My interest in wildlife and cameras started with a nest box camera kit some 8 years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! I have numerous ‘normal’ nest boxes in the garden, aimed at Blue and Great tits and House Sparrows, although I have never had a House Sparrow build in my garden. I only have a few here and, although they have looked in the box, none have actually bred. At the moment, I have four of these boxes with cameras in. Some are a standard ‘off the shelf’ type nest box kit, like the ones I sell on my shop and the one you saw me with on Countryfile. The camera is a excellent quality and if enough light gets through the little window at the top, you can get brilliant results!
I have also been experimenting with adding lights to my nest boxes and Jason Fathers of Wildlife Windows has built a brilliant set-up, with the same camera as above, but an integral lighting system inside, which is sensor controlled. The box is lit in the day and they go off at night. The birds are not worried by the lights at all and I am getting superb results from this new box. As with photography, the better the lighting, the better the image, but that has to be balanced with the welfare of the birds.
There has been a lot of activity in the last week and this individual is making full use of the nesting dispenser whisks that I put up! Not only has moss and Bryn’s fur been bought in, but next door’s pony hair seems to be featuring a lot also!
I don’t think it will be long before we see the female Blue tit laying in this Lane box…. she is certainly getting close. I never tire of watching this story and, this year, I am getting the best images I have ever captured as the technology improves… next year it will be the Vivotek HD camera in there!