Thermal camera, overgrown grass and wildlife

New Home

Hi folks,

I've over two acres of very overgrown grass that needs badly to be cut (it's shoulder-high at this stage, the ground is uneven with shallow ditches and some mounds of soil, and there are both grown fruit trees and saplings growing through the grass). I was thinking of shortening it first with a scythe, and then use a lawnmower to do the rest. However, I'm really concerned about whatever animals might be in there (e.g. fledglings, esp. blackbirds, who won't move unless you're literally over them) and hedgehogs (especially mothers with their babies).

A while ago I saw a video of a drone with a thermal camera that was being used to scan fields (in Germany, I think) to look for fawn who might be hiding in the grass that was about to be cut, so I was thinking that a thermal camera (either a stand alone one, or one to be attached to a mobile phone) might come in handy to look for other wildlife, too. The thing is, I had a look online and there are quite a few of them, but I can't figure out if the ones I've seen are any good, if they're overpriced or not, etc. I was hoping to spend no more than €250, maybe €300 - would I find anything reasonably good at that price? Is this idea worth pursuing, or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

(BTW,I posted this already on the Nature and Birdwatching forum where I got some good advice on the mowing part of my question, but I'm still looking for information on the camera, so I hope someone here can suggest something.)

ED E

Thermal from the sky will be either be useless or $$$$$. Small scale stuff FLIR have products to fit the budget but they're good for finding a hot component on a circuit board not scanning a few acres.

https://www.flir.com/products/flir-one-gen-3/

IMO we need another 6-8yrs before "real" thermals come down into the consumer domain.

muttnjeff

Borrow A few goats for a week to clear it?

New Home

I wish I could. We had three of them and a donkey when I was 6 or 7.

How are we fixed with time machines?

New Home

ED E wrote: »

Thermal from the sky will be either be useless or $$$$$. Small scale stuff FLIR have products to fit the budget but they're good for finding a hot component on a circuit board not scanning a few acres.

https://www.flir.com/products/flir-one-gen-3/

IMO we need another 6-8yrs before "real" thermals come down into the consumer domain.

I was thinking of scanning small areas (three or four square metres at the time) just before mowing them by hand (i.e. not with a tractor or a ride on mower), rather than scanning the whole site in one go.

That Flir was one of the cameras I was looking at, I just wasn't sure about their quality/reliability.

Thanks for the info all the same.

CabanSail

I am no expert but from what I have heard about FLIR is for that size area you could not afford it. Anything you can afford is more a novelty.

ED E

This.

A terrier or something will drive anything out.