Trail Cam with IR

[Andrea B.]

I got a Bushnell Trail Camera: B&H Link to set up on the property in order to try to see what lives in the various dens, burrows and holes. My first trial was yesterday and last night. I put the Trail Cam on a tripod and set it out in the back courtyard to see what might show up to visit a ground feeder containing some birdseed. I got some bird photos. And I got a few IR photos of some rodent.

 

Bottom line: the Trail Cam works!!!

 

The Trail Cam shoots Camera (stills), Video and Hybrid (don't know what that is yet). At night it shoots Infrared with "no-glow" illumination choices of Low, Fast Motion and Long Range. Coyotes, Look Out!! I'm gonna see you prowling around!! 

 

There are 32 megapixels. Images and video is stored on a typical SD card.

 

Set up is totally easy, but there is a small learning curve for the settings. The examples posted here were made with a Medium image size, Long Range illumination setting, Auto sensor level, 24 Hour mode with 1 sec delay between shots. Given that the Trail Cam is motion triggered, I did get a few shots of nothing which were probably due to breezes or instability?

 

The Medium daylight jpgs are enormous at 7552 x 4248 pixels. The Medium Infrared jpgs are smaller at 3840 x 2160 pixels.

 

Some daylight photos had minor motion blur. The trail cam is usually shown tied to a tree (straps were included). So it probably was slightly unstable on the tripod? I will weight the center next time. I wanted to use it with a tripod because we really do not have many trees around here. (Well, ok, there is obviously one tree in this courtyard. La! But I really want to try to work with a tripod for the Trail Cam.)

 

Photos are date- and time-stamped with a temperature recording. The menu lets you add coordinates too. The photos are very wide-angle with current settings.

 

VISIBLE:  Scrub Jay at Feeder Box

Afternoon light, no shadows.

The sun was hitting the trail cam, so it seems to have recorded a higher temp than it actually was.

No edits. 25% downsize to 1888 x 1062.

 

VISIBLE:  Scrub Jay in Flight

Morning light with shadows.

There's another Scrub Jay sitting just behind the feeder box.

That's a collared dove to the right. A mated pair visits regularly.

Note that the temp is below freezing.

No edits. 25% downsize to 1888 x 1062.

 

INFRARED:  Nocturnal Rodent

I'll show one uncropped so you can see the general appearance.

Evening after dark, 6:29:00 PM.

No edits. 25% downsize to 1920 x 1080.

 

The other IR evening photos are shown with big crop but no resize.

6:29:04 PM

 

6:29:19 PM

 

6:29:30 PM

 

6:29:52 PM

 

 

The critter came back the following morning.

I think it is the same one ??

5:31:51 AM

 

6:18:26 AM

See my scary IR-glowing eyes. I am a fierce little guy!

 

6:21:57 AM

 

 

 

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These IR photos are, of course, not quite up to our photographic standards. But I'm thrilled anyway to have the Trail Cam with IR night-time capabilities. It will be fascinating to catch a view of the wild creatures which live around here.

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SIDE NOTE:  Identification of Nocturnal Rodent

I went out and measured the stone where this Rodent liked to perch. Here is a crop showing that measurement. We can get a fairly reasonable estimation of the Rodent's size.

 

 

Rodent's tail is probably about as long as its body (excluding head), but not longer. The body plus head seems to be about 5-6" = 12.7-15.3 cm in length. The ears are fairly large in relationship to the head. (See above 6:18:26 PM). Added later: I also estimated the tail to be about 4" = 10 cm in length.

 

Field Guide Reference: Mammals of North America by Kays & Wilson, Princeton Field Guides, Princeton University Press, 2002.

I mostly know what this Rodent is not.^[*] By process of elimination, my best guess is that the Rodent is some kind of Deermouse because of the relatively large size of the ears compared to the head.

WRT the field guide, see N. American Deermouse pg 114, Cactus Dm pg 118, Brush Dm pg 120.

