SardineCam

A couple of my trail cameras have been on tour - to my friends Gill and Martyn in deepest darkest Hexhamshire.  I took a new camera box for one camera and set up the second with a sardine lure as a new experiment.  Sardines are used by researchers to increase detection of carnivores so I wondered if it would work here.  Hexhamshire is home to polecats (Mustela putorius), one if the UK's most elusive mammals, so one aim was to see if we could catch one on camera.  The more realistic aim was to see what we would find.

The cameras were set for three weeks and at the end of that time both SD cards were full.  The sardine camera had 398 videos and the box camera 498 so I had plenty to look through.  The sardine camera was set up at the edge of woodland with the camera and the sardine can fixed to opposite ends of a piece of wood.  The can was secured with a cable tie.

SardineCam recorded 11 species but only four of those were interested in the sardine lure - the others were just passing by.  The four were badger, wood mouse, magpie and domestic cat.  The badger visited only once but tried hard to get into the can.  The camera gave a great close up of its teeth and claws (with a spider in the top left of the lens).

The magpie visited twice and the first time it managed to peck a few fragments of fish, even though the can was only slightly open (the can is now very visible after badger removed all my camouflage).

The wood mouse visited many times, obviously attracted by the smell but not trying to get at the can.  The cat just sniffed a few times and walked on.

Most of the 398 videos were of American grey squirrels.  Other passers by were blackbird, robin, wood pigeon, pheasant, roe deer, and red fox.

My new camera box was set up at the base of a stone wall.

It had large entrance pipes hoping to entice in slightly larger animals but in the end the only visitors were wood mice, bank voles, common shrews and pygmy shrews.  Here is a brief summary of 498 videos (most of which featured a wood mouse!).

It was very interesting to try out the cameras in a new environment.  The card in the  camera box was full in only nine days so another time I would need a bigger card.  I was hoping we might see a stoat or a weasel and I still have polecat on my wish list.