Trail camera turns garden photography into backyard safari
Wingscape models capture birds and mammals up close
It’s like a baby cam but instead of keeping an eye and ear out for a little one, it watches over your backyard for wildlife wandering through your garden.
For anyone who wants to know what is passing through or hanging out in their backyard night and day, one of the popular trail cameras is essential.
Trail cameras for home security and to document backyard wildlife
Woodland/wildlife gardeners may not know too much about these popular cameras, originally designed to allow hunters to document the wildlife using a particular trail out in the field.
While they continue to be a tool for hunters, more and more the cameras are finding their way into backyards not only to document the wildlife that are using the yard throughout the day and, especially, throughout the night, but also to act as a security camera to capture any potential security threats in the backyard.
Place one on your deck, for example, for security and to monitor wildlife. Realize, however, unless they are secured, they can be stolen or the digital cards removed by knowledgeable thieves. They will also put out light to capture images and video. Animals are not bothered by the lights but humans will notice it.
(If you are interested in exploring garden photography at a higher level, be sure to check out my comprehensive post on the Best camera and lens for Garden Photography.)
The benefit of the Wingscape Bird and Trail camera (pictured above) is that you can get up close and personal with backyard wildlife.
For more suggestions and some of my favourite garden things, be sure to check out my Favourite Things post.
Quality and features of the cameras and images vary widely, but most capture high-quality images and video both night and day. Some of the higher-end models even send the images to your smart phone to allow you real-time monitoring of the camera.
This photo of a Blue Jay at the bird bath was captured by the specialized bird camera. Imagine if it was a more rare bird or even a raptor that visited?
I’m not here to give readers a review of the best and worst trail cameras because I don’t own them all. I will, however, provide readers with some of the better cameras recommended by those who have tested the various models and tell you about my experience with my hybrid trail/bird camera.
Top five trail cameras from Bestreviews.guide
My hope is that this article simply introduces Woodland/wildlife gardeners to the possibilities these cameras offer them.
(I was fortunate enough to purchase a highly specialized trail camera (the Wingscapes BirdCam Pro) designed to capture birds and other wildlife images up close. More on that later in the article.)
Blue Jay at the BirdCam. The trail camera can be set up to show date and time, helpful if you are documenting times that wildlife appear.
Back to the Trail cameras. The cameras, that primarily run off of batteries, are meant to be left out in the field for months on a trail through any type of weather documenting the wildlife in the area. Some are available with supplementary solar power panels to give batteries a longer life, others use solar powered batteries to keep them going in the field for months. Most come with straps and other methods of attaching them to trees. They also have tripod attachments that enable the cameras to be used with a tripod or device that uses tripod-style attachments.
Woodland/wildlife gardeners can mount them to a tree, a pole or just place them on a tripod and move them around the yard to capture the fox, the skunk maybe the coyote or deer that you suspect are wandering through your yard while you sleep. Unlike hunters who have to worry about the expensive cameras possibly being stolen or damaged out in the field, gardeners can leave the camera out without any real fears of the camera being stolen or damaged.
If you are lucky enough to have a den in the yard, set the camera up near the den to document the life of your new little neighbours. Maybe you will be lucky enough to capture the babies as they emerge into the world and discover your garden.
The possibilities are endless.
The BirdCam is perfect to use at an outdoor photo studio that is specifically set up to photograph wildlife. Here a red squirrel is photographed up close and personal.
If you are still curious about what these trail cameras are capable of, check out a few of the thousands of Youtube videos that have been put up from all corners of the earth. My favourites are videos documenting wildlife in national parks ranging from the Florida Everglades to videos from Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario, Canada. Here is a good one from a small watering hole in Arizona.
This deer was caught on our trail camera in the middle of the night. These cameras are a great way to monitor what animals are roaming your property at night.
A few months ago I decided I needed a trailcam after watching our neighbourhood fox regularly wander through the yard. I have seen several deer, racoons and a few possums, but I suspected we probably had more wildlife visitors than I realized, including the odd coyote.
Another image of a wren caught on the BirdCam Pro at the birdbath.
The Wingscapes BirdCam Pro a hybrid trail camera
Regular visits to Kijiji where there are always several used trailcam models of varying quality and price points available, led me to the Wingscapes BirdCam Pro.
