16-Sep-2022 : Wild animals in the garden

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I’ve had a GoPro 3+ for a few years (thanks, kids!) and a PARD NV007A digital night vision scope with integral camera for about a year, and I’ve never really made enough use of either of them, so a few weeks ago I decided to charge them up and see what I could catch in the back garden. Just for my own amusement I’ve uploaded the clips on to my YouTube channel, so assuming I’ve created the link correctly, you can watch them on there. I’ll also list them here individually.

‘Our’ hedgehog makes a rare appearance (23rd August, 2022)
It’s lucky they’re noisy little things because I heard this little fellow rustling about in the flower bed before he walked across the patio, otherwise I might have stumbled over him. He disappeared quite quickly but I’ve left some hedgehog food out for him in case he comes back. (Camera: PARD NV007A hand-held, hence the shaky footage… sorry!)

Tiny mouse on the patio (again) (August 5th, 2022)
He’s back! We left some food and seeds out in a dish and he was soon back, and didn’t scurry away even when I opened the door and stood a couple of feet away from him. I’m still not 100% sure what species I’m looking at but I *think* he’s a field mouse. (Camera: GoPro 3+ on UltraPod II.)

Tiny mouse on the patio (August 5th, 2022)
It’s not often we get a mouse this close to the house. It looks much smaller than the (house?) mouse I captured on infrared last week, so maybe a field/wood mouse? We have fields a couple of hundred yards away. Suggestions, anyone? (Camera: GoPro 3+ hand-held.)

Wee sleekit cowrin tim’rous beastie (July 25, 2022)
We’ve had a hedgehog grubbing about in the back garden a few times recently, so when I got an eyeshine from the infrared camera, I thought I was going to get some footage of it. No such luck, but I did grab a couple of minutes with a hand-held PARD NV-007A of a small (field?) mouse who appears to have taken a liking to our hedgehog hotel. (Camera: PARD NV007A.)

Frogs at night (June 15, 2022)
Frogs in our pond at night. (Camera: PARD NV007A.)

Our Blackbird (June 15, 2022)
We have a pair of blackbirds who visit us at least twice a day, usually appearing within moments of us shaking a large bag of dried mealworms. They must have a nest somewhere nearby. Here the male is filling his beak with mealworms to take back to his hatchlings. (Camera: GoPro 3+ mounted on UltraPod II.)

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