We are really excited by the latest development in our project looking at Appleton's wildlife - we have set up a camera trap (AKA a trail camera). This is a setup used by a lot of naturalists to get pictures of wildlife undisturbed by a human presence. It's a piece of kit made up of a motion sensor that sets off a camera when it's triggered, so pictures can be taken when something moves in front of it. It also contains an infra-red sensor, so pictures can be taken at night (these are in black and white). So what is lurking around here when humans aren't around to observe? The intitial tests in our garden revealed cats, pigeons and the postman's legs, so we are hoping that the real deployment reveals something more exciting - gryphons, maybe, or a unicorn?
The camera trap has really lived up to expectations! We have moved it around a range of sites, to get different footage, and so that its exact location isn't obvious. Each time we have recorded a lot of photos and videos, but quite a few of these are caused by the sensor being tripped by something other than an animal, giving an empty picture. So I've gone through these and picked out some good bits, and you can see these by clicking on different options on the menu at the top left. Enjoy!
One special location of the camera trap was in a garden, where food had been put out for hedgehogs - and boy, did the hedgehogs come! Click on the "Hedgehogs" option to see the results.
