Wildlife Cameras at the Convent Land

As you may have read a recent edition of the Ness News, Deirdre MacKinnon was awarded a grant by the Community Company for Trail Cameras to record wildlife in the old Convent Woods. These two Keen Ranger PT cameras are now set up in discrete locations and can be remotely controlled, moved and zoomed, and viewed through a smart phone or on Chris’ laptop at the Community Company Offices at the village hall. It’s possible to watch live or download recordings.

The cameras are set up with their PIR sensors to only record when they see something new and there’s the option to record any or just animal movements. Both cameras also have an individual solar panel that keeps the battery topped up.

Now we’ve set them up in two locations likely to experience passing wildlife to get an understanding of what is naturally about in the woods. So far, we’ve caught Red Deer walking around at night and we think we’ve identified one of the crossing points they use to cross the river Tarff.  In a few weeks, we’ll try them somewhere new.

Once we get an understanding of diversity of the wildlife and how it moves around the site, we’ll choose the best final locations. At this point we’ll probably place bait in view of the cameras using bird seed and nuts on one and maybe some carrion on the other to attract predator species. The cameras also have night vision capacity so we can watch out for badgers and hedgehogs. We also plan to create in two wildlife hides in these final locations so you can bird and mammal watch in person if you prefer.

Eventually we intend to allow you to view the webcams online, just like SpringWatch and AutumnWatch. This will be either through the Community Company Website or we might even set up a microsite specifically for the Convent Land, where you can post your wildlife photos and sightings.

If anyone’s interested in helping with this or with the cameras, perhaps by undertaking some citizen science and reporting species sightings to the Mammal Society https://www.mammal.org.uk/volunteering/mammal-mapper or the Biological Records Centre https://www.brc.ac.uk/mammals then please contact Chris (Convent Land Development Officer) on 07484 205758, email conventland@communitycompany.co.uk or at the office in the village hall or approach him when he’s doing his rounds on the convent land.