Nestbox Streaming Video

I have set up another blog which just has the streaming video from the Great Tit Nestbox. If you wish just to have a quick look or follow the box happenings without having to load all the extras which come with this blog then nip over to midmarshnn. I have made it very basic so that there is the minimum amount of loading time. By all means bookmark that blog but don't forget to come back to this one from time to time.

Siskin Surprise

Had just returned from our afternoon walkies and glanced at the feeders. At first glance I thought there was a Greenfinch. Earlier in the week there had