Browning Trail Camera and Nocturnal Visitors

However the feature that clinched the deal is the small playback screen.  I wasn’t planning on bringing my laptop on safari, so how could I review the images to determine if the camera was working, if I had set it up correctly (too high or too low on a tree) and delete images to save space? The 2” color LCD screen plays back images and videos and displays info like battery life and number of images/videos taken.  In the morning I could review all the images and delete those I didn’t want (quite a few of these).  The screen shows a live image of what the camera sees and can help in getting the correct position.  The problem I found is if you’re looking straight at the camera your face fills the display screen and you can’t see where the camera is pointing.  Looking at the screen from an angle seemed to solve this problem though the sunlight reflecting off the display screen made it difficult to determine the area the camera was seeing.

On our first night in the bush we were camped near Xakanaxa in the Moremi Game Reserve.  The site was beautiful, set among trees near a large waterhole.  A perfect place to try out the camera.  The first night I set it up near the camp kitchen in hopes of capturing a hyena sniffing around for food.  The next morning I had over 200 images!  But as I scrolled through them all were of the camp staff prepping breakfast.  First lesson learned.  I had set the camera to the Rapid fire mode so every time someone moved it recorded 4 images.

Hyena close-up, Kwai

From Kwai we drove to our next site: Zweizwei Pans in Chobe National Park.  This site was spectacular.  Very remote and set in a grassy area with large trees next to a waterhole with a resident hippo.  On the far side of the waterhole a herd of elephants came down to drink.  Classic Africa.  That night I set up the camera near the edge of the waterhole.  The tree I used was covered in hippo dung so I thought I would get some great shots of the hippo as it left the water to graze (hoping I wouldn’t discover the camera covered in hippo dung the next morning).  Lots of wildlife here!  Yet the next morning there was nothing on the camera.

Zweizwei Pans