00:00Thank you for listening.
01:22Okay, so hello my friends, I hope 2024 has been off to a good start for you all, for
01:30myself, I've been back in Lake Gergini in northern Greece for about a week and I finally
01:39managed to come out today to see if I can find a location for my camera trap, so a new
01:48diary starting for 2024. I thought I'd come back to one of the locations that I've used
01:57in the past that I was trying to get a shot of the wolf that I found tracks of last
02:03year
02:05and was unsuccessful in doing that. So until I can scout another location or another couple
02:13of locations for the camera trap, I thought I would come back, set the camera trap up here,
02:19and see if we might get lucky. I've come down to this pond just off the lake, at the northern
02:28end of the lake, and there's a path that follows along the side of the lake here, goes underneath
02:38the log that I'm sitting on, the fallen tree, and carries on past me in that direction. And
02:46I have spotted in the past jackals using this path, both I recorded them on trail cams, and
02:54also I've actually seen them whilst I was in a hide on the opposite side trying to film
03:01the otter that is also resident on this pond. And this location here, I'm hoping that we might
03:08get the otter coming out because this is where he did emerge from the water last year as well. So
03:16there's a chance at this location of jackal, wolf, otter, badger, fox, and stone martin, or beach martin,
03:29whichever name you prefer. So it's not a bad spot. I just have to be lucky with what comes along,
03:39I
03:39guess. So let me set it all up, and then I shall talk you through my setup. See you in
03:46a second.
04:11I can't wish I had go with this
04:45That's all done, set up. I have the camera set up just on the edge of the pond here, looking
04:56back up the path this way. The trigger is behind me, and a flash, a top-down flash, on the
05:04tree here, overlooking the path.
05:07Behind the camera here is another flash on the branch, over the water, looking back across, so that's a side
05:15light, hopefully.
05:18There's a trail cam, which is, that's my new trail cam on this tree here, which is a low-glow
05:25trail cam, so hopefully the canines won't be too offended by its presence, and hopefully it will capture something.
05:36And I have another trail camera up high on the tree over there, surveying the whole scene from a wider
05:45angle.
05:47So, yeah, I have a workshop group arriving in a couple of days' time for a workshop for the pelicans,
05:56so I won't be able to visit and check up on the trap for at least a week.
06:05So, I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that the batteries last and some wildlife turns up, so I shall catch up with
06:14you all then.
06:14Okay, so, I'm back again, to either recover the camera completely, or replace the batteries and leave in situ.
06:30It's been about ten days now since I set the camera, and I haven't been able to revisit it to
06:39make sure it's okay, and in that week I've been running a workshop for the Dalmatian pelicans here on the
06:49lake.
06:50And we've had probably every single weather condition you can possibly imagine, from rain and fog and cold and sunshine,
07:02it's been fantastic, amazing conditions out on the lake.
07:07Last night we had a lovely dusting of snow, as you can see, the mountains are absolutely beautiful behind me,
07:12covered in snow.
07:14So, I don't think it's going to last, though, unfortunately.
07:19We've got cold weather coming, but also sunshine.
07:26So my thinking is that it's probably going to melt in the next day or so.
07:33Hopefully it'll hold up on the mountain, to make a pretty backdrop for some photography later this week.
07:43When, hopefully, I'll be out looking for jackals and wildcats to film and photograph.
07:52So that'll be a video to come in the next couple of weeks, hopefully.
07:59So, yeah, I'm just walking in to where I left the camera.
08:04And hopefully it's all there, still intact.
08:07I doubt it's working.
08:10I'm sure the batteries have run dry by now, especially with all this weather that we've had.
08:17So I shall catch up with you there.
08:19And fingers crossed, we might have some images on the camera.
08:24So I shall see you there in a sec.
08:39Okay, so it looks like all the batteries are dry.
08:54I'll just turn off that one as well.
08:55So, yeah.
09:26It looks like we've got a jackal.
09:29I'll have to get these back onto the laptop to see them properly, because the screen doesn't
09:35give me much detail.
09:37So it looks like there was some activity.
09:41Just have to see now if anything was recorded on the DSLR.
09:51Daytime jackal as well, having a sniff around the water, it doesn't look like the camera
09:56went off for that one though, I think I have it set so that during the daytime it's not
10:04firing at all, only dawn and dusk, ooh, unbelievable, unbelievable, a deer, amazing.
10:17Two deer, now that's really rare here, to get the deer coming through, that's amazing.
10:27I'm really excited to get these back home and, what's that?
10:34That's either the otter, which the camera didn't fire for, or it's a martin.
10:41I can't tell from this little screen.
10:44Amazing.
10:45OK.
10:48So, let me have a look on the camera, and see if we managed to get any shots of it.
11:01OK.
11:02So, not too many shots fired on the actual camera itself for some reason, which I shall have
11:07to check out.
11:08I will replace the batteries, and leave it out for longer, until I can scout another location,
11:19which might be a little bit more productive.
11:23So, let me just do that, and I'll get back to you.
11:27OK, so, I managed to switch out all the batteries.
11:33Turns out the batteries on the contraption's trigger had also died, so I switched those out.
11:41Thankfully, I had enough, and also, thankfully, I had my screwdriver with me, because on the
11:49contraption's sensor, you have to take the back off to replace the batteries, and it's
11:57held in place by four Phillips-head screws, so I managed to do that as well.
12:03Well, I had a quick look at the pictures on the DSLR, and they seem to be slightly underexposed,
12:13but I'll be better able to tell once I get them back on my laptop.
12:22So, I've adjusted the exposure slightly as well on the camera.
12:26Everything seems to be working, so I shall leave it another week or so, and see if we
12:32get lucky.
12:35The next time, I'm probably going to recover it, and try and build a hood over the lens
12:40port, as I'm getting a little bit of water droplets and precipitation on the lens.
12:46So, I'll try and eliminate that by making a hood over the top of that.
12:53And, yeah, that's about it.
12:54I'll show you what I did manage to get, both trail cam and photos, right now, and it just
13:02remains for me to say thank you so much for watching, and I shall catch up with you again
13:07very soon in the next one.
13:09Bye for now.
13:10Bye, bye.
13:21Bye.
13:22Bye.
