I got my first trail camera over two years ago as a birthday present. We’d thought it would be interesting to see what wildlife shares the Orchard, Meadow and Ponds with us. It was a fairly basic model, but was a real eye-opener! So many different animals and so many of them too! And birds – one of the best photos was of the camera being mugged by a randy Great Tit. The camera probably suffered by being attacked more than once by defensive wild boar – one of the more scary videos. In the end, cheap plastic was its downfall, as the on/off switch collapsed.

So I bought trail camera number 2 – more sophisticated, with better lighting apparently, and more complex but “better” wifi and Bluetooth. It was very heavy on batteries and didn’t like rechargeable ones, then suddenly it started to heat up, using batteries like sweets and wiping and killing SD cards. This is very expensive on consumables. The supplier doesn’t seem interested in sorting it out, but it is now 4 months since I had a trail camera in place.

What am I missing? How are the badgers, the pine martens, the deer, the boar, the hares, and who or what is stealing the cat food in the field kitchen? I need to know, so I spent a happy couple of hours in the internet looking for a replacement.

It is a measure of how commonplace these things now are, that I have ordered a pack of three replacements!! They are less sophisticated than the last one, but take rechargeable batteries, and come with SD cards. Roll on delivery next week and my chance to answer the crucial questions above!