Trail cam advice

[zandy01 3,575]

Can anyone tell me if trail cameras are any good for small woodland birds or can be triggered by sparrow hawks or buzzards ???

i do a lot of wildlife photography and have set up a feeding station in woodland but would like to try and bait it for predatory birds or possibly foxes...

I’d like to get some more images like these ones I took, any help appreciated.

[jiggy 3,207]

You won't get that quality like you've shown from a trail cam. Have a look at the big cat thread on here. All confirmed sightings could be anything from a log to a Great Dane and anything in between except a puma. Any movement would trigger them even a leaf blowing so they would show you if certain species are around so you could return with a high quality camera and get some decent shots. I was watching a family of young buzzards and parents in work during the summer and they did return daily to the same spot for the few weeks I was there unlike some species that you rely on luck that they just happened to be passing through.

[Ted Newgent 4,896]

i think most cams have a 3 second delay on pics

 

but if you were to select video mode you might be able to get shots like those but quality  wont be as good.

some cams say they are 1080i these days.

[zandy01 3,575]

37 minutes ago, jiggy said:

You won't get that quality like you've shown from a trail cam. Have a look at the big cat thread on here. All confirmed sightings could be anything from a log to a Great Dane and anything in between except a puma. Any movement would trigger them even a leaf blowing so they would show you if certain species are around so you could return with a high quality camera and get some decent shots. I was watching a family of young buzzards and parents in work during the summer and they did return daily to the same spot for the few weeks I was there unlike some species that you rely on luck that they just happened to be passing through.

That’s my plan, I have high end DSLR which I used to photograph the above sparrow hawk, just wanted to know if the trail cam would pick them up so I know what’s visiting...

I’ll be setting a hide up and putting bait out regular so it’s all to monitor what’s feeding if anything... Once I find any activity and know it’s regular I’ll spend time in the hide with my proper camera 

cheers for the advice

[jiggy 3,207]

16 minutes ago, zandy01 said:

That’s my plan, I have high end DSLR which I used to photograph the above sparrow hawk, just wanted to know if the trail cam would pick them up so I know what’s visiting...

I’ll be setting a hide up and putting bait out regular so it’s all to monitor what’s feeding if anything... Once I find any activity and know it’s regular I’ll spend time in the hide with my proper camera 

cheers for the advice

I think you already know what you are doing buddy and have it pretty much figured out. Gone are the days when them bait stations were set up with no cameras and just a bag of poison. Whatever had its head stuck in the meal the next day was what the old boys then knew was about but about for a short time. I'd say it's amazing what showed up from time to time but wasn't spoken about. Them old boys did know how to set up what your looking for though and as they got older went easier on the raptors. I bet if you met one now  he would fill you in on what way to set up and prefer to watch the photos and let them live. A lot of the wrong species were caught up in the poison game. Nobody ever minded an odd sparrow hawk and enjoyed watching them but a few ended up on the wrong side when people were trying to deal with plagues of mink, greycrows and magpies. The raptors are thriving now without poison but foxes, buzzards and pinemartins are an issue. Pine martins should be took off the protected list and culled to better numbers but not eradicated because song birds are getting decimated by them. Everything has  its place in controlled numbers. I remember growing up and every cottage was swamped by jackdaws but now I rarely see them and buzzards are playing their part ripping fledglings from nests , old chimneys and branchs before they get a chance to fly. That's nature at its most brutal. I hope you get the photos you look for. Sparrow hawks and Owls are up there with the best. They just take what they need to get by.

[zandy01 3,575]

10 minutes ago, jiggy said:

I think you already know what you are doing buddy and have it pretty much figured out. Gone are the days when them bait stations were set up with no cameras and just a bag of poison. Whatever had its head stuck in the meal the next day was what the old boys then knew was about but about for a short time. I'd say it's amazing what showed up from time to time but wasn't spoken about. Them old boys did know how to set up what your looking for though and as they got older went easier on the raptors. I bet if you met one now  he would fill you in on what way to set up and prefer to watch the photos and let them live. A lot of the wrong species were caught up in the poison game. Nobody ever minded an odd sparrow hawk and enjoyed watching them but a few ended up on the wrong side when people were trying to deal with plagues of mink, greycrows and magpies. The raptors are thriving now without poison but foxes, buzzards and pinemartins are an issue. Pine martins should be took off the protected list and culled to better numbers but not eradicated because song birds are getting decimated by them. Everything has  its place in controlled numbers. I remember growing up and every cottage was swamped by jackdaws but now I rarely see them and buzzards are playing their part ripping fledglings from nests , old chimneys and branchs before they get a chance to fly. That's nature at its most brutal. I hope you get the photos you look for. Sparrow hawks and Owls are up there with the best. They just take what they need to get by.

I’m sure there’d be some amamzing stories to be heard as well as some sad ones too I’d imagine and yes, nature can be very cruel but also very beautiful.

heres a link to my photos if you’d like to see more of what I’ve captured on camera 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94724826@N08/

I’m pretty sure pinemartens prey also on grey squirrels and not reds ??? I do wonder if that’s why both reds and martens are thriving in Scotland along with greys being controlled...