 

^{[*] The rodent is not a Pack Rat (Woodrat), Kangaroo Rat, Rattus, Shrew, Pocket Mouse, Vole, Jumping Mouse, Cotton Rat, Grasshopper Mouse nor is it any one of the Tiny Mice (House Mouse and others). This leaves the Deermouse types to choose from. But, hey, I could be way wrong!! You can't be afraid to be wrong in this world else you'll have a very boring life and never learn much.}

[Andy Perrin]

Reminds me of chinchillas!

[Andrea B.]

Yes, I looked them up and Chinchillas also have large ears relative to the head. Cute little guys.

 

I'm going to put the Trail Cam out to try to capture some photos of the Rock Squirrel which lives close to the house. I need to try out the different settings. Rocky likes peanuts, so I'll put some near the TC.

 

[dabateman]

Excellent idea. Can you get the images live, or do you need to recover the SD card?

I wonder if an eyeFi SD card could reach your house. 

We have been getting a bunch of foxes around the place. During day and night. 

[rfcurry]

Andrea,

Do you have any shots of the scrub jay in UV? I imagine the blue feathers are bright in UVR.

Your rodent looks like the Bushy-Tailed Wood Rat (a.k.a., Pack rat) 

Thanks.

Reed

 

[Andrea B.]

Reed, the ears certainly do look right, don't they?

But I don't think my critter was as large as a woodrat. It is difficult to tell whether mine had a tail that hairy also. We do have woodrats here. Seem to be known to everyone as "pack rats".

 

Is that your photo? It's a good one!

 

As I gain more experience using the Trail Cam and make more captures, I'm hoping my ID skills get better. 

 

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David, I got the SD model because I'm only going to be using it on our little 6-acre patch as a hobbyist. If I were to go live or had serious monitoring needs, I'd get a cellular Trail Cam, not a wireless. I do think it is important to get a Trail Cam which is "no-glow" so as not to disturb the animals in their territory. 

 

 

[Nate]

It's fun using trailcams for this. I bought a Gardepro A3, not the best but it has live view and can walk around and record too. I glued a 1.25in adapter for my filters, but needing to cover the light sensor sometimes depending on filter. Using the adapter as a lens hood in the winter cuts down on lens fog too.

 

[Andrea B.]

Nate, I didn't really know which Trail Cam to buy. The Bushnell was kind of a random selection. Now I'm googling the Gardepro to read about them. There are a *lot* of different brand Trail Cams!

 

That mini-pod looks very useful for a Trail Cam. I have a Gorilla Pod not much bigger that this. But it might not be sturdy enough.

 

 

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Added later.

I have a trap attachment for a Nikon DSLR. But I'm not sure I want to leave a camera/lens combo out overnight which is not waterproofed. Just being weather sealed isn't quite enough. Another reason for the recent Trail Cam purchase.

 

The trap worked quite for photographing a chipmunk on a deck. It didn't work so well for photographing a porcupine because it moved soooooo slowly that it never triggered the trap. 

 

 

[Nate]

Here's the mini pod I got for this, I like it because it's real simple, but I'm sure there's more better ones.

 

 

I think my next trail cam will be one I can access via wifi like my home security cam. So easy to view and download pics and vids.

 

I agree about leaving your Nikon outside, not worth the risk, even though the trap attachment sounds cool.

[GaryR]

Thanks for posting these Andrea!
I have two trailcams; one with regular IR illumination and one with 'no-glow' feature.
I'm not sure if it matters to the critters, but 'no-glow' is far more stealthy of the two.

[lonesome_dave]

Regarding 'no-glow', in my experience most critters don't care about the red glow that some of the standard game cams emit. I have a game cam and two IR security cams and regularly see coyotes, bobcats, javelina and rabbits ignore the lights. Even my regular visible security lights don't bother most of them. Only reaction I've seen is with raccoons who will scurry away when either the red glow or motion detector lights come on.

[Lou Jost]

We and our neighbors do lots of camera trap work in and around our reserves.

