Watching Wildlife with Infra Red

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My latest toy is a pair of binoculars that allow me to "see"in total darkness using infra red light.

I have been using trail cameras for over a year now and these make use of infra red when there is insufficient daylight to use natural light. 

The rubber housing at the bottom off the picture protects a screen through which you view the images. One of the projecting arms at the top holds a lens and the other is the source of the infra red light.
I am still experimenting with this. The binoculars have three strengths of IR light and are supposed to work at a max distance of 400m. I have already learned that they really need a tripod to get a steady image. Here is a shot of some sheep in the field next to me at a distance of about 100m.

The literature is pretty mixed when it comes to deciding whether or not some animals can see the IR lights. There is no doubt in my mind that red foxes can detect the IR lights and will avoid them. However, there is some research that suggests that the IR lights emit a noise when they are created and whether the fox is detecting the noise of the light I can't say. Rabbits seem oblivious to the lights and badgers don't seem to be bothered. I would be most interested to hear of any up to date research on this.

Diary
This larch tree ( a deciduous conifer) in our field is browning up nicely prior to losing it's leaves.

We had a brief glimpse of a stoat in the garden yesterday. Last night's trail cameras revealed one fox and some rabbits. A pair of ring necked pheasant have been foraging in our orchard over the last few days. I saw a little fish in our stream yesterday - a stream that was dry for three months this summer - it is good to see it being recolonised.





 

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