Wildlife night camera tips

My tips on wildlife night cameras for capturing videos of wildlife in your garden and monitoring your wildlife camera.

I have recently swapped to using a Blink XT2 camera. I will explain the benefits of this camera below but I have also kept the information about my second wildlife camera on this blog – which is a trail hunting camera.

You can see video footage from the Blink XT2 below.

The Blink XT2 is a home security camera, rather than a specific wildlife camera, but it is small and compact and can be linked up with other cameras of the same make. It has the advantage of linking to an app on my mobile phone. This means that I receive an alert when the night camera is triggered. It also means that I can review and save footage directly onto my phone and then share it to social media without having to go outside and bring in an SD card. The battery life is okay but they will need changing fairly regularly if you use rechargeable batteries and if there is lots going on in your wildlife garden.

I purchased an extra cover for the camera to give it a bit more rain protection although it mainly sits underneath a wooden structure in my garden, focused on the hedgehog feeding station. The camera has an attachment with two screws and can be secured to anything wooden. It can then be swivelled left and right to your preferred position. You can choose to ‘watch live’ from your phone and monitor what is going on in the location at any time from the comfort of your home or when you are away.

Wildlife trail cameras

My other wildlife night camera is a trail camera – an Aucee trail hunting camera. You can see the footage from this camera below. I use this camera as a back up now and you can read more information on why I selected this camera and whether you would prefer this one to a security camera.

You can get a reasonable trail camera for around £60 online. You will also need batteries and an SD card. I checked out the best reviewed trail cameras on Amazon. Many are very similar and one in this bracket should record both still photos and video footage. I wanted one that also had the following features:

• Reasonably waterproof to withstand being outdoors for long periods of time. Note that many cameras say that they are splash proof, rather than waterproof.
• A low glow infra-red camera that would not scare off wildlife and where the sensitivity of the trigger could be changed.
• Short trigger speed to maximise capture.
• A decent recording time. Many I looked at in the £60 bracket had a maximum recording length of 1 minute. Mine can be set to record up to 10 minutes. I thought this would be best for recording longer aspects of hedgehog behaviour, such as courtship….

It is worth thinking about the SD card. Mine uses a micro SD card which can be very fiddly to insert and remove. A camera with a standard sized SD card might be better if you are not very dextrous and plan to check the footage regularly.

I am using rechargeable batteries with mine. The camera is pretty power hungry so I’ll need to re-charge them possibly once a week. It takes 8 batteries but apparently if you remove all 8, you have to re-set the timing and date. So I will be recharging 4 at a time….

My trail camera is mounted on a pole with a bit of extra rain protection for siting the camera. You could also use a moveable piece of metal trellis – which is easier to insert in the ground and move around the garden.

I’m sure many people reading this will have tried other cameras and have other tips and suggestions so I look forward to reading your comments and reviews!

I run a hedgehog hospital in York. My work is entirely self-funded. You can read more about me and my work here and also about how to support my work here.

I make silver jewellery inspired by nature and wildlife to raise funds for my hedgehog hospital. You can visit my online jewellery shop here.