There are three infra-red wildlife cameras broadcasting live video, the original camera was set up to monitor the hedgehogs that visit the garden during the spring, summer and autumn months (watch video clips here) but the input may change throughout the year such as in spring-time when blue-tits use the nesting box. The cameras cycle sequentially approximately every ten seconds at all other times.

Food is being put out for the hedgehogs when they visit any time after dusk usually between 10.00pm and 11.00pm (May/June). Blue-tits are nesting in the old nesting box in the Birch tree.

Three hedgehogs in the garden together is an unusual sight normally hedgehogs are solitary animals coming together only in spring-time to mate. I think the two on the left are a pair so we are hoping for some little hogs running around the garden in the summer evenings, the smaller one on the right is probably offspring from last year desperate to get at the food (bran flakes and peanut butter, they love it and cats don't) but he/she thinks better of it and retreats coming back later on when the garden is a bit quieter.

Spring 2008 and this year the Blue-tits have successfully completed their nest and have laid seven eggs. We were concerned about her being scared away because workmen are still busy just yards from the nestbox but so far so good. All seven eggs hatched and five of the original seven chicks survived to fledge on a chilly Friday 13th June. A second open-fronted box for robins or wrens also with a camera has been located on a fence behind a hedge but it has not attracted any occupants this year.

The picture to the right is the Blue-tit nest box with the lid propped open showing the infra-red camera, this camera allows us to view the box twentyfour hours a day, it has a single white LED to provide extra illumination in day light and infra-red LEDs to provide images after dark. A similar but more powerful camera pictured below is used to monitor the hedgehogs, the cameras connect to the server via an external USB analogue video capture card and a switcher which cycles through each camera in turn or can be set to view a single camera, it is basically a simple CCTV set-up to watch garden activity.

Apart from running some hidden cables through the garden and into the house the set up has been trouble free with very little maintenance required other than cleaning the lenses.