Can anyone recommend a decent CCTV system for watching my pond as I'm getting mugged over by something nicking my fish. I suspect a Heron but i'm not sure.

 

the camera needs to be able to work at night and have a range of around 20' - 30'. Ideally be motion activated and connectible to a wi fi network for video storage.

 

Cheaper than chips would be nice too :)

 

Cheers.

They actually make em bud for similar situations, they call them 'nature cams' - http://www.fotosense.co.uk/hawke-pc5000-prostalk-5mp-nature-camera.html can't comment on their effectiveness as I've never used these, but the spec looks pretty decent for the price, and I have done a fair bit of cctv over the years...

.....don't think they're wifi but they record to SD card (or similar) so u can just pop it into ur pc/laptop whilst necking morning coffee and discover what sort of creature has been lurking with your loaches!

Can anyone recommend a decent CCTV system for watching my pond as I'm getting mugged over by something nicking my fish. I suspect a Heron but i'm not sure.

 

the camera needs to be able to work at night and have a range of around 20' - 30'. Ideally be motion activated and connectible to a wi fi network for video storage.

 

Cheaper than chips would be nice too :)

 

Cheers.

 

how many have gone walkies mate:(

Cheers Steve, I'll check that out :thumbup1:

 

Hard to say how many have gone mate as the goldfish have been breeding in there for a good few years, must be at least 30 or so though as I've only got one old goldfish left. Luckily my 3 carp are too big to be bothered by a Heron.

Fella at back of me had loads of carp nicked by a heron m8! He ended up puttin a discrete, green net-thing over his pond to keep the blighters out....

'Bushnells' mate

 

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CFwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bushnell.com%2Fhunting%2Ftrail-cameras&ei=Lzp0UaCrF62k0AWM04D4Dg&usg=AFQjCNEaObrMr6NRI7bv0w8dvHzG_rhaAw&sig2=WSUnh2fpJG5HY-8EeL6HEw

 

 

I lent several of these to a friend of a friend who was after something for capturing fuel thieves who were robbing fuel from his yard at night.....worked well and not too expensive

Fella at back of me had loads of carp nicked by a heron m8! He ended up puttin a discrete, green net-thing over his pond to keep the blighters out....

 

Yeah, it's that or fishing line across the pond. Trouble is I don't like nets etc covering the pond as they look ugly and fishing line just gets in the way. Going to have to do something like that though :(

 

'Bushnells' mate

 

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CFwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bushnell.com%2Fhunting%2Ftrail-cameras&ei=Lzp0UaCrF62k0AWM04D4Dg&usg=AFQjCNEaObrMr6NRI7bv0w8dvHzG_rhaAw&sig2=WSUnh2fpJG5HY-8EeL6HEw

 

 

I lent several of these to a friend of a friend who was after something for capturing fuel thieves who were robbing fuel from his yard at night.....worked well and not too expensive

 

Did he catch them mate?. That setup looks spot on, can it be connected to remote sentry guns ? lol

Is it true that Herons are "lone birds" and if you get another plastic bird sitting next to pond then the real hunter above wont land...ime sure some punter we have worked at told me this once Dave.

Yeah, it's that or fishing line across the pond. Trouble is I don't like nets etc covering the pond as they look ugly and fishing line just gets in the way. Going to have to do something like that though :(

 

 

 

Did he catch them mate?. That setup looks spot on, can it be connected to remote sentry guns ? lol

 

 

Yep he caught them, it turned out it was one of his employees and his employees wife! He'd rob it from the yard and then head out on his early morning route towards Worcester, stopping off en route at a layby to cross deck the fuel to his mrs car and would then carry on with his route

 

We put a covert camera/mic and DVR into the taillight of the truck and one in his cab......banged to rights and both were subsequently arrested by the Police! I honestly don't know if they were charged though but the Bushnells kit was good enough to give an indication as to who we should be watching

 

As for plugging Bushnells kit into 'remote sentry guns'.....no.....but I know someones kit that can be :ninja:

"Drop the Fish!!"

