Christmas Mammal Box

This is a rather special Christmas set-up in my small mammal feeding station. I was approached by BBC The One Show, to create some content for a piece for the show. Along with my German Christmas Market for birds, this camera will live stream up until Boxing Day!  I designed the box with lights and a removable interior, so I can create different scenes inside. The camera inside films all the visitors, who pop in to see what food I have put out for them. I use a Hikvision mini-dome camera in this set-up. I hope you enjoy it as much as the mice, voles and shrews!

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What to watch for.....

Bank Vole

Bank voles can be seen both day and night. If two come in together, watch them have, what looks like, a mini boxing match!

Wood Mouse

Wood mice are common visitors, but more often from evening onwards.

Common Shrew

Common shrews often pop in for the meal worms I out in here. They also love the suet products!

Pygmy Shrew

Smaller, pygmy shrews can also be seen visiting for mealworms, and suet products predominantly.

Video Highlights.....

Behind the scenes....

This year, for The One Show, I designed this set-up to go inside my mammal box. I wanted to create a scene that they would interact with and that could dispense food easily. I came up with the idea of a roof top scene, where the mammals would emerge from a chimney, that was attached to an entrance that they are used to using. I waited, in anticipation, hoping they would do just what I had  hoped and that I would be able to capture the moment where a mouse emerged from a chimney, onto a snowy rooftop.... luckily, they obliged and I got just the shot I was hoping for!

The set was made from a little roof which I covered in brick paper. I built the tiny chimney and lined it up with the entrance hole. I built a shallow tray in the top of the roof line, in which to hide the food. Glueing a model reindeer in, I added some presents and some snow.......