streams and rivers also seem to be great filming locations, everything has to drink and running water is preferable to most animals. There are often set crossings used frequently by the deer that make it easy to pick a spot to attach the camera too. It’s been very dry weather recently too and a lot of the smaller streams have dried up completely. This makes the larger streams of running water even more likely to be frequented by wildlife.

After my recent filming slump I’m heading out tonight, hoping to capture more foxes and maybe even some fallow deer fawns if I’m lucky! One day I’d love to see film evidence of badgers and other mustelids like pine martens, polecats and stoats. When I was little polecats frequently terrorised the family chickens so I know they’re nearby and I’d love to get footage of them. I don’t know of any badgers in the area currently but if I do find a sett my camera will be pinned to a nearby tree, hopeful and respectful! I can fully recommend getting a cheap little wildlife camera if you want to learn more about what visits your garden or nearby wild spaces, I’ve had so much fun with mine (apart from deleting 250+ videos of sheep, that wasn’t fun)! 

This lockdown is definitely proving to be a really challenging time emotionally for a lot of people. Thanks for that, coronavirus! Some of us are out of work, some aren’t, but I think we’re all a little cut off from our freedom and support networks regardless. For my part it’s actually going quite well. Even so I’ve struggled with productivity and it’s taken me longer than I’d planned to write my next blog post. I have needed this break in my usually very busy schedule and the free time has given me the opportunity to tend to my mental health, do my hobbies and appreciate nature a lot more. For example I can now sit outside in the garden, for hours if I want to, just watching and photographing the birds that visit my feeders. I’ve learned a lot about their habits, personalities and calls, which I would never have had the time to do previously. I’m lucky to be able to spend more time in a remote natural place, exercising, cuddling my pets and so far I’ve not snapped and killed any family members…It’s a success! 

That being said I am glad for some diversions and a little structure to my weeks, if only so I know what day it is. Luckily the organisation that I volunteer with is keeping in contact with weekly video calls on Zoom. We’re taking part in the John Muir Award, independently and based in green spaces close to home. Some of us are utilising a local park, a hedgerow, or their gardens. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by remote woodlands and pastures, with plenty of scope for study and inspiration. I’m really enjoying our weekly social catch ups followed by an informal presentation of our findings to the group. It’s really nice to be able to share my enthusiasm with like-minded people to utilise the expertise there for advice and as a sounding board for my own ideas. It’s a friendly and relaxed environment where we are encouraged to follow our own pace and inspiration to tailor our experience of the award to our own unique interests. 

Naturally I started out trying to get every aspect of the award completed as soon as physically possible, creating lots of stress for myself in the process! Fortunately that’s not how nature works. I can’t put in an all nighter and come blinking out into the daylight having achieved ‘wildlife enlightenment’! Reading about John Muir and the award has started to teach the obsessive parts of me to slow down, breathe and look a little closer. 

The idea behind the John Muir Award is to encourage people of all backgrounds to connect with wild spaces. Four challenges make up the structure of the award, you must discover a wild space, explore it, do something to conserve it and share your experiences with others. There’s lots of different ways you can do this, depending on your wild place and your own interests and skills. I’m using my millennial skills to share my photos and words here on my blog and on instagram. 

I’m a big fan of hiking because it gives me the opportunity to experience dramatic scenery and views while keeping my body in good shape. I love bold landscapes, craggy mountains, twisted forests and wild coastlines but historically I’ve not been very good at appreciating the smaller plants and animals that make up those views. I’ve always loved the sight of trees and mammals, bright wildflowers and dense vegetation. Studying my wild place for the John Muir Award has highlighted to me how much I’ve been missing by always looking up and away from where I am! The insects, songbirds, small mammals, mosses, lichens, dainty wildflowers and small leafy plants that make up the foreground are astounding. Focusing my gaze from the sea of bluebells that blanket the woods in spring, to settle on the diminutive but exquisite dog violets and early purple orchids. I’m amazed at what I’ve been skimming over in my search for the perfect landscape to feast my eyes on. When I was a teenager I wandered for miles and miles late into the night looking for wilder and wilder places to explore but I never thought to look in my own mum’s garden pond. Which by the way is glorious! A home for loads of smooth and palmate newts, pond snails, ramshorn snails, water boatmen, pond skaters, damselflies galore and a thousand other little critters I can’t yet put a name to. 

It’s kind of exciting to realise how much exists, bustling about right under my nose. My world has suddenly become a lot bigger! In my usual obsessive way I want to learn about it all right away, to help me pace myself and actually retain some information I decided to start a nature journal. I pick one thing, study it, bring home some leaves etc. to draw and learn all about it….ivy alone took me two days! But it’s been a great way of making the mammoth task of educating myself in lockdown seem a bit more manageable. I’ve even started remembering some latin names!

Keeping a nature journal has been really fun so far and there are so many different aspects to it that add to the enjoyment. For example stage one for me usually involves walking, and taking inspiration from my surroundings to decide what I want to learn about next. Then I get to study my choice in its natural habitat, noting anything that I find interesting or significant and any questions I have down so that I can research the answers later. You can also practice photography, painting or sketching. If you’re a fan of literature there are loads of poems out there about British birds, flowers and countryside scenes. Or if inspiration takes you, you can write your own, and don’t worry I won’t subject you to any god-sawful poetry I bring into being! And then there’s the research aspect back at home, using the internet and books to answer questions about your chosen plant or creature followed by the crafty bit of putting it all together in a pleasing way. If, like me you get twitchy for constant distractions starting a nature journal is a great thing to do. I highly recommend doing it alone and making the people you live with admire it periodically or as a family activity with kids where it definitely won’t be as neatly laid out as mine.