These jaguars are from our neighbor at Sumak Kawsay Reserve:

https://ecomingafoundation.wordpress.com/2023/01/18/jaguar-images-reprocessed/

The animals in our forests always sniff and molest the cameras, and sometimes destroy them. We now out them in iron cases, but they still sometimes get destroyed.

 

 

 

[Andrea B.]

Thanks everyone for comments about Trail Cam usage.

 

Lou, those jaguar photos are AMAZING! What beautiful animals!

 

[Andrea B.]

More Rodent Adventures

I wanted to show these because I thought I would get one thing, but I got quite another.  This time I set the Trail Cam to Fast Motion with a 1 second delay with 3 shots made per trigger. I had some trouble getting the TC aimed where I wanted. I suppose that will improve with practice. I have no complaints about the Visible photos. The IR photos are a little fuzzy. 

 

There were over 400 triggered photos. So maybe next time I'll dial that back a bit. After a mass deletion effort, I've got only a few to show you.

 

3:03:28 PM:  Yesterday afternoon I put 8 peanuts near the Rock Squirrel burrow. The burrow hole is at the top above that diagonal shrub branch.

The peanuts are in the rocks just under the branch.

 

 

 6:04:43 PM:   It was just dark enough that the first appearance of The Rodent triggered the IR rather than the Vis.

It seems like it is emerging from the Rock Squirrel burrow?

 

 

6:04:43 PM:  Rodent heads towards the peanuts. Of course!!

There was no record of the first peanut grabbed, but you'll see that the big one on the left is missing in the next photo.

I think this looks like the same kind of critter which I saw in my first set above.

 

 

6:08:54 PM:  As the Rodent grabs peanut #2, we begin to understand how this is all going to go down peanut-wise. 

 

 

6:10:28 PM:  Rodent makes off with peanut #3 and stops to have a taste. 

 

 

6:12:16 PM:  Peanut grab #4.

 

 

6:16:31 PM:  Peanut grab #5.

 

 

6:18:23 PM:  There goes peanut #6.

 

 

6:26:29 PM:  After about an 8 minute delay, the theft of peanut #7 is seen.

The remaining peanut is just barely seen in the corner between the two rocks.

 

 

6:32:57 PM:  And there goes peanut #8, the last one. This is an Industrious Rodent, yes?

 

 

8:12:03 AM, the next day:  Rocky emerges and wonders where the heck his peanuts disappeared to??

Maybe I should leave him peanuts during the day while The Rodent is sleeping. 

 

 

 

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At 8:00:52 PM, the Rodent appears to emerge from the Rock Squirrel burrow. Do these guys share space? I recall some nature show on TV where that sharing was shown for some animals which I don't recall. I'll have to consult the field guides about this.

 

 

 

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This is New Mexico and we have Hanta Virus. Deermice are one of the main hosts. While Hanta Virus remains very rare, it does have an extremely high death rate. I am thinking that it is wise to start wearing a virus mask when setting up the Trail Cam near rodent burrows. It is easy enough to do so, so why not?

 

I know the mask thing remains controversial -- do they work or don't they? Most of our friends around here noticed that they had no colds and no flu during the recent pandemic and attribute that to mask wearing. Yet we were all very eager to toss the masks just as soon as we could. 

 

Where I live (semi-rural), the rodents are ubiquitous. They are everywhere, rabbits, mice, rats, and others. The coyotes, bobcats and badgers thrive because there is plentiful dining. The best you can do against rodents is to prevent them from getting into your house. We've done OK with that. And what very few mice have gotten in are quickly caught by our two pet cats. I have not tried to eliminate rodents outside the house. It is their land, not mine. I have a thing about not disturbing the ecology around here if I can help it. The primary thing we do is to weed-whack the grasses and other stuff within about 100 feet of the house as a fire prevention effort.

 

So I'm rambling again, aren't I. 

 

The Trail Cam is super-cool-fun-amazing. I really hope to get some coyote photos. I'm just not sure where to set up to accomplish that.