Does anyone here use thermal imaging for wildlife observation ?

[Fraser]

I am currently testing a thermal camera that has a decent lens fitted for wildlife observation and I would be interested to hear from others who have used thermal imaging in this application.

The thermal camera that I am testing is a USB dongle type with 256x192 physical pixels plus a super resolution mode. During my testing I have noted that using a mobile phone screen in daylight/sunny conditions is anything but easy when trying to see the thermal details. It looks as though some sort of display hood is needed, like those used on professional field monitors for film making. Use at night is far easier as there is the the bright conditions causing screen reflections and low contrast issues.

Observing birds in flight at dusk was pretty simple, but once they took up residence in the tops of trees to sleep, they became very hard to see in the thermal domain. This is just physics at work as the tree foliage effectively masks the birds thermal energy emissions from observation at ground level. A drone flying above the trees would likely get a better view of birds in the top of the tree canopy.

Spotting mammals in open fields is pretty simple at dusk or at night but presented the same issues with viewing the display in bright daylight or sunny conditions. Rabbits, Hares, Foxes and Badgers should be observable provide they are not hidden in long grass. A deer was easily spotted as it is a large animal that stands taller than most grass. Observing ground dwelling small animals can present the challenge of thermal energy blocking by grass and other ground vegetation.

I can now see why professional wildlife film crews tend to set up camp with the thermal camera on a tripod in a ‘hide’ to provide camouflage, weather protection and shade for viewing the LCD displays. I am looking at doing something similar in my testing but sadly such activity can attract unwelcome attention from the curious.

I would love to hear about the experiences of others who have used thermal imaging to observe wildlife, either static or mobile. With powerful lens magnification, scanning the countryside can be quite a challenge if the intended subject is known to be mobile and fast moving !

I attach a picture of a relatively large bird that was sat in a tree at a country estate I just visited. It was dusk and the only bird that decided to sit in a branch that was not masked by tree foliage. The observation distance was approximately 40 metres. From the thermal image, I am guessing that the bird was a Wood Pigeon. The bird could not be seen with the naked eye due to almost no light as this was entering night time light levels.

Looking forward to hearing other people’s stories 

Fraser

[Fraser]

Some thermal images of Rooks in flight as they gather to roost in the tree canopy. The exact observation distance is hard to know as it was dusk and estimating height above ground is always difficult. It was long distance imaging though and would not have been anywhere near as good if I had used one of my wider angle lens thermal cameras.

[Fraser]

In the attached picture, I just caught a large animal, likely a Muntjac deer, as it ran into the forest and undergrowth over 100m away. It was spooked by me appearing on its horizon and I had no time to properly focus the camera. Not a good picture, but the thermal camera easily captured the animals thermal energy against the approximately 23 Celsius ambient background.
I attach a visible light picture taken at the same observation distance with my iPad camera.

[Fraser]

I will be taking some more detailed images of some visitors to our garden to see what advantages a more powerful, narrower field of view lens has in that situation. I will upload the images here.

The camera that I am testing uses a 256x192 12um pixel microbolometer, operating at 50fps. This is illuminated by a 15mm F0.8 lens giving an HFOV of 11.7 degrees.  NETD is stated as being 15mK.

[Fraser]

Has anyone tried thermal imaging bats ? I tried, but the Pipistrelle pair that we have in our garden are so fast in flight that I cannot frame them for capture ! I suspect that I would have more luck if I staked out a known bat roost, but sadly I know of none in my area.

[Fraser]

Wildlife thermography could become a whole new hobby for me  It certainly has its challenges, just as with visible light photography, but such a hobby gets you out of the house and into our glorious countryside. The thermal images might be quite interesting too 

Fraser

[Fraser]

Some thermal images of various birds, that I found on the internet. Note in these images that birds are pretty well insulated by their feathers. This makes them a challenging target for a thermal camera unless the camera and lens combination have been tuned for the task.

