Trail Cam Collective: Transforming a Garden for Wildlife
Gardens can be an incredible safe haven for local wildlife in urban and suburban settings, providing food, water and shelter. By implementing simple, small changes in your garden, you can create positive impact for you and your elusive neighbours.
In this first blog post from the Trail Cam Collective, we speak to Samantha Hayes, who used a trail camera to monitor her garden. The goal was to simply capture evidence of wildlife using the garden during the night, but the results have been far more impactful than anyone expected.
The Trail Cam Collective is NatureSpy’s trail camera loan scheme, making wildlife monitoring more accessible for those seeking to explore and understand their local wildlife, helping people connect with nature and their green spaces.
Samantha's natural clay pond, completed in 2025.
The Expectation
With a new pond in place, Samantha applied to the camera trap loan scheme, hoping to simply capture some evidence of wildlife, with a particular focus on badgers and foxes… and the anticipation was high.
“I was so excited about setting up the camera in different places within the garden and checking the footage each morning to see which animals had visited during the night. It made me super excited to get up in the mornings!”.
One of the best things about using trail cameras is gaining an insight into an otherwise unknown world right on your doorstep, as Samantha soon found out.
The Reality
“I wasn't aware of how many different animals were drinking and bathing in the pond during the night and early mornings - 3 different badgers, 3 foxes, many birds and cats, and even a squirrel!”.
When asked about her favourite highlight, Samantha said “It was actually the very first footage at the top of our garden, with three very active foxes chirping and barking at each other - we had never seen all three together before, and it was lovely seeing them interact so closely! It was the first time we'd seen foxes communicating with each other that way, so we found it fascinating.”.
The Impact
The cameras allowed Samantha to discover where wildlife uses her garden most and in turn, inspired changes to improve the area for badgers, foxes and squirrels, as well as for herself, as the emotional benefits also emerged.
“Quietly observing the wildlife in our garden makes me feel so blissfully content. It's such a relaxing, peaceful place to be, when there are birds singing, bees buzzing, beautiful butterflies flying overhead, and the awe of seeing new species appearing every day.”
When asked about any changes she might make to her garden alongside digging a second pond, Samantha said “I've decided to leave many more areas of the garden 'untamed', so that the wildlife have plenty of safe places to shelter and hide from predators.
I'm also being very careful not to block any access routes, such as under fences and through hedges, to ensure that the foxes and badgers can safely keep their preferred routes to/from neighbouring gardens.”
It doesn’t take much to allow nature space to thrive in gardens. If you don’t have a pond, there are plenty of small things you can do to help. “Everyone who is fortunate enough to have a garden can make a huge difference to benefitting their local wildlife populations, just with a few small changes. There is nothing more nurturing for the soul than providing a natural habitat for wildlife to flourish in.”.
A big thank you to Samantha Hayes for sharing her experience and wildlife clips with us, we look forward to seeing what these changes bring! If you are interested in getting involved, find out all you need to know about the Trail Cam Collective here.