 

 

Can anyone recommend a decent CCTV system for watching my pond as I'm getting mugged over by something nicking my fish. I suspect a Heron but i'm not sure.

 

the camera needs to be able to work at night and have a range of around 20' - 30'. Ideally be motion activated and connectible to a wi fi network for video storage.

 

Cheaper than chips would be nice too :)

 

Cheers.

 

Swann do loads of them. I can watch my CCTV on my iphone live and it records motion activated. They make lots of models and are not expensive.

iv lost approx. £300 worth of carp and a diamond back sturgeon to a heron im told when thay leave the nest thay go to ponds like ours but keep coming back as its a easy food source I put a fake heron there as thay are terrortorial and poss stay away but that ant true young heron will mix together so iv had to put a net there now

Thanks for all the replies, you've given me plenty to choose from :thumbup1:

 

Heron's seem to have cottoned on to the plastic heron ploy. As you say ted, they just keep coming back until the pond is empty. A net across the pond is probably my only real option to stop it happening. Unless Pez can sort me out with his mate ;) lol. Sorry to hear that you lost your carp and sturgeon mate, that must have been devastating for you. I've got 2 koi one around 10lb and the other around 7lb, a 4lb Mirror, 2 little tench, one 3lb goldfish and a 20+ year old fantail Crucian carp hybrid left.

yea the 2 main ones was a white butterfly carp and the sturgeon as thay where the biggest the carp was all Japanese koi with big heads so thay wood have gone to a large size I haven't seen them yet as thay are at the bottom but this year I want to make the pond bigger 25ftby10by8ft deep with a bridge

yea the 2 main ones was a white butterfly carp and the sturgeon as thay where the biggest the carp was all Japanese koi with big heads so thay wood have gone to a large size I haven't seen them yet as thay are at the bottom but this year I want to make the pond bigger 25ftby10by8ft deep with a bridge

 

That's not a pond mate, that's a bleeding lake! lol Wish I had the garden space for one that size. My koi are both ghosties but one of them is more a blue metallic. Had them since they were an inch long and would be gutted if a heron got them. Luckily I'm pretty sure that what's left is to big for onr to eat. Suppose I should be grateful it's not an otter!

the gardens are big the rear are 120 by 40 but iv got a 10ft lane behind my fence that we own but cant do anything with was for horse and cart in the old days now its for the car to go up to garages nice to have a big garden but a pain to mow the grass

Swann do loads of them. I can watch my CCTV on my iphone live and it records motion activated. They make lots of models and are not expensive.

 

That's a fair shout, Swann/Sentinel etc are all pretty simple to install and most these days have free remote viewing for Iphone and Android. I picked up a pretty cheap 4 channel H264 system from Maplins today for a shade under £200 and installed it for a mate of mine at his salvage yard, and to be fair it's easier to use than the uber expensive Honeywell that I'd lent him as a temporary measure. All in I reckon it took about 20 minutes to install....

 

On a side note if your CCTV is for security purposes I'd steer clear of anything that's off the shelf wireless, purely because from a security aspect anybody can view your videos feeds with a cheap handheld scanner (some cost as little as 99p). Wired is always the better option in my opinion.

 

I also noticed today that Maplins are now offering their own version of the Bushnells trail cameras (again made under the Swann name) and are priced pretty cheaply at £89 for a 5MP version, that would be an option as they are generally run DC (AA's) and because they are re-active they use very little power

 

I did mention your heron issue during conversation and he's suggested putting fishing wire/cat gut across your pond. By all accounts when the heron brushes up against it with his leg they'll flap like **** and fly away!!! Maybe that'd be worth considering before going down the whole net across pond route?

Sounds good mate, I'll check them out.. That's a NO on the remote sentry gun then...:lol:

 

 

Yes, fishing line across the pond does stop them. They hunt by wading so if they cant wade they do one... Problem is that line gets in the way of fishing out dead leaves or cleaning the pump etc..