[Greyman 25,266]

Alright mate I run trail cameras for a hobby and I have caught owls, bats, blue/great tits are very common in spring as they think the lense is a hole and try to get in to nest even moths trigger them I also no a guy that is a serious Barbie/pig roast fellow that butchers everything from squirrels upto cows and he has a big feeding station were he throws all his offal and gets quite a lot of good bird of prey shots, I also meet up once a year with the fellow that makes them for programs on animal planet etc, his cameras are £5000 a pop and you have to add your own dslr to that, despite what jiggly is trying to tell you I have lots of clear pictures of everything but I don't put them up for viewing  simply because I can't,  trail cameras trigger in around 0.5 seconds slightly quicker if taking stills and slightly longer if set to record video, if you don't want to get involved in the 5k custom made jobs the browning strike force is the preferred make and model at around £140, has a really good trigger time is really reliable and economical on battery,s hope that helps mate lovely photo,s by the way something I wish I had more time for if I can offer anymore help let me know 

[stumfelter 3,032]

Why bother with all the expense? Simply put an imitation pole trap on top of the pole, nonchalantly let slip to the antis what you've seen and where, leave it two weeks and they'll have thousands of shots for you to look through...

[stumfelter 3,032]

1 hour ago, zandy01 said:

I’m sure there’d be some amamzing stories to be heard as well as some sad ones too I’d imagine and yes, nature can be very cruel but also very beautiful.

heres a link to my photos if you’d like to see more of what I’ve captured on camera 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94724826@N08/

I’m pretty sure pinemartens prey also on grey squirrels and not reds ??? I do wonder if that’s why both reds and martens are thriving in Scotland along with greys being controlled...

Some stunning shots there bud. What setup do you use?

[joe ox 2,547]

Does anyone use the trial cams that alert mobile phones?

[Greyman 25,266]

13 minutes ago, joe ox said:

Does anyone use the trial cams that alert mobile phones?

I think most of them will i,m just not techie enough and if your on land were you are allowed to be you can also add a solar panel or a car battery to keep them running, main problem with phone and text alerts especially in the summer is you will get about 30-50 texts a night from false triggers I picked up a camera the other week I had over a water hole in the hot weather, there were over 200 shots of one deer that scraped out a hole in the mud and lay there for about 3 days triggering the camera every time it moved, you also get a lot of false triggers in the summer from leafs,moths,bats, mice and squirrels, winter is far better

[zandy01 3,575]

2 hours ago, Greyman said:

Alright mate I run trail cameras for a hobby and I have caught owls, bats, blue/great tits are very common in spring as they think the lense is a hole and try to get in to nest even moths trigger them I also no a guy that is a serious Barbie/pig roast fellow that butchers everything from squirrels upto cows and he has a big feeding station were he throws all his offal and gets quite a lot of good bird of prey shots, I also meet up once a year with the fellow that makes them for programs on animal planet etc, his cameras are £5000 a pop and you have to add your own dslr to that, despite what jiggly is trying to tell you I have lots of clear pictures of everything but I don't put them up for viewing  simply because I can't,  trail cameras trigger in around 0.5 seconds slightly quicker if taking stills and slightly longer if set to record video, if you don't want to get involved in the 5k custom made jobs the browning strike force is the preferred make and model at around £140, has a really good trigger time is really reliable and economical on battery,s hope that helps mate lovely photo,s by the way something I wish I had more time for if I can offer anymore help let me know 

Thank you for the info mate, you obviously know your stuff. I’ll look into the Browning one you mentioned, if I get stuck or need anymore help I’ll drop you a pm if you don’t mind

[zandy01 3,575]

1 hour ago, stumfelter said:

Some stunning shots there bud. What setup do you use?

Thank you pal for the kind words.

I use a Canon 1DX mkii with either a 500 f4 lens(sometimes with a 1.4 extender) or a 100-400 mkii lens, I also have a 7D mkii as a backup body or when I want to travel a little more lightweight and mobile

[Greyman 25,266]

17 minutes ago, zandy01 said:

Thank you for the info mate, you obviously know your stuff. I’ll look into the Browning one you mentioned, if I get stuck or need anymore help I’ll drop you a pm if you don’t mind

Not a problem mate, if your a YouTube user look up a guy called Tim Harrell he does a little blog thing called trail camera pick up he,s based in America, he collects his cameras and uploads the footage so you can see what it's all about, one more thing I would say is the longer you can leave them the more wildlife will come to them I think it takes about a week to loose our smell even though I rub horse shit on my hands when I set them and I smell like a badger at the best of times, you can see the animals acting cautiously for the first few days but after that they relax and act normal, I thought the deer I mentioned earlier was actually going to give birth it was there so long,

[dytkos 17,536]

1 hour ago, joe ox said:

Does anyone use the trial cams that alert mobile phones?

Not The Joe Ox?

Cheers, D.