Camera Trap Diaries Pt.1 | NEW LOCATION for my DSLR camera trap | Golden Jackals, Badgers and a Wolf - video Dailymotion

George S Blonsky

Dear Friends, I&#039;m back in Greece again and back at Lake Kerkini for another camera trapping series. Back in January a friend had set up his trailcam in a woodland on the northern end of the lake where he captured Golden Jackals, Badgers and a Wolf... so I&#039;m in the same location here trying for the same.! Hope you enjoy..!  Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:57 - Walk-In B-Roll 03:21 - Walk-n-Talk 05:29 - Camera Trap - 1st set-up 06:06 - 1st set-up talk through 08:41 - 1st Camera check 13:02 - 2nd Set-Up 15:14 - Conclusions &amp; results of 2nd Set-Up 19:50 - Image + Clips from Trail-cameras  Please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  Complete list of affiliated links to my favourite gear &amp; clothing plus other resources I am happy to recommend: https://georgesblonsky.com/resources/  Affiliated links to equipment, kit &amp; clothing you see in this video:  Trailcam: https://amzn.to/3iRkbSM Tree mounts: https://amzn.to/3uIxZSd Mini Ball Heads: https://amzn.to/47ncqrj Vlog Camera: https://amzn.to/3FEHEQk Trousers: https://amzn.to/3HnGE4d Boots: https://amzn.to/3Fur4SM   Website: New Website under construction but should give you an idea of my endeavours.. https://georgesblo

Transcript

00:00Okay, so hello again my friends. I've been away for a while. I was back in the UK visiting my

00:05daughter for a few weeks in February, and now I'm back in Greece again, at Lake Kyrkimi in the north

00:14of Greece.

00:16And I've been here for a couple of days, and yesterday I thought I'd try and go up the mountain

00:22as I said I would, to set the trail cam and the camera trap up high on the mountain, to

00:28see what I might get up there.

00:31But because of the rains in the last few weeks, a lot of the track was washed out, so it

00:35was impossible to get up very high.

00:39Hopefully in the next few weeks, as things dry out up there, I might be able to get up there.

00:45But, yeah, that being the case, I thought what I'd do is I'd come to the northern side of the

00:51lake, where there's a bit of a forest, lots of brush, undergrowth, and lots of trails coming down from the

00:57mountain that the jackals use.

01:01And a few weeks ago a friend of mine had put a trail cam up there, and he recorded not

01:05only the golden jackals as they came through, but he also recorded a wolf.

01:12And there was a little bit of controversy on Facebook when he posted that, because a lot of people didn't

01:17believe it was a wolf.

01:18But you can clearly see the difference in size between that creature and the jackals that came past, and using

01:26points of reference you can see just how much bigger it was.

01:30So I think there's no doubt that it was a wolf.

01:33So with that in mind, I'm going to go to the same area.

01:38I don't know the exact spot where he put it, although he did tell me roughly the area.

01:44So I'm hoping I'll find a trail down there, and set the camera trap up there and the trail cams,

01:50and see what we might catch over the next few days.

01:54So, yeah, I shall see you down there.

02:25I'll see you down there.

02:55I'll see you down there.

03:21Okay, so that led out onto this little opening behind me, and you can still see the track.

03:26The track roughly just here, where animals are crawling along, and it carries on into the bush here, so I'm

03:34just going to go along more.

03:46Rather disconcertingly, that track became a buffalo track.

03:50So quite how they got here, I don't know, because the end of the track is out of this pond

03:57here, and I can't see a way that the buffalo came into this area.

04:03And the tracks are actually heading that way, unless they came through the reeds over here, possibly.

04:13But anyway, that precludes me from putting a trap here, or a trail cam, because if the buffalo are coming

04:22through here, I don't want them disturbing it.

04:29And if they have the herdsmen with them, I don't want them finding it either.

04:35Okay, so I shall backtrack and see if I can find somewhere else.

04:40So bear with me.

04:41Okay, so I backtracked through the undergrowth, where after following this track here, it went straight through the brush there

04:54and led to the lake.

04:55So I've backtracked to the first choke point back here, and I called my friend up, and it turns out

05:00this is the spot where he set up his cameras, his trail cam.

05:05So he was facing the other way though.

05:09I'm still really concerned that there's buffalo that might come through here, although I can't see buffalo tracks on this

05:15section.

05:16I might even go for a top-down light using the overhanging branch back there, which might make for a

05:24nice shot.

05:25Right, so let me get to that, and then I'll show you my setup.

06:04That took me a fair bit of time to set up, but I've got it all set I think, and

06:12fingers crossed we'll get a good result.

06:15So I'll just talk you through it.

06:17So this is the trail here.

06:19Let me just open this up a bit so you can see.

06:22So this is the trail here.

06:24Hopefully they'll come through.

06:26And down at my feet here, on the side, I have one trail cam pointing in this direction, looking at

06:35the camera.

06:35And then the camera is facing the path just there.

06:44So hopefully the jackals, and with any luck wolf, will come over this log.

06:52It'll trigger from here, from the contraption sensor.

06:58I have a flash up at the top there.

07:03Okay, so in typical style, my vlogging camera ran out of battery and I've left my spare battery because I

07:11don't think I would be recording that much.

07:13I left the spare in the car.

07:14So I shall finish up on the phone here.

07:18So as I was saying, there is the one camera, the flash is up there, pointing downwards.

07:26And the other one is, how do I turn this around?

07:34Is, well, I'll do it this way, is on the camera tripod just there facing up the path.

07:42So it's a full on head on flash for the animal.

07:47Hopefully they're going to walk in this direction and hopefully record them.

07:52On the video that my friend took, they were coming from the other direction, which is why I've pointed the

07:57camera up towards the mountain.

08:00So I'm assuming they're coming down from the mountain, down to the lake, to the river, to feed and drink.

08:10So with any luck, oh, and the other, the other trail cam is over here on this tree, pointing down

08:23the path there, looking at the back of the camera behind me, which is pointing down the path.

08:28And I've set it up to trigger just over the log, which is on here.

08:32So when they come across the log here, hopefully the camera will trigger.

08:39OK, so good morning.

08:43It's three days now since I've put the camera out for the jackals and maybe wolf at that location.

08:53I'm just on my way in to collect it and see if there's anything on the cards.

09:00And as I was walking in, I noticed this trail, which comes through this avenue of trees here.

09:07So I followed it along and it comes out onto a bit of a bog behind me there.

09:15And within the bog there are some absolutely monster footprints, which are without question wolf.

09:25I have a measure on my walking pole here and I put it down and it's about 12 centimeters print,

09:34which is just beyond question that it's a wolf, a print of that size.

09:40So I wasn't happy with the location anyway over there.

09:43I don't know if there's anything on the cards we'll see in a second.

09:48But having found this trail and having found that print, I'm definitely going to change location.

09:53So I'm glad I brought all the extra batteries and things to be able to do that and set it

10:00up fresh.

10:02So I'm just going to walk back down this trail and back around the pond.

10:08My camera is actually on the other side of this pond here.

10:11So I'm going to go check that out and come back and reset it here somewhere.

10:19See if I can find a decent enough location.

10:21There's a fallen log just there which might make a good point.

10:25The thing is there's two tracks, so if you can see behind me there's one track that goes through the

10:29trees

10:30and there's another track down here which runs alongside the pond.

10:37So I don't know which of the two to set it up on.

10:41Let me go take the camera down, see if there's anything on the cards and then relocate here.

10:47So I shall catch up with you in a second.

10:48So I'm at the location of my camera and thankfully everything looks to still be intact.

10:55So I'll go and have a check the trail cam first and see if there's anything on it.

11:04Okay, so there was nothing on the other trail cam either.

11:09So I'll just check, as you can see on the first trail camera, the flash did fire once.

11:25And we have what looks like to be the tail end of a jackal in the distance on one and

11:35that's me arriving to pick it up.

11:37Okay, so pretty much nothing on here.

11:39And there seems to be quite a bit of a delay between triggering and the camera and flash is waking

11:50up.

11:52So I shall have to try and find some way to overcome that.

12:01So I'll break all this down, switch out all the batteries and head over to the other location where I

12:08spotted the wolf track.

12:09So I'm at the track, the trail where I found the wolf print.

12:17And I've been trying to assess where I might set it up.

12:21I think there's various branches into different trails.

12:26So I think it's going to be a gamble, whichever one I choose.

12:30And I think I finally decided I'm going to choose this one here behind me.

12:35It's a trail which basically leads off from the bog where I found the print.

12:41And it goes up over the embankment here and runs along the trail which is right next to the pond

12:49there.

12:50So anyway, I will set all that up.

12:53I will save you the boredom of watching me do all that through B-roll.

12:58And I'll come back to you in a second when I've set it up and talk you through my setup.

13:02Okay, let's talk you through this.

13:03I've got one trail cam on this fallen tree overlooking the bog behind me there where the paw print is.

13:14And the paw print is coming in this direction.

13:17So hopefully their den nest is further up the mountain here in the brush.

13:24And at night they come through this way down to the river and to the lake.

13:30And I've chosen this path over here.

13:36Let me get a little bit of distance to show you.

13:40So I've chosen this path here coming down to the embankment right next to the water here to the pond.

13:50My feeling is that that is the most likely route.

13:55But time will tell.

13:57And the photos, if any, should be the evidence for that.

14:01And what I've done is I've set the camera up here looking at this choke point here in this gap

14:08where I believe they will come through.

14:11Which hopefully should frame it nicely.

14:14And above it I've got a flash looking down.

14:17I've also put the trigger up there so that as the animal passes underneath it it will set it off

14:23at the right moment.

14:24And I've got the other trail cam just on the tree over here looking in the same direction as the

14:31camera.

14:32I'll camouflage the camera a little bit to make sure it's as inconspicuous as possible.

14:40And I'm sure that their sense of smell though is pretty phenomenal.

14:45And they will realize that somebody has been here.

14:47So whether that will put them off coming through I don't know.

14:51Yeah, so I shall leave it a couple of nights.

14:55And come back and hopefully we might have a result.

14:58I'll also set another trail cam further down this way on the other trail.

15:02To see if maybe that's the one they're preferring.

15:05In which case I'll have to reset the camera trap again.

15:08Anyway, I shall catch up with you again in a couple of days time.

15:12And hopefully we'll have some decent results.

15:14Okay, so I'm back at the camera trap for an update.

15:22And where to start?

15:23There's so much has been on my mind with this setup here.

15:28Okay, so it's about just over a week since I set it up at this location for the jackals and

15:35potentially the wolf.

15:38And I came back after a couple of days just to switch out batteries and what have you and make

15:43sure everything was running okay.

15:46And also I recovered the cards from the trail cams to have a look and see what action if any

15:52there was in the area.

15:53Because the only picture I got on the DSLR was this picture now that I'll show you of this lovely

16:00badger.

16:01It's a nice image, nothing spectacular, but it is a nice image.

16:04And that's the only thing that triggered the DSLR.

16:10So I recovered the cards from the trail cams.

16:13And the first thing I noticed was that the canine species that came through.

16:23The jackal and what I believe was in fact a wolf as well.

16:29They seem to be really wary of the trail cams.

16:34And I think it's the little red light beam that it emits that they are sensitive to.

16:41Whereas the other animals that came through, the stone martin, the badger, didn't seem to be at all aware or

16:47disturbed by it.

16:48But the jackals definitely seem to have second thoughts about coming through.

16:55Although one did take a curious interest in the camera that was fairly low down and actually had a bit

17:01of a sniff and a look into the lens.

17:05So I'm not sure if that's been putting them off basically.

17:08So that being the case I did take them down.

17:10Except for one which I put higher up in the tree looking down.

17:15In the hope that they wouldn't see the light as they're coming down the trails, up and down the trails

17:19here.

17:21And put them off.

17:24But yeah, that proved to have no result in terms of the images.

17:29I had another look now at the camera and there's nothing on it at all.

17:33So it hasn't been triggering.

17:37Again, that may be due to the fact that there are so many trails crisscrossing here that they might just

17:42not have come through that particular choke point that I've chosen.

17:47So that being the case, I guess I'm going to break it down and I'm going to try on a

17:51single trail rather than an intersection.

17:55In the hope that I might have better luck.

17:59In terms of the technical side, the thing that I've been noticing as well, mostly from the other setup, is

18:09the delay from the time that the sensor is triggered to when the flashes wake up.

18:19And it is quite long when they're in standby mode at the moment.

18:23And I'm not sure if that's down to the batteries that I'm using, because it is the third year I'm

18:27using these rechargeable batteries, double A's.

18:31So it might be that they're coming to the end of their useful life and I'll need to switch those

18:37out for new ones and maybe that'll cure the problem.

18:40I'm not sure.

18:43But there is a bit of a delay, which means at least for the moment, what I'm going to try

18:47and do is set the trigger further down the track to give it a chance that as the animal trots

18:56through, that the flashes have enough time to wake up and trigger the camera at the right moment.

19:05Rather than the animal comes through, triggers it and it's gone by the time they fire.

19:10So I shall try that and get back to you in the next video, both with the new setup and

19:18hopefully some results.

19:22So I'm quite conscious of the fact that this one is a long one.

19:26So thank you so much.

19:28If you've made it this far into the video, I really do appreciate it.

19:33And I shall set it all up again and come back to you in a new video in a couple

19:39of weeks, two, three weeks, hopefully with some better results.

19:43So I shall catch up with you then.

19:46Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.

19:48Bye for now.

19:50Bye.

20:20Bye.

20:22Bye.

Camera Trap Diaries Pt.1 | NEW LOCATION for my DSLR camera trap | Golden Jackals, Badgers and a Wolf

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