Spring Watch

Hello everyone,

How wonderful this programme is. It shows us the background & the private lives of wildlife we see in our gardens. I so enjoy seeing the lives of our garden birds and the trials they have to ovecome to make it to survival. It shows me how everything in nature is co dependant, the plants, habitats, birds & mammals.

It inspires me to continue to garden in a way to promote all different types of wildlife.

The peregrine falcon footage is fantastic, whilst these birds won't be nesting in my garden I love to  see them. I will always try and garden with wildlife in mind as small  habitats can give rise to a lot of different life.

I agree Hollie Hock. I especially love to see the birds but I like to encourage all sorts of wild creatures and plants.

Hello FloBear, me too

I've just started out in my garden, been here for 18 months. It's already changed so much.

I guess what this programme confirms to me that all wildlife is dependant on habitat, be it it insects, birds & mammals.

So I will continue  to plant big ( and think small) so that I attract any wildlife that visit my garden

to think small ( and plant big)and who know where that will lead

I now know about the edit function that isn't working

The feature I especially liked last night (Wednesday night) was the feature about the garden of Kate McCray. This lady had wired her garden with 20 video cameras, and she had lots of other ideas too. You can see her garden here, by moving the time-cursor to 20 minutes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01js0s9/Springwatch_2012_Episode_7/

That was absolutely brilliant, IMO.

I was wondering how costly it would be to get one or two little cameras, I'd especially like to be able to see my hedgehogs out and about.

It's a pity they didn't give us a lot more practical details.

I did have a peek on Amazon. There were not that many on offer at Amazon. I think there must be other specialist suppliers.

You seem to be able to get a basic kit for around £27. That includes 30 meters of cable. That camera is not fully waterproof, so would need to go under cover (for example, under the cover of a bird table).

I'm not sure if you also need to run a (low voltage) electric cablle from the house to the camera.

There are also some issues about how you actually connect the camera to your PC. It's not quite as easy as plug and play. That unit is designed to connect to a TV, so you would need an extra gadget to connect to a PC.

A fully waterproof one is about £10 more.

A fully wireless one, which doesn't require any cables, seems to be about £150.

It's obviously too late to set up a nest box camera, for this season, so I didn't actually buy anything this morning. I wonder if there will be anything on offer at Gardeners World Live next week. I'll be looking.

Absolutely loving Springwatch, That garden with the camera's was amazing. It has inspired me to get out and set ours up. They were a Christmas present  and we just haven't had the time to get them rolling apart from a temporary try out which was great. Looking forward to tonights episode.

Gary, thanks for having a look. I'll be interested to hear if You spot anything at GW Live.

If anyone wants a camera for a  nest box, then you can buy nest boxes with an installed camera, and 12 meters of cable, and a USB connection that plugs straight into a PC. On sale at Amazon for £35 + £7 postage.

Another nest box with camera is made by Gardman. It's available at Amazon and possibly at garden centres too. The Gardman is more expensive, £50, and is designed to plug into a TV rather than a PC.

Now is the wrong time of year to put one up. But I'm really tempted to get one for next Spring.