Last weekend, whilst in London for the Blog Awards, I stayed with my brother and his three kids. I love spending time with them, especially as my two are all grown up now! I have three nephews and 5 nieces and I am generally know as ‘Aunty Wildlife’!! Whenever I am down, I always do something wildlife-based with the kids and I took my camera and a Bushnell with me. Only staying one night, we set the Bushnell in their garden over night as they have had foxes visiting… Bushnell trail cams are a great way of engaging even young children with wildlife, using the technology that they love!
In the morning, they could not wait to get the Bushnell in and check the card…. no foxes, sadly… but a lot of clips of next door’s cat and one of a blackbird! Oh well, next time maybe!
With Saturday dawning bright, Rory and I headed off to Bushy Park… a five minute walk from my brother’s house! He went armed with his little Nikon Coolpix and we took the Bushnell so I could show him how best to set them and to see if we could video some of the wildlife there.
Rory is 9 years old and VERY keen!!!! There are lots of Fallow deer in Bushy and, at this time of the year, they are pretty sedate. Rory and I settled down near a large tree and I explained that, to be a wildlife photographer, you had to learn about your subject, and spend time watching and waiting. If they accepted us and we were patient, the deer would come closer. This is exactly what they did and it was not long before we were surrounded!
Rory was able to start practising his skills…
We also set the Bushnell by some of the wildlife to see if we could capture some footage. Using it like this, whilst you are watching it, gives you the chance to practise techniques and, for children, will give instant results!
A couple of hours out with Rory was an absolute pleasure… I just love sharing wildlife with kids and you can guess what he wants for his birthday! I have told him that if he works hard and is VERY well behaved over the next few months, then maybe… just maybe, he could have a Bushnell of his own for his birthday in September!!
Rory is my guest Blogger this week…. here is his account of the few hours we spent together!!
Today I went out to Bushy Park with my Aunty Kate.
We took photos of lots of animals such as deer, swans and geese. We also enjoyed watching a coot constructing its nest out of sticks. At one point a few mallards came and the coot chased them off! We also set up the Bushnell cam and got some footedge of the coot. On top of that we also saw some Egyptian and Canada geese which we got some photos and footage too. There was also loads of woodpecker holes in the dead trees, we saw a few parakeets as well! At one point we crept really close to some deer, it was almost like we were part of the herd! There were loads of interesting birdcalls too.
I enjoyed seeing and photographing the beautiful Egyption geese. But my favourite thing was when we got right in the middle of a small herd of deer. It was really fun!
By Rory Age 9
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