Appeal to save ice age heritage of Scotland’s national tree

Dead Scots pine, or snag, silhouetted against shafts of
sunlight over Gleann na Ciche & Loch Affric

Trees for Life has launched an initiative to save ancient Scots pines across the Highlands of Scotland from becoming the last generation in a lineage of trees dating back to the last ice age.

Through its Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project, the conservation charity wants to help restore 50 areas of remnant and neglected pinewoods – mainly made up of lone, ancient ‘Granny’ pines which are over 200 years old but dying as they stand, with no young trees to succeed them.

The fragments – scattered over a large area – face growing threats from overgrazing by deer, tree diseases and climate change, and are at risk of

Standard versus Wide angle lens comparison in Ltl Acorn wildlife cameras.

Fig 1: 5310 and 5310W

Ltl Acorn first introduced cameras with a wide angle lens option early in 2014 and there are now several models with this option which are identified by the letter W in the model number.

I was an instant convert because much of what I use these cameras for is wildlife close up with a need to see as far to the sides as possible in enclosed woodland settings.

Depending on the type of use you intend there are some basics that need consideration such as the size of the subject and its distance from the camera.

With the wide angle lens the closest focus is down to about 30cm where with the standard lens it is about a metre. Subjects will also be smaller in the frame at a given distance compared to the standard lens.

I created the composite image in figure 2 to provide an easy reference to determine which lens is best  for your

No screen in test mode caused by faulty switch

This post deals with a problem which occasionally occurs with all models of  Ltl Acorn cameras and probably with many other makes of trail camera. It is caused by dirty switch contacts and symptomised by a blank control panel screen when the camera is switched to TEST.

Fig 2: Dismantled OFF/ON/TEST switch

No screen in TEST can also be caused by not inserting an SD card in the SD card slot, or by a faulty SD card but in