The picture above was taken when I first set a trail camera at Shanahan's Mountain two weeks ago. Using me for scale it shows a small area beside a well worn Wallaby track. I have discovered the pathway sees a lot of activity with one small patch of particular interest to multiple wallabies located near where the time and date stamp is.

All up over two weeks the camera recorded 180 photos and 10 second videos day and night. A lot were of heads, backs and tails just in frame and some were activation by tree movement or shadows I imagine. I wished I had angled the camera down more towards the track. Still learning...

The video below is a compilation of the best videos (10 seconds each). I left them in the order they were collected so you can follow the dates and times. Three species as far as I can tell... Lots of Red Necked Wallabies, A few Eastern Grey Kangaroos hopping through the background and what I think is a Black Wallaby but I could be wrong. Walleroo? Anyway I think its a bit of a highway...



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Two weeks ago I set a trail camera out at Shanahan's Mountain for a test. My plan was to leave it there a few days on what looked to be well worn animal trails. Unfortunately as Canberra residents know we have been inundated with rain the past few weeks causing the closure of the Territory's mountain roads.

This was no real problem as the Camera is weatherproof and can run for up to six months off 8 AA batteries. The camera was set to take two photos in quick succession followed by 10 seconds of video and then the camera resets after 1 minute. This really was a test as I've never operated one before.

Someone asked me the other day if I was concerned about somebody finding and stealing the camera. I had a bit of a chuckle because I didn't know really after two weeks if I could find it again myself. The unit is small, it fits in my hand so it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Also I'm confident that there are not many walkers who will stray off the walking track to find it by chance anyway.

The results... all up there were over 40 activations but the results showed a few birds and a red necked wallaby who hung around a while during one daytime. There was only one activation at night but I can't see what did it in the video. The clip is included in the video below and you may see something I can't.

I can only assume the weather played a big part in the exercise. With hundreds of millimetres of rain I imagine most self respecting marsupials would be hunkered down for the duration...

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I have been waiting patiently for the ACT government to re-open the rain affected roads in the south of the Territory. Two weeks ago I put a trail-camera (video & photos) out in Namadgi National Park. This was to be a test for the camera and I planned on leaving it there for a few days.

Alas the heavens opened and the mountains closed down. So the camera has been out there for two weeks so far and has been recording 2 photographs when triggered (heat and movement) followed by 10 seconds of video... the camera resets each time after 1 minute. So waiting... waiting...

In the meantime I have received delivery of a new camera to replace the piece of junk I have been using. I decided against a traditional camcorder because I wanted something highly portable. It was inconvenient to always carry a camcorder especially when I'm walking.

Zoom and macro were another want and the Lumix provides both. Apparently the camera has all the wonders that a photographer could want in settings but the thing I found attractive was the 'Intelligent auto' mode which seems to handle all those considerations well enough for me.

I went up the hill today and took some test shots and to get a feel for the camera. Its very different to using a camcorder I found and stabilizing myself will be something I'll need to master. Most of the shake in the following video is user inexperience.

Anyway... I'm interested in seeing what the trailcam captured over the past few weeks. This post is really to say I'll post the results (if any) here as soon as the road opens and I can get out there. The camera will run for three months but lets hope the roads are open before then. I'm already stir crazy...


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It's been raining fairly consistently for a couple of days here in Canberra and the already soaked ACT water catchments are overflowing. Water is topping the Googong Dam and I have heard the new dam wall at the Cotter will be overtaken by the swelling water levels.

I like to go out and take a few pictures of the Murrumbidgee and Molonglo Rivers when they flood but this time around the ACT government is taking no chances with the odd fool out of our 350K population that thinks it would be cool to go out in their kayak. Don't laugh I've seen teenagers jumping from Point Hut crossing in a flood.

Effectively the Mountains are inaccessible. The Boboyan Rd is closed in the south as is Corin and Brindabella Roads to the west. With all the reserves near the river closed (Point Hut, Pine Island, Kambah Pool) I went out today and took a little video of the river down at Tharwa.

Rain, rain go away come again another day...


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