Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Gardenature, based in Stutton near Ipswich, was born in 2004 out of the WIG WAM Wildlife Cams company and provides products for watching all forms of wildlife, whether it is in the garden or out in the wild.

Jason Alexander established the business after a sports injury left him housebound. He's from an electronics background and believed there was a gap in the market for people wanting to keep a closer eye on visitors to their garden.

"It's something you do get quite addicted to and you can feel quite emotional about," said Jason, who runs the business with Simon Byland.

Jason and Simon

"We're just seeing how the female and the male birds work together and the relationship that's there. You don't realise how tender they can be and how protective they are of the young."

Gardenature produces a range of equipment such as camouflaged hides and motion detection software, as well as the nest box webcams.

"Basically the systems split down into our starter systems and our professional systems and the things that vary are the size of the imaging chip inside and the resolution.

"The other key features like lense angle, built-in microphone and infrared illumination is the same technology throughout the camera systems."

Jason and Simon say they've had to relocate three times to cope with demand for their products, which are currently being used by local authorities, schools and colleges throughout the UK as well as by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ during both Autumn and Springwatch.

The Gardenature website allows people to see a number of live bird box and wildlife cameras set up in locations across Suffolk, with infra red night vision providing 24 hour viewing in some instances.

Blue tits

"On the website we have a live camera set up so we have live feeds and this one shows a family of blue tits.

"This can be streamed live over the internet and it's just like watching live TV.

"We had one chap who used to come down in the morning to make a cup of tea and would start watching the nest box and he would just forget about the tea.

"His wife would be asking where the tea was and now she's coming down and watching it too and they don't have breakfast for at least another hour because they're so engrossed in what's going on in the nest box."