I was browsing on Amazon a while back, as one does. For those who’ve done it, you’ll know just how dangerous that can be. Sure enough, my cursor fell on a trail camera (or camera trap). – the kind they use on nature programmes to film wildlife covertly.
I snapped it up. Living in a flat at the time, it was a little tricky to find good places to put it. I caught a door mouse and a Robin in the undergrowth just outside the building but little else.
Having just moved house however, I am now lucky enough to live a mere 20 seconds away from a large area of woodland. Quite apart from it being a huge therapeutic escape (and a terrific new playground for my Corgi, Bowie) it is also begging for the trail camera’s attention.
So, I thought I would give it a whirl. One Friday afternoon, I trekked into the middle of the woodland and found a tree that faced what looked like a bit of an animal highway through the bushes and rigged up the camera with all fingers crossed. In the interim, I actually couldn’t stop thinking about it. Tragic though some people may find it, I couldn’t wait for the next morning to come so I could go out again and collect it. I’ll admit, I wasn’t really holding out too much. I would have been happy that it lasted the night without running out of batteries.
So it was with almost elation that I flicked through several captures of not one but four different types of animal.
This was the first video I saw. After that came a deer, then a badger and then, out of the darkness, a house cat! In the back of my mind, I’m thinking I probably won’t beat that so I had better just leave it there but the rest of me can barely contain myself to get back out there. I am not saying I am going to turn into some balaclava-wearing nutcase who hangs around in the woods after dark, but I can definitely see my next addiction coming along. To that end I’ve even set up an instagram account… (wilfredsnighttimecreatures)… to chart my discoveries. Who knows what I’ll find out there.
The truth is, in a busy and sometimes bleak world, something like this is an incredibly therapeutic pastime. Even just being in the woods with nothing but the birdsong is a pleasure that seems to dissolve away the noise and pressure from the outside world. They say the natural world is a great healer and that is something I can certainly appreciate. The secret goings on of the forest add an extra excitement to that. Give me a follow on instagram to keep posted.