Although it can operate as a regular trail camera, the Wingscapes BirdCam Pro has the ability to focus very closely to capture birds and wildlife up close – very close – like 6-inches to infinity.
Trail cameras are a great way to see what animals are roaming your gardens at night. Here, a friendly skunk skitters across the frame in front of the camera. Night images are not always the best but they can be used to verify what animals are in the yard.
The BirdCam Pro is a weatherproof, motion-activated with an 8MP camera that includes an adjustable flash for nighttime photos and videos. It also includes a timelapse setting for recording non-animal subjectslike weather and plants emerging from bud over a period of time. It also features a 2-inch color preview screen and can also send images directly to your computer with an optional Wi-Fi SD card. Here is the bad new, the item is discontinued from Moultrie. The good news is that a later version is still available. (see below).
Traditional Trail cameras are not really designed to capture images or video that close to the camera. Most are simply trying to capture larger wildlife (deer, bears, moose) from a distance of 10-20 feet or more. They do an excellent job capturing these images.
Birdwatching Bliss, another blog site did an extensive comparison between the Wingscapes BirdCam and traditional trail cameras. You can read the full review here.
The Wingscape BirdCam Pro (which is no longer available from Moultrie) has the ability to manually focus the wideangle lens to capture small birds up close, for example, at a feeder or on a birdbath. Although this model is no longer available (I purchased mine from Kijiji used but in an unopened box), another later version, the Time Lapse Pro is still available, at least on Amazon. It may also be available at specialty stores. The Wingscapes TimelapseCam Pro produces 20MP pictures, has a focus range from 6 inches to infinity and a flash range to 25 feet. It also shoots HD video at 1080P with sound.
It’s important to note the the TimelapseCam Pro lacks the motion sensor that enables you to capture birds or animals that move into the scene. The Timelapse model, therefore, is of less value to those hoping to capture images of wildlife. It can be set up near a feeder or bird bath and programmed to take an image every 15 seconds for example. This would leave you with a lot of empty images.
I would recommend looking for a used BirdCam Pro model.
My BirdCam Pro has caught images and video of wildlife and birds in the backyard, including the video of a bluejay at one of my bird baths featured on this page.
I often set it up in the morning at one of my bird baths and let it to its thing for the entire day. Earlier this year I was able to catch a surprising image. I usually have several families of Baltimore Orioles living in and around our garden and visiting regularly, but this year none stayed around past a few days in the spring. I was convinced that none were around until I checked my SD card following a day of shooting at the bird bath.
Sure enough, a young oriole was photographed at the birdbath. It told me that at least they were still around.
In one evening it caught video of two skunks, a racoon and a possum at my woodpile. It’s night video capture is only B&W and not always publishable because of uneven lighting, but it does give you a good indication of the wildlife in your backyard.
Newer trail cameras are more than able to capture high quality video in B&W.
Wingscapes AutoFeeder for the birds
Related to the Wingscapes BirdCam is another interesting tool for bird lovers. The Wingscapes WSBF02-00132 AutoFeeder, is an automatic bird feeder that spills out a set amount of bird feeder at the same time of day. The battery operated digital timer can program up to 4 feed times a day, releasing food from its 1-gallon seed hopper from 1 to 10 seconds each feeding.
In conclusion
Trail cameras have been used for years by hunters and have only recently been discovered by homeowners, gardeners and wildlife lovers as a way to track what lives or passes through their gardens.
Besides the fun of downloading your SD card to see what visited over night, the cameras are a great resource to chart the different animals as well as learn about their movements. As a wildlife photographer, learning that the neighbourhood fox trots through the yard every morning between 6 a.m. and 7a.m and takes a very specific route every day, is incredibly valueable information if I want to photograph it with my high-end camera. The images from the TrailCam can be quite good, but it still won’t compare with a photograph made with a DSLR and a long lens from a photographic blind.
These cameras are great tools but take some getting used to before you are rewarded with good images. Realize that they work when the camera sees movement and therefore can be fooled by foliage blowing in the wind. Don’t expect miracles over night. Work with the camera and experiment with it in different locations, at different times of year and in different situations until you are getting successful images.
Once you master them, you will be rewarded time and time again.
