Eight of these see in the dark.
Infrared to about eighteen metres, no visible light, and considerably more traffic than the daytime suggests. The hedgerow camera is a different animal after midnight, and some of those animals are badgers.
What infrared is, and what it is not.
Eight of the ten cameras have an infrared array and a filter that swings out of the way when the light drops. The picture goes monochrome, the range falls to about eighteen metres, and anything beyond that is simply dark.
The beehive camera has no infrared at all. Bees do not fly at night and lighting a hive entrance, even invisibly, is an imposition on a colony for no return. The brewery floor has none either, because the building has lights.
Infrared is not night vision in the cinematic sense. It is a floodlight you cannot see, and like any floodlight it stops at a distance. On the big field camera, that means the frame at two in the morning is eighteen metres of stubble and then nothing.
- Eight cameras with infrared, to about 18 metres
- The beehive has none, deliberately
- The brewery floor has none, because the room has lights
- No visible light is added anywhere, on any camera
What actually turns up after dark.
| Camera | The regulars | Best hour |
|---|---|---|
| The hedgerow | Badgers, foxes, a great many rabbits, and one very confident muntjac | 23:00–01:00 |
| The big field | Hares in spring, deer crossing at the far edge, owls that are gone before you focus | 22:00–00:00 |
| The yard | A barn owl on the grain store gable, rats we would rather not discuss, moths | Any, after the light trips |
| The lambing shed | Ewes lambing, which is the whole point of the camera | 02:00–05:00 |
| The gate | Nothing. An empty car park and a security light. | None |
The badgers came back, on camera.
Chapter 12 was called Badgering and it was about bovine tuberculosis, which is not a subject that improves with a joke attached to it. The hedgerow camera has quietly documented the same sett ever since.
Four consecutive nights in June 2025 are in the archive, unedited. They are also the single most divisive thing this section has published, because there is no neutral way to point a camera at a badger in a cattle county.
We publish them anyway, with no commentary attached to the footage. The argument belongs in the chapter, not under the clip.
- Chapter
- 12 — Badgering
- In the archive
- Four nights, June 2025
- Commentary
- None, on purpose
The night specification.
Infrared
- Cameras with IR
- 8 of 10
- Range
- About 18 metresBeyond that the frame is dark, not enhanced.
- Visible light added
- NoneOn any camera, anywhere on the estate.
- Without IR
- Beehive, brewery floorOne by choice, one because the room has lights.
- Colour
- Monochrome after the filter swingsThere is no colour night mode. It would be a lie.
Behaviour
- Switch point
- Automatic, on measured lux
- Bitrate at night
- Lower — less detail to encode
- Uptime at night
- Marginally better than daytimeNothing is being driven past the pole.
- Solar cameras in December
- Often on stills overnightDocumented on the offline page.
The cameras worth opening at midnight.
The hedge is the one. It is dull for sixteen hours a day and then it is a wildlife camera.
After dark, in short.
Eight cameras
Infrared, to about eighteen metres.
One with none
The hive. Bees do not fly at night and we do not ask them to.
The regulars
Badgers, foxes, a muntjac, and an alarming number of rabbits.
Still silent
A fox at two in the morning would be excellent audio. There is none.
What the hedge does for the other sixteen hours.
Nothing. Reliably, continuously, and to the apparent satisfaction of a great many people.
