00:00okay so hello my friends and welcome to what i hope will be the second episode in my camera
00:10trapping diaries for 2024 and the last couple of weeks since the last video have been a little bit
00:21frustrating to say the least firstly because i haven't been able to find uh excuse me another
00:31location for the camera trap where i've been struggling to find another location and secondly
00:37because the other videos that i've been trying to make filming the jackals and wildcats have been
00:51what's the word unsuccessful uh frustratingly so especially seeing as the places that i've been
00:59staking out i know are really good spots for them and yet i haven't been able to record any footage
01:07of them any decent footage that is so that's been frustrating then my dog got hurt injured his leg
01:16somehow so i've been taking care of him a little bit and uh yeah just frustrating few weeks anyhow
01:25so today i've come up in an attempt to try and find an alternate location for the camera trap
01:32and i've come to the mountains and forests woods on the western side of the lake
01:41which i've normally avoided um because this area is within the permitted hunting area
01:50uh and hunters come up here for ostensibly wild boar but they also take deer which they're not supposed to
01:58and uh a friend of mine told me that this ravine that i'm in now uh actually they tend not
02:06to come up
02:07here um so it's quite a lot safer mainly because of the lack of vehicle access up here so if
02:18they do hit
02:18something big you know two three hundred kilo boar or something um they can't carry it off the mountain
02:25so they need vehicle access to actually be able to get it to the vehicle and then drive it off
02:31the mountain
02:32and because they can't drive up here they tend not to bother uh shooting up here uh that being said
02:39they do apparently set their dogs off in here to try and chase the animals into an area that they
02:44can get
02:44access to um so if i do set up a camera it might not be a surprise to catch a
02:52dog on it a hunting dog
02:55but uh so the track that i'm on at the moment um is already showing signs of activity um lots
03:04of digging
03:05happening in fact there's some digging right here i can show you uh just there um which i believe
03:14to be deer uh it could be fox uh rooting around but i think it's deer more more likely
03:27um but i don't particularly want to set the the camera up on this trail because if anyone is walking
03:34in this is the route that they'll be using uh so i want to find something a little bit more
03:42uh off-road shall we say
03:50is that the wind
03:55that must be the wind
03:56so i thought i heard an animal
04:02okay so to my right down below i don't know if you can make it out in right in there
04:08is a really deep ravine
04:12so i'm going to see if i can make my way down to it somehow
04:16because i have a feeling that animals will be tracking up and down the mountain through that
04:22as an easy access so i shall get back to you in a little while hopefully uh if i find
04:28a decent
04:29location for the camera so see you in a second
04:36lots of digging around this spot here as well
04:41i suppose it could be badger as well rooting about
04:48another definitive track
04:53any more digging oh and that looks like just through there
04:59there to be some kind of a hole and down here to the right
05:09i can't i can't actually access it from up here though
05:14so i need to find a way down into the into this ravine
05:21well maybe i can set up a camera here a trail cam
05:29okay let me try and get down into the ravine somehow
05:52so
05:59so
06:00so
06:42So I've come out to those dens, so I came down the ravine here, and finally I've come
06:50up to the dens here, behind me, so there's two holes up there, and there's another one
06:56through all this thicket here, so the fact that it's multiple holes in such a way would
07:04lead me to believe it's a badger den.
07:11I don't want to put, this is right next to the main hole, is this tree up here, where
07:17is it there, I don't want to put a camera up on that, I've got absolutely shredded coming
07:23through those brambles.
07:26Yeah, I don't want to put a camera right on that tree, so it's not going to disturb them
07:33too much, so I have a choice either on this limb here, looking back across to the hole,
07:40or this tree up here, looking the other way down.
07:50I think this is going to provide me with a wider access, a wider view rather, but can I get
07:57high enough, that's the question.
08:00Okay, alright, I'm going to go for the other tree because I don't think I can get high enough
08:04on this one, for the trail cam.
08:07I'm only going to put the trail cam up, not the camera trap, because it's not a particularly
08:12attractive sight.
08:14I have a feeling anyway they're not going to be coming down into the ravine, they're
08:18probably going to be going up onto the track where all that digging was, all that digging
08:21was probably the badgers or fox, whatever is in this den here.
08:28Okay, so let me set up that trail cam, and then we'll carry on down the ravine, and see
08:32if we can find a spot for the camera trap.
08:56That's the last one.
08:58Let's go.
09:50So, I think I may have come to a potential spot for the DSLR.
09:58I'll talk you through my thinking.
10:01So the ravine comes around the corner here.
10:05So this little stand of trees here is a corner, a bend in the ravine.
10:11And then if you follow sort of, don't come around this way, but go up, there's a track
10:18that goes up the side there.
10:21And there's also another track that goes up behind this bush, a side-long, really clearly
10:29defined track that goes up the side of the embankment there.
10:34So I'm thinking I might set up the trap either pointing around the corner of the ravine or
10:44pointing this way so that this is my frame.
10:50With the trees here, the animal would come around the track here, so it would either
10:56come towards the camera here or go up towards the track up the embankment.
11:03But I think that makes quite a nice composition.
11:08The other option is to put it facing up the ravine in this direction and have that as my
11:19composition or something similar, a bit lower.
11:22So again, I have this stand of trees and the animal would come down from here to go up the
11:32track behind me, which is along there, I don't know if you can make it out, so it's just behind
11:40this hedge and it goes up, so the animal goes through the hedge and up the side of the embankment
11:46there.
11:50I'll get all the kit out, have a look through the camera lens to see what looks nice, and
11:57I shall have a go at setting something up.
12:00OK.
12:02Bear with me.
12:25OK, so that's all set up.
12:28Camera's triggering, flashes are triggering.
12:32I'll show you exactly what I've done in just a second, but I forgot that last time I mentioned
12:38I was going to make a little hood for the lens port because I was getting water droplets on
12:43the front element.
12:45So I did that.
12:47I should also add that after I collected the camera, I only left it out three days after
12:51the last time.
12:54Didn't catch much on it other than a badger, not the greatest of images and a little bit
13:01of video footage off the trail cams of the jackals that came through.
13:06So I took it away and I fashioned this hood from a bit of 100mm pipe which I cut a
13:16gap in
13:17so that I could actually just open it and it fits over the lens port here perfectly and
13:24holds itself in place.
13:25I made a little profile like that just to provide some shelter for the lens and it just fits
13:33over the lens port like that and slides on and it holds pretty well and provides hopefully
13:42enough shelter for the front element to stop getting raindrops on it.
13:46But we'll see how it works anyway.
13:49Right, let me show you what I've done with the setup.
13:58Okay, so up on the tree there you'll see one flash pointing down to where the animal will
14:06come through along the bottom of the ravine here.
14:09I have the trigger, the sensor here on this branch along with the flash and the camera
14:18pointing round the corner here of the ravine.
14:22And in frame are, is this little group of trees here, this tree and I've got some, I think
14:35it's snowdrops down there with all the moss and then this is the left side of the frame,
14:43this little stand of trees here.
14:47So yeah, I've got the camera down here which I will camouflage up and the flash and the sensor
15:00and I'll set up a couple of trail cams as well to overlook the situation here and get a little
15:06bit of video footage hopefully of whatever is using this ravine.
15:10Yeah, hopefully we'll get some deer, badger, fox, I don't know, fingers crossed for something
15:15interesting anyway.
15:17What else?
15:18Yeah, so I'm gonna do that and I shall catch up with you again in the next video.
15:25I'll be back here in 10 days or so to recover the camera, see if there's anything on the
15:30cards.
15:31So I shall see you in the next one.
15:33Thanks so much for watching.
15:34Bye for now.
