Nest Box Visitors

First - A short while ago I saw two Robins on the lawn. The male will usually attack and drive off any other male Robin intruders in his territory. Those two kept about six feet apart with no signs of aggression. A single Robin has been the first and last visitor to the bird table every day. About a week ago the camera caught two on there at the same time. Slight aggression but both fed at the same time. I hope this is a bonded pair who will nest nearby in the near future.



Now on to the nest box. On Sunday morning a pair of Great Tits came to investigate it. The box was also visited the following day.



Sunday was very overcast so the camera stayed in black and white. Monday was much brighter so a colour clip was captured.

Bird Table Cam - First Results

When checking to see what has been recorded the phone app looks like this:



The orange bars show when movement was detected and recordings made. Not all clips show birds actually on the bird table but here are the best so far:



Dunnock, Robin, Starlings and Blue Tit. As I thought, the seed is well in focus but the birds are just a bit too close so end up in soft focus but still recognisable.

Bird Table Cam

I had been puzzling how to add a camera to the bird table without having to run a cable back to this room. In the end I decided to use a spare Tapo TC60 indoor wifi camera. This is the same camera I used to take the video clips inside the Hedgehog House. It only needs a 12V feed to power it. Fortunately I already had a 12V power cable nearby which used to power a camera in the Hedgehog House years ago.



Here it is once I had mounted it inside the bird table. It should keep dry under the roof.



A quick still capture after I had it all up and running.



The camera has a memory card which records any movement within its view. I can monitor the video feed using an app on my iPhone or ask Alexa to show it. The video clips can be downloaded to the phone and then transferred to the laptop. Time will tell whether the video will be in focus enough as the camera isn't designed for taking such close views of objects.

Twoo is That Visiting?

I have recently changed all my surveillance / security cameras to a wi-fi setup. One camera now points towards the bird table and, as with all of them, is set to record when anything in its sight moves. This morning I checked the recordings from this camera and was surprised to see an owl had landed on top of the bird table.



I have seen a mouse scurrying about in that area in the past so I guess that is what attracted the owl.

Now I can see how much the camera covers I intend to increase the number of bird feeders in that area. The wi-fi cameras are connected to their own base station which is also a recorder. Real time coverage can be watched on a monitor and any movement is automatically recorded. Unfortunately it didn't seem to detect the moment the owl flew away.

Copying the saved file to a USB stick is easy. Unfortunately the version of .avi used is unrecognised by all but one of the Mac video player apps I have. That app doesn't have the facility to convert videos to another format. In the end I have to use Quick Time Player to screen record while Total Video Player played the .avi! Even the Mac version of HandBrake didn't recognise that video format.
P.S. Finally found a new version of HandBrake which does the job.

Magpie at the Bird Table

When there is food about a Magpie will find a way to get at it.



Especially when it is a suet block filled with dried mealworms.
No sound on this video.

Not What I Expected

I spotted only one visitor to the new feeder yesterday.
I had expected it to be a House Sparrow or Blue Tit not ......



...... a Magpie.
It did its best to get its head through the bars but left empty beaked.
As far as I could tell it was the only visitor.
There were no beak marks in any of the jars of peanut butter.
Early days yet. It had only been up for a few hours.

The bird table has had lots of activity, mainly House Sparrows, Starlings and Blue Tits.
An occasional visitor is a Coal Tit.

 

As is usual at this time of year the Coal Tit will take black Sunflower seeds and hide them in the ground or in a crevice in a tree trunk. I have watched them do both in previous Winters.

Determined Magpie

Three sides of the bird table have 2 inch metal mesh.
The fourth side has two wooden bars.



The idea was to keep out the larger birds and give the smaller ones a chance to feed.

A Tale of Two Robins

Or to be exact one with a tail and one without:



More than a bit surprised when I was scanning the video captures to see what had been visiting the bird table. Born like it or the result of an altercation with a cat or another Robin? We will never know.

Don't Forget the Ground Feeders

With mornings like today - foggy, air frost, just about 2C - our feathered friends appreciate some high energy food to start the day. What better than a fat ball or two? Most times we tend to hang these in nets or specially designed containers. That is fine for the smaller birds who can hang on but often near impossible for ground feeders such as Blackbirds. I have seen them keep flying up, trying to peck off the odd piece before they fall down again.

Recently I have been placing a fat ball or two on the bird table so they can all eat their share:



This female Blackbird was certainly appreciating it.

Visitors to the new Bird Table

It didn't take long for the locals to start using the new bird table.
First brave soul was a Robin:


Others included.....
Dunnock:


female Blackbird:


Starling:


Great Tit:


and Chaffinch


I also noticed a Blue Tit but it was too fast for me. There were plenty of House Sparrows but they seemed to prefer the hanging feeder under the bird table.

Title was created with the Mac app Art Text 3 and the FeatheredFlight font.

