• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Hugh's Wild West (1 Viewer)

No disappointments with this episode but it was the technical focus that grabbed my interest.

Steven Powells' kit made me envious, I want a system like his for my very own....or maybe a mobile kit similar to the one used on the buzzards although that one confused me a little.

Hugh gave a short narrative on the buzzard CCTV kit, Steven narrated his own.

The buzzard kit used a battery operated CCTV camera the make or model was unidentified. After mounting the camera it was connected to a Lilliput monitor by a cable, cable can be seen at the back of the camera hanging down the tree. The cable can also be seen behind the monitor when viewing at the base of the tree.

Much later in the epi Hugh takes out a lap top and views the nest on the screen. I'm a little confused about this, no cables are seen connected to the laptop. It must be a WiFi connection but I really don't know. What happen to the cable run at the tree? There was no mention of a built-in WiFi transmitter in the camera?

As for Steven's otter kit....a great doc on the river otter family by the way....he pretty much laid out his system for the viewers.
  • CCTV cameras make or model is not identified
  • Whiskey tuned antenna which I would have loved to know more about such as; the transmitter, tuned frequency, power supply
  • Motion alarm sensor make or model unknown
  • Desk top station shows shots of camera body with Sony strap, unknown lens, switching units, sensor alarm (?), DMTech monitor, battery charging station
  • Pole lights unknown make with unknown battery supply
  • Cree headlamp
No mention about the house receiver.

Overall it was a very educational episode which gets me thinkin'.....

It would be nice to have a sub-forum on CCTV kits/systems, camera trap kits/system....something along the lines of "Show me you CCTVs or Camera Trap Kits". A place to brag on your kit with photos of different stations, the layout; desk top, cameras, transmitters/antennas, and so on. Explaining how you put it together and how it's workin' for ya.

I don't know, I don't have a CCTV set up so I wouldn't be posting but with all the BF members there's got be more action than the sub-forum showing off watches on some hairy man's arm.....I could be wrong, who knows?

I do know BF has the "Trail Cams-Camera Traps" sub-form but this area is for questions, problems, discussions.....I'm thinking more along the lines of a sub-forum dedicated to showing off a complete system with photos and descriptions. Something to assist others, a walk-through to building their own.

Anyway, "Watches in the Field" would be a great place to drop that sub..??

Back to HWW, sorry to hear about the Mink's impact on the Water Vole, makes me sad.
 
Last edited:
I've watched up to episode five so far. Impressed by the woman who has been studying dippers for 40 years - I'm sure she has an amazing collection of data.

Also impressed by the unravelling of the lifecycle of the large blue butterfly. Its caterpillar fools red ants into bringing it into the nest from where it devours the ant grubs. But it only fools one out of five species of ant all of the time. The others sometimes see through the deception and kill the caterpillar instead. But what determines which ant is present is the temperature of the ground. Incredible work to recognise what was happening and it underlines how hard it is to conserve such a specialist insect.
 
<snip>
It would be nice to have a sub-forum on CCTV kits/systems, camera trap kits/system....something along the lines of "Show me you CCTVs or Camera Trap Kits". A place to brag on your kit with photos of different stations, the layout; desk top, cameras, transmitters/antennas, and so on. Explaining how you put it together and how it's workin' for ya.

I don't know, I don't have a CCTV set up so I wouldn't be posting but with all the BF members there's got be more action than the sub-forum showing off watches on some hairy man's arm.....I could be wrong, who knows?

I do know BF has the "Trail Cams-Camera Traps" sub-form but this area is for questions, problems, discussions.....I'm thinking more along the lines of a sub-forum dedicated to showing off a complete system with photos and descriptions. Something to assist others, a walk-through to building their own.

Hi Bill

CCTV now combined with the Trail Cams subforum

http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=624
 
I really enjoyed that and thought that it was one of the most enjoyable natural history programmes which I have watched. I hope they do another series. Well done Hugh.

Ron
 
Yes it was really really good. I've still to watch the final two episodes, but I agree with you that it's one of the best that's been on TV for a long time. It was amazing that he got to present 12 hour long episodes - very rare in this day and age. I really liked that it showed local experts and enthusiasts, and it covered a wide range of habitats, ecosystems and species. He came across as genuinely interested in what he was learning about and had a very personable manner.

I'd definitely support more programmes like this. Because it was about an area that he knew well, he was able to bring his own local knowledge to the programme and I suspect if we did have more like it it might be good to have other local presenters too. However, I'm sure he could do a good series from other areas too.
 
Agree it was a superb series + was really impressed with Hugh's presentation. The only thing that grated was the long identical introduction on every programme.
 
should make more of these wildlife programs with Hugh,and get rid of spring watch,its had its day in my opinion.
 
Re. Hugh's Wild West.

How refreshing to have a BBC TV wildlife series which treated the viewers as adults and presented in a style which others would do well to emulate.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top