Fraser

[gamerpaddy]

most wildlife thing i ever got to see while i was running around with the 1280

[cynfab]

Small bear in my front yard.
A coyote, dog and some sheep.

[Fraser]

I was out hunting for baby Wood mice tonight and found two with ease. They were exploring in the leaf litter in the undergrowth, and one one came out for a photo opportunity

I am really enjoying testing this little camera. It has a great lens and amazing thermal sensitivity.

The Woodmice babies are around 30 to 40mm body length (excluding tail) and we have many visiting our garden from the fields behind our house.

I am hoping to capture images of one of the Hedgehogs that regularly visit us.

Fraser

[Fraser]

And, of course, some pictures of one of our cats whilst he was on night time surveillance duties 

[IwuzBornanerd]

Speaking of surveillance, you might find it interesting, if not concerning, to see what lurks on your premises at night.  You might also not like to see what your cat does to some of them. 

I am not currently running surveillance with thermal, but have had the obsolete Seeks out on the windowsills for months at a time protected by nothing but a wrapping of polyethylene food wrap.

One of my favorite videos is of a pair of rabbits frolicking in the back yard.  I wondered for a long time if what I saw was their mating ritual & then I saw a nature program about rabbits & hares which said that is exactly what it was.  The male will lunge at the female who then leaps straight upward & if she is not interested in that male, she thumps him with her feet as he passes underneath.    I can't tell if she does that in the attached video, but there are a couple opportunities.

As for birds, I'll attach a video of a swarm of European Starlings, set to play at 4x normal speed.

Since video formats are not approved, I have added "-not.zip" to the file names so if one wants to see the video you'll have to download the file & remove that tail in order to watch.

These are in my back yard where there is a privacy fence with the back wall being about 48 feet from the camera.  I think the rabbit one was taken with the non-XR Seek Compact and the starling swarm was with a Seek Scan with an XR lens on it.

I have many others if people are interested...

[kite31]

Not wildlife observation as such, but another use for thermal imaging in relation to it.

A few years ago when we had a small aviary for the last of our birds, we noticed seed was disappearing a little faster than expected. We could see no obvious holes for mice, nor activity. I had a Testo 875i so kept an eye on the aviary with it, with this one of several results, so we were able to find and plug the decaying point of entry and later start eradicating mice (a currawong serendipitously helped).

[Smokey]

There is this great YouTube channel where a guy uses a thermal scope to "observe" rats...   Right before he shoots them. 

[Bill W]

Mice, hedgehogs and bats.  I usually take the thermal outside of setting up for asrtonomy to work out any odd noises.

I have a few bat videos from selling Argus2's, the hedgehogs are on a MiTIC (but I haven't got a download station with me)

[RRtheone]

Pics taken with FLIR OTM266.  The FLIR OTM266 with the 18mm lens works fine for observing.

[eKretz]

I have caught a few at night in my couple acres of wooded yard.

Bat at roost


Raccoon


Treed mama and baby raccoon


Fawn born in my back yard

[Fraser]

One of our local Hedgehogs visited our garden this evening. Thanks to the 15mm lens on the camera I was able to get a useable image from some distance away, and without disturbing our visitor.

Hedgehogs have fur on their underside but none between the spines that cover their back. As a result, they produce a decent amount of thermal energy for a thermal camera to capture. Hedgehogs hibernate in an insulated nest when it gets cold and having seen their thermal signature, I can see why they are vulnerable to very low temperatures.

Sorry about the image size, the App on my phone upscales saved images to this large size. The images are actually more impressive when viewed on the phones screen.

[puxe]

Interesting topic, thanks Fraser.

I was hoping that I could find a longer focal length lens suitable (similar to the magnetic macro lens) for attaching onto my Tooltop T7 256x192 usb camera.....for wildlife spotting.   So far I haven't found anything that looks useable and what is available costs more than the camera.

I haven't actually tried wildlife spotting with the standard lens, but assumed it would have a short range.  I'm using the Thermal Master App (V1.1.7 as mentioned on another thread) which works well with the X3 'enhancement'.

