Setting Up Trail Cameras

In this post, Youngwilder’s “Wild Steward”, Conor describes his most recent activity at Maple Farm.

He wrote,

“In the first week of March, I had the opportunity to set up a trail camera and bioacoustics on site. This was previously attempted in February, yet access was denied by flooding of the River Lox..

This was my first time setting up this equipment so it was a fantastic opportunity to witness first-hand the ease of using technology, particularly as someone who lacks confidence in their ‘tech-savviness’.

One of the recorders was set up within the ‘ancient’ hedgerow, between the field and a dense area of scrub. As I was setting this up, I noticed that behind me was what looked like a live badger sett, so it was decided, the one trail cam I had been equipped with would be used to monitor whether the sett was in fact live, and if so, the behaviour of the family inhabiting it. The second recorder was placed in a hedgerow on the opposite side of Maple Farm where rewilding interventions haven’t yet started. This should provide a good indication towards the success of the rewilding efforts carried out by Youngwilders in relation to bird and amphibian populations.

We are all extremely excited to discover what these effort will uncover as we begin to venture into Spring. Will the population of Nightingales be as high as we expected? Will we see badger cubs playing amongst the foliage of the seasonal spring? How much more plentiful will the bird song be in the area allocated to rewilding in comparison to the control? We wait patiently, yet thumbs are twitching for the answers!”