A New Bird Table

While my new next door neighbours were fetching their various garden furniture I spotted a bird table with a high roof, just ideal for holding a miniature video camera. I asked them where it came from, hoping I could buy one. To my amazement I was given theirs. It had been made for them but they already have several others. Once the weather warmed up a tad I gave it a couple of coats of wood preservative and erected it last weekend:



It was just in time. When I dismantled the old one it just fell into many rotten pieces. The birds are slowly getting used to the new one so I should have some photos of its visitors soon.

When I get fed up standing in the kitchen waiting for birds to arrive I can watch the video feed. The still camera in the kitchen is fitted with a wireless shutter control so when I see a bird arrive I can operate the camera remotely from the living room. That way I might catch the rarer or shy visitors which don't come if they can see activity through the kitchen window.

Friday at the Flicks - Bird Table

Cold all day yesterday so the little birds were grateful when I topped up their feeders several times.
A few birds caught by the tiny video camera in the top of the bird table:

Friday at the Flicks - Bird Table Visitors

Enjoying the remains of a suet cake:



Starling, a pair of Great Tits and a Robin.

It shouldn't be too long before the first youngsters arrive. Recently I have noticed a male Blackbird with a beak full of Sunflower hearts and a female Blackbird collecting spiders from the lawn.

Robin Visits the Bird Table

The Early Blue Tit .....

... catches the berry flavoured suet log - until a Magpie comes along and steals it:



Soundtrack produced using the iPad app Loopesque.

Friday at the Flicks -- Pond Snail + Bird Table

A few days ago I noticed the pump feeding the pond waterfall had slowed to a trickle so it was time to give the pump filter a good scrub out. Once I had done that and switched it back on the flow was back to normal. Glancing at the waterfall I could see two pond snails had taken advantage of the reduced flow to climb up and were feeding on the algae. When I started videoing one it was fighting a losing battle trying to stay in place against the now roaring torrent of water flowing past it:



As mentioned earlier I set up the Toshiba X-Sports camera next to the bird table and grabbed some video clips of a few of the regulars:



What a kerfuffle - YouTube didn't make any thumbnails for the bird table video so off I went a-googling. Eventually I found it is possible to upload ones own photo for a thumbnail but only after the channel has been verified. That is easy, just a question of getting a verification code either by automated voice or text message. Once done I uploaded a photo and all was well.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Bird Table (Toshiba X-Sports)

'Twas a good start to the day, bright though not particularly warm:



I decided to have a session with the Toshiba X-Sports next to the bird table and grab a few still shots as well as movie:



Today, just a few of the still shots, all cropped.

Blackbird:




Starlings:






As before I put my feet up in the Summerhouse and controlled the camera from the iPod Touch while my supervisor did what she does best:



I'll probably put together some of the video clips for Friday at the Flicks.

The Persistent Robin

I set up the Toshiba X-Sports camera right next to the hanging bird table to try recoding some of the visitors. It wasn't a good day for WiFi reception. The picture on the iPod kept freezing. Part of the problem could be to do with the nature of high frequency transmissions and the way I had previously mounted the camera on the tripod. The metal upright was between the camera and the iPod which can cut down the signal strength.

 

I fiddled around for some time and eventually cobbled together several of the supplied mountings with a clamp I already had to come up with a mount which put the camera a short distance away from the metal pole.



This wasn't a complete cure so I'm not sure whether it is a bug in the iOS app as even when the monitored picture had frozen it would still record OK. Maybe the camera goes on some sort of standby though I hadn't notice that the other day.

Anyway here is one of the captures

There she was, a female Blackbird, trying to stuff as many sunflower hearts as she could get in her beak when along comes a Robin who is determined it is its turn on the hanging bird table:




I cut down the quality of the recording by setting the camera to 720P in case the reduced processing time would help with the WiFi problems, it didn't but did save space on the microSD card. The quality looks fine so I will probably stick with that setting.

Hanging Bird Table

It was last Spring or early Summer when I bought a hanging bird table as a flat pack and it finally reached the top of the Round Tuit pile. It can tilt and wave about in the breeze so hopefully will put off the larger birds such as Collared Doves.

First I just put a pile of large suet sticks on to see which birds would show an interest and later added halved apple for the Blackbirds. I set the camera on its tripod in the kitchen and waited. The first takers were sooner than I expected as some new feeders can wait weeks for their first brave visitor.

Among those visiting were:

Starlings:




A Blue Tit:


and a Robin:


Also making a cameo appearance was a grey Squirrel which only gave it a quick look:




So far I am pleased as I can get some fairly clear shots of the birds which feed from it.

Friday at the Flicks - Chaffinch and Robin

Nothing out of the ordinary going on so here are a couple of the regulars:



The Blackbirds are becoming very bold, though not quite tame yet. A few are usually within a few feet of me when I top up the feeders. After our frosty early morning walk I was taking Penny's harness off and a female Blackbird waited on top of the fence right next to us. As we walked round to the back door the Blackbird kept up with me, walking along the top of the fence. I must get round to trying hand feeding it to see what happens.

I haven't seen anything investigate either of the camera nest boxes as yet.