Thread by @stilgherrian

Wildlife Cameras Week 1: I’ve sourced two el-cheapo wildlife cameras from Aldi at $129 each. Passive IR sensors to detect when something has come into frame, records video and/or still photos, IR light so it works at night. This thread will contain my first week of experiments.

OK so this first grab is very poorly framed indeed. I have reframed the shot and will leave the camera there overnight.

You can set variables such as how long a video it shoots when triggered, how long it waits after a trigger before shooting another video, sensitivity of the passive IR movement sensors. Currently on a 10-second video with a 30-second wait before it can be triggered again.

Some Aldi stores still have stock of this camera. Here’s how to find one near you. In Australia, obviously. stockcheck.aldi.com.au/product/708149…

OK, so on the first night Camera 2 only triggered once, at 0031 AEST, and it was either a false positive or something just out of frame or too far away. But Camera 1 triggered multiple times and I can already see we have a surprise. Stand by as I transfer the imagery.

Sneak preview from Camera 2: It’s a wallaby!

Further sneak preview from Camera 2: It’s a wallaby with a joey in her pouch!

Oops they’re both from Camera 1, which was 5 metres outside my widow, where I feed the birds.

And the final sneak preview from Camera 1 is a big fat ratty thing of some sort. I’ll sort through the videos and edit them together later today. I’m just so chuffed to get some results on the first night.

NEW VIDEO: “006 Wallaby Supper with Joey (ROUGH CUT)” (2m57s)

A wallaby and her joey at @bunjaree in the wee hours of this morning. I’m 95% sure it’s a swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) as they’ve been sighted here before. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_wal…

Also spotted last night, the fox. Which fox...?

This fox, which also came through in broad daylight at 9.36am. It’s a very foxy fox indeed.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1513301745669373956

And the third thing spotted last night was a big fat ratty thing, which has yet to be identified. Here’s all 30 seconds of the captures.

So yes. All this, apart from my phone camera footage of the fox in daylight, is from a $129 wildlife camera from Aldi. I’m chuffed to have results on the very first night.

I’ve put Camera 1 out by the bird feeder again tonight, and set it for 20-second grabs.

Here’s a sneak preview of Monday night’s footage from Camera 1. It’s TWO of the ratty things that we saw on Sunday night. Sharper imagery this time, too, because I cleaned the lens properly. No other critters sighted, but it was a bit rainy.

To completely crush last night’s speculation that they might be antechinus, nah, look at the length of those tails! Also, antechinus are carnivores and eat spiders and stuff, not bird seed.

Tuesday night’s footage from Camera 1 contains a single rat, slightly blurry because there’s a little moisture on the lens.

While the rats are lovely, I might wait until the weekend and compile all the ratty footage into a single ratty video. Rats do not excite me.

Oops. I forgot to put the cameras out. It’s cold and soggy out there now, so yeah nah fuck that. No wildlife camera footage tonight.

Thursday night’s footage is being checked. Camera 1 was deployed in one of the @bunjaree cottages to confirm that a regular intruder is indeed a rat before Extreme Measures are employed. It is, so they will be.

Camera 2 was set up by the bowerbird’s bower. During the night it too caught a strolling rat, Good ol’ Rattus rattus.

Camera 2 also caught the young bowerbird doing some maintenance on his bower, which was largely destroyed by the La Niña rains. No shots of dance steps, I don’t think. I’ve only done a quick skim. The camera is a bit shit in daylight, though good enough for ID purposes.

Right. Let’s check the wildlife camera footage from last night. Camera 1 was set up about 20 metres from the house on a bit of a trail through the scrub. We caught a swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)! No sign of a joey, so I’m guessing this is the male of the family.

Here’s all the footage of the female and her joey from the other day.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1513431757365805061

Meanwhile, Camera 2 was set up at the side of the main track at @bunjaree, looking along the side of the scrubland at another obvious animal track. The quick brown fox jumped into the nearby tree!

@bunjaree Here is the fox-related thread from the other day.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1513301745669373956

Lots of claims on the internet that foxes can’t climb trees, or at least that they don’t. But I just found this:

“Foxes seen climbing trees at night to track down and eat koalas” (2017) newscientist.com/article/212094…

We are now of the opinion this is a common brush-tailed possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Note that “vulpecula” means “little fox”.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1515094593221500932

We’re not yet used to how close things appear given the camera’s wide-angle lens. We’ll get there.

I’ve put the two wildlife cameras in the same positions as last night. It’s Full Moon tonight, so we’re bound to see something of interest.

Nothing on either of the wildlife cameras from last night. I thought some critters would be out and about, what with the Full Moon, but no. Not a thing.