[Fraser]

Puxe,

The problem we face with thermal cameras that often have a wide field of view lens is that we either cannot get close enough to the animal for a decent image without disturbing it or we have to image from a distance and you basically waste most of the cameras available pixels as the animal is so small in the scene. Your Tooltop T7 uses a standard Tiny1 core with 3.2mm lens. That provides a 50 degree HFOV that is fine for many tasks. Sadly, unless the wildlife is a large animal, you tend to get a low detail hot spot image when trying to view an animal at a distance.

This is why I was keen to test the Thermal Master T2 Max. The T2 Max is equipped with the sort of large lens normally found on thermal spotting scopes and it makes distance observation of wildlife possible whilst also obtaining more detailed images of wildlife at closer range. I have been able to image wildlife that would have been scared away if I had moved closer to it. The T2 Max lens is 15mm F0.8 and produces impressive distance imagery  The lens is almost 5 times more powerful than that fitted to the T7 and many other Tiny1 core based cameras. Instead of going cheap and using a higher F number lens, Thermal Master elected to use a large lens with an F number lower than the nominal F1.0 found on many cameras. A good decision. The 15mm F0.8 lens physical size remains manageable and it has a very comfortable feel in the fingers whilst focussing.

I am very impressed with the performance of the T2 Max and testing is ongoing. I am using it on my Motorola G62 Android phone and Apple iPad and it works well on both. I like the large size screen when using the iPad but you need a case with a hand strap on the rear for comfortable use.

Regarding telephoto supplemental lenses for thermal cameras, sadly these are not common or cheap. The construction of a supplemental telephoto lens is much like a refractor telescope and more complex than the simple single element close-up lens setup. In my collection ai have x2 and x3 supplemental telephoto lenses from FLIR, FLUKE, Inframetrics and Torry Pines. They are all expensive and even older lenses are now rare or expensive due to their Germanium scrap value. All of my supplemental telephoto lenses would dwarf your T7 as they are designed for much larger cameras. It is possible to build your own supplemental telephoto lens but it requires experimentation and sourcing some suitable ZnSe lenses (more common than Germanium) Sadly with the available FL lenses, the assembly becomes quite long and unwieldy. Most supplemental telephoto adapters are limited to just X2 or X3 magnification. This is why buying a thermal camera with a powerful long range lens remains the better option for those wishing to observe wildlife at a distance or with more detail at closer ranges.

Fraser

[Fraser]

For anyone wishing to make their own supplemental telephoto lens adapter for their camera, there is a very good article on the topic to be found here…..

https://www.instructables.com/Diy-Thermal-Camera-Telephoto-Converter/

Fraser

[puxe]

Thanks Fraser for the info.

I looked at the TM X2 (I think) which looks similar to the unit you are now using. There were some youtube videos too, which showed the longer range wildlife performance compared to the T7 & similar cameras.

In the end, the prices were a bit too high (£300-400 IIRC) for yet another occasional use gadget for me.   The T7 is about £100 and does much of what I require (some electronics / house heat leaks etc)

[5U4GB]

Observing birds in flight at dusk was pretty simple, but once they took up residence in the tops of trees to sleep, they became very hard to see in the thermal domain.

I've found pretty much the opposite, they're pretty easy to spot even in heavy foliage.  That is, you can't spot an obvious image of a bird but you can easily spot the location of the heat source.  It was an annoying amount of false-positive sources when trying to track down foliage-destroying pests in order to get rid of said pests.

[5U4GB]

Speaking of surveillance, you might find it interesting, if not concerning, to see what lurks on your premises at night.  You might also not like to see what your cat does to some of them. 

Another useful thing to do with them, and the secondary reason I got mine, is to find heat leaks in your house. In my case I spotted the location where the builders hadn't bothered to replace the ceiling insulation when they did some work up there, and more generally places where insulation could be better placed to prevent heat escape.

[Fraser]

The local birds visiting our garden bird feeders.