Remote cameras on our projects: an invaluable way to monitor wildlife on site

We want to do everything we can to ensure that our essential work has the minimum impact, not just on the local human population, but also on the diverse selection of birds, wildlife and insects that live near the sites where our projects are located.

Long before the first spade goes into the soil there is a range of detailed planning and environmental considerations which must be undertaken, one of which is the assessment of the environmental impacts of the works; this considers the species that are located nearby and the additional measures that will need to be followed to protect these.

Our environmental interest doesn’t end once the project is granted consent; we want to ensure we are doing all we can throughout the construction phase to avoid disturbing the plants and wildlife which we already know about, as well as checking for any new arrivals to the area.

To ensure that we are doing all we can, we have a team of inhouse environmental experts, as well as specialist Ecological Clerks of Work (known as ECoWs) who carry out regular checks of the local wildlife, water supplies and soil to ensure that everything remains as it should be.

One of the tools used by the ECoWs is a remote camera, which has a movement sensor to record footage of any birds or animals within its operating radius at any time of the day or night, something which can prove invaluable to the team’s ongoing research. Not only that, but as the camera runs silently and is discreetly positioned to avoid frightening the visitors, some of the footage it captures would otherwise be impossible to get using a traditional camera.

In this short video, Sarah Miller, one of our ECoWs on the Melgarve project, talks us through the set-up of one of her cameras, and we also get the chance to see some amazing footage of a pine marten that was recorded nearby.