I’ve seen a few references here to Blink cameras fr home security but does anyone know if they are OK for wildlife - just for keeping an eye on who is eating the hedgehog food etc not for actual photography.
If so, I know you can use them without the subscription to save images to the cloud, but if you use a USB to record images do you have to remove it from the camera in order to view the photos/videos?
I can’t help you with Blink cameras but I have some Tapo cameras here primarily for home security and they do tell us about our pets and other wildlife that come into view. The videos are saved to an SD card in the camera and they can be viewed via a phone app and easily downloaded to the phone if required.
They have infrared for night time and optional lighting for colour photography at night. The camera processing picks up people, pets and movement more generally via AI and labels the videos accordingly. You can turn one or more of those off if you want and you can also record 24/7 video if you prefer. Also you can record sound or not and talk back from your phone to a loudspeaker in each camera.
But they need a mains feed within a metre or two. The all battery versions are much less capable.
Yale, security cams,
Download app,
Connect camera, add sd card,
Can watch watch live on the phone/tablet, or go back and see what’s alerted the recording I’ll go find pic,
It’s what I use for my mothers back garden
And no subscription
We have a couple of Eufy cameras which wirelessly connect to a storage hub in the lounge to watch for wildlife - cats, foxes, hedgehogs and the occasional badger!
No cloud, no subscription. We even have solar panels to keep them charged.
The App is a bit “meh”, not very intuitive and the plague of “offers” is somewhat tiring (OTOH, a third camera arrived today to look down the side path. They win! 
).
But it does what we want in terms watching the wildlife.
Yes, Blink cameras work fine on wildlife. My mate is always showing me clips of his local hedgehog feeding!
Well we’ve got video of hedgehogs doing…….other things!
And bl00dy noisy they are!
Thanks for the ideas, I’ll have a look through them before deciding.
Things moved on a bit over the last couple of nights - although we have occasionally seen hedgehogs eating the food over the last couple of months, we now know a local cat is helping out as well. He’s not a stray and is in good condition soo pinching the hedgehog food is a no no.
Has anyone found ways to stop local felines grabbing the hedges meals?
Make a feeding station?
I suspect it will come the that in the end…when I have time to make something.
We have had a hedgehog feeding box in the back garden for a decade, with HH holes in fences etc, and with the CCTV have enjoyed watching them - as well as foxes, cats, rodents, the occasional badger, and a bl00dy great spider! Finest hour was when the camera picked up five HH in one shot!
Our hedgehogs used to be regular visitors (at least one every night), however in the last three-four months we have not seen a single one.
Likewise here. There have been none this year.
We used to get racoons in our backyard. My SO started feeding a particularly bold one dry cat food (I know, I know. It’s a no-no to feed wildlife, but you try telling her. Careful, she punches).
Anyway, they haven’t been around for a long time. Not sure why.
I managed to put together a makeshift one with bricks/old wood that seems to have deterred the cats, and the food is still going/security lights coming on etc. so I suspect there is still one about given the mild weather. We found a youngster sitting on the lawn in broad daylight recently, soaked through after a night of torrential rain, so we took it to a local wildlife shelter who said it was too small to hibernate and decided to keep it safe for the winter but as you say, fewer now than previous years.
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