I put cameras out at my feeders last year in late october and had great success with them. This year I put them up in the same positions but put them up about 1 month ago. I am getting alot of pictures of nothing. The cameras are Moultrie D40 cameras. The cameras are not IR cameras and to my understanding they work off of heat signature and motion. Is it possible the sun is heating the foliage up in front of the camera and the wind causes the movement to set the camera off. I had 300 pics in 2 weeks and only had animals in 80 of them. Camera is set to go off in 5 minute intervals when activated. Not getting any empty pics at night. What do you think? If this is the cause,will it stop when it is not so hot during the day? All I know is that I am going thru batteries like crazy.

The grass is taller this year and triggering on windy days?

Is the tree swaying in the wind or the camera not mounted tight?

Flying doves? (often hard to see in the photos)

I'd bet it's the wind. I've used a stealth cam for four or five years, mounted on a tree about three feet off the ground. I have noticed that on windy days, I will have many, many pictures in a row of nothing but the field. If you have a near/far setting, try setting it closer to near to prevent the background grass from activating the camera. Weed eat all high grass near the camera....

Wanna see cool? Wait until you camera captures snow or even heavy rain at night.

Not many doves there. Camera is solid. The pines have grown fron 4 ft. to about 7 ft. since last year. Weed eated around feeder and all the way between camera and feeder. Trees on other side of feeder are 30-35 ft. from camera.Trees leaning left in some pics then right in the next pics. Same set-up as last year,just earlier and hotter. I hope as it cools off the prob. will stop.

chupa in invisble mode

Hmm. Stupid question but are you sure the camera is mounted tightly? The trees leaning left then right tell me the camera is moving. Another thing I've run across is cows (or other animals) rubbing on the camera strap. Including chewing power cords between camera and external battery.

I've never had a heat issue but I'm in the shade.

definately wind it does it to mine on windy days but mines up high enough to miss the close grass but it will pick up bugs and stuff

trees leaning left and right sounds like your tree the camera is mounted to is swaying in the wind, I have had that before and on a couple setups stil get it. for 2 I jsut cut the trop of the tree the camera is mounted to off above the camera, no more leaning pictures

I get a few on my new Primos 60. I have it set to take 3 photos at a time. When you look at them you can tell the trees and grass are moving. I had it set to normal. It says to set it on low in the winter time. I am going to try that and see what happens.

I hope my camera is not swaying,it is mounted on a 2x10 2 ft. high and buried 1.5 ft. deep. I meant in the pics , you can see the wind blowing the adjacent trees back and forth. No cows,no external power source,just seemed to make sense that if the trees heat up,the wind blows the heated trees,the stupid camera thinks it's a warm body and takes a picture.

most likely it detects the swaying of the trees as movement, which it is, could try a lower settign for sensitivity

My moultries have a very slow trigger, I can walk past it before it will take a pic. So birds cause me a lot of blank pics, well grass blowing too.

Ninja Deer!!

I've got mine on a tree and anytime the wind blows, either the Bluestem sets it off, which I weedeated down this year or the tree moving. Last trip down, I had 853 pics of the tree leaves after the cows licked the camera and turned it sideways!

I believe that direct sunlight can trigger the sensor. I once had a camera that took a few pictures of nothing around the same time each morning and in every picture there was the glare from the sun. I moved it to aim more south than southeast and it stopped having this problem.

Wind and the grass is the culprit

I have experienced the very slow trigger speed also. Could be the grass and trees moving. I once had rope come loose and was hanging off the barrel that was blowing in the wind. Got lot's shots of that.