I finally realized I didn't need a trail camera. What I actually needed was LOTS of them!

I had been meaning to buy a digital trail camera for ages. We live in an apartment on the edge of town – and although the garden is small, we are surrounded by a park and allotments. So I suspected that there is nocturnal wildlife that visits after dark.

But it was watching the latest series of Springwatch on the BBC that made me realize that I didn't need a trail camera at all. What I actually needed was lots of trail cameras to do the job properly.

Springwatch, for those not in the know, is an annual miniseries that presents nightly programs showing all the wildlife the hosts can find in a location. They set up cameras in multiple nests and bird boxes so that you can see dozens of avian species hatch and fledge.

This year the team, fronted by Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan, was based at a country estate on the edge of the Peak District National Park in England. But as one of the segments of the program, they ventured to the nearby industrial city of Sheffield.

Here, in a row of terraced houses, the camera teams installed multiple cameras in the gardens of the residents who had been doing their best to attract wildlife for their backyards.

The results were outstanding. A delighted woman was given visible proof that there were foxes, badgers and hedgehogs active behind her home. The BBC crew had recorded some 12,000 clips in the couple of months before the show aired.

Spurred on, I ended up buying two trail cameras in the Amazon Prime Day sale to get the ball rolling in my own little green space (I could always add more later).

I chose a pair of Wolfang WT02, which were discounted to under $40 / £40 apiece. I could have spent more, but the BBC had taught me that they use trail cameras to prove the existence of nightly visitors and to identify the paths they use. I could always enhance my setup if I needed better quality later on.

Mind you, I was impressed with the specs of these camera traps. A 48MP sensor is at the heart, with a built-in color screen for set-up. But what I really liked is that they had built-in solar panels and rechargeable power packs – so I didn't need to fork out for batteries. When summer ends, I have the option to put in a set of AAs to keep it running through darker days.

So, how has my filming gone so far? It has been less than a week since the cameras were installed, but already we too have decent footage of foxes and badgers – showing us the existence of wildlife we had never seen at the bottom of our garden before.

Check out our guide to the best trail cameras – and if you want to watch the footage remotely, also see our rundown of the best cellular trail cameras