game camera to identify backyard visitors (non-human)

The array of outdoor cameras/video recorders at the local Walmart was large and confusing. Price range 40 to 100+ dollars.
I'd appreciate advice on what basic components to get. Just want a unit I can fasten to a tree 3 to 5 feet above ground level to see what nightime critter traffic looks like in area up to 30 feet in front of the camera. Also what components needed to view images.
Thanks all, Carol
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,177
I only own and have used one that works during the day. Others should know more.
 
I only own and have used one that works during the day. Others should know more.

Thanks. I'm hoping for more response since my ignorance re game cameras is total. I've created a brush pile 50 feet behind the house that currenly functions as a critter condo. We've seen entering/exiting: feral cat mama (last year she had kittens in our shed; when I went back to remove them she'd already relocated them); adult woodchuck; juvenile woodchuck.
I created this pile of deadfall/trimmed white pine branches to provide shelter for small mammals to attract the hawk and owl population. We have had redtails nesting here for the last decade: great horned owls regularly nest on another property 4 houses down the street. Not uncommon to find droppred rabbit parts in summer when hawks are fledged. One neighbor found a dismembered leg bone on his roof.
"
Coopers and sharp-shinned hawks go thru during migration, and the jet-speed low-flying big hawk I saw at dusk a few years back may have been a goshawk.

It would be interesting to record what's going on, especially after dark. Now that game cameras are affordable, I'd like to set one or two up.
 

Sue Gremlin

Piney
Sep 13, 2005
1,277
233
61
Vicksburg, Michigan
We have Bushnell Trail cams.

https://www.fishpond.com/Electronic...MIsqajz-z53AIVloxpCh3X_Q_AEAkYFCABEgIYMvD_BwE

They shoot in color during the day and in black/white at night. They have a video with sound and still photo mode, and you can set them for different intervals between stills/video, different quality stills/video, trigger sensitivity and different length video.
Here's an example of what we have captured with them.

it takes a regular SD card. It takes 8 AA batteries. We love it, it solves lots of mysteries for us.
1467344_10204668351044668_8449814322212047562_n.jpg

1487443_10204668358044843_7655524080155450439_n.jpg

1510781_10204614674182780_7835792287032395603_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
We have Bushnell Trail cams.

https://www.fishpond.com/Electronic...MIsqajz-z53AIVloxpCh3X_Q_AEAkYFCABEgIYMvD_BwE

They shoot in color during the day and in black/white at night. They have a video with sound and still photo mode, and you can set them for different intervals between stills/video, different quality stills/video, trigger sensitivity and different length video.
Here's an example of what we have captured with them.

it takes a regular SD card. It takes 8 AA batteries. We love it, it solves lots of mysteries for us.
1467344_10204668351044668_8449814322212047562_n.jpg

1487443_10204668358044843_7655524080155450439_n.jpg

1510781_10204614674182780_7835792287032395603_n.jpg

Thank you! Going shopping! Where were your pictures taken?
 
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