Outdoor Wildlife Camera - Rare white sparrow & so much more.

Having spent eight years creating a garden to encourage wildlife, we decided to invest in an outdoor camera. We especially wanted to see who was visiting the pond, and the night time garden….

We decided on a Toguard H200 Hunting trail camera, with night vision. It was very easy to set up, just putting the batteries and a memory card in, and we were ready to go!

I started off so enthusiastically, placing it in different positions around the pond. But I was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of material it was capturing, and didn’t feel I had time to look through it all.

Summer is such a busy time in the garden especially late summer when it’s harvest time. Not only do we grow a lot of fruit and veg, but we do like to make it into ready meals for the freezer.

So the camera came inside and stayed there for a few months. On a rainy day in November, I finally had the time to go through all of the footage, it inspired me to get the camera back outside.

Rare White Sparrow

It was incredibly good timing, as we captured an extremely rare white sparrow. It was happily living with the colony of sparrows, which have been eating us out of house and home for the last few months now.

When I was excitedly telling someone about our white sparrow, she said “oh that’s so sad, as it won’t last very long with no camouflage”. Sadly she was right, and just a few days after we’d captured it, we found white feathers all around the garden.

What a good job we’d put the camera out when we did!

Harry Hedgehog

The most extraordinary thing we’ve discovered over the last few weeks. Is our resident hedgehog is still awake and foraging around our December, night time garden. This really does give an indication of how strange the weather is these days!

He should be fast asleep hibernating by now. Instead he’s still trotting around, with a surprising turn of speed. I don’t know why, but I always thought hedgehogs were quite slow movers.

I was surprised to discover him under the bird feeders eating some of the spilt seeds. I hope he doesn’t get too full, as I want him eating my slugs.

Dotty the Dormouse

Without doubt the most comical character in the footage is a dormouse, I’ve christened Dotty!

She/he moves at the speed of light! But I guess when an owl has its eye on you, you need to make a sharp exit!

I was absolutely thrilled to capture a tawny owl appearing from the pond, not coincidentally right at the spot where Dotty spends the most time.

So far Dotty has alluded capture, and so continues to hoover up the fallen yew berries. Making me laugh with every zooming appearance.

Squirrel Nutkin

The squirrels are a mixed blessing. They strip the walnut tree almost every year of its fruit. Burying them all over the garden, most annoyingly in my plant pots, making such a mess when they retrieve them.

But, they are also very comical to watch. They love the great wall we built, treating it like a super highway, taking them straight down the garden to their prized tree!

You’d swear that they know the camera is recording them, as they look straight into the lens.

I was surprised at how often they stop and drink from the pond, but I suppose they have to wash all those lovely walnuts down with something!

We are so pleased to have such a lot of wildlife in the garden. And especially pleased to have wildlife that has been decreasing in numbers over the last few years. It just shows that if you provide a habitat for them, they will come. Although I think of everything we’ve done, the pond is the biggest draw. Everything pauses to drink from it, including our cat, and any neighbouring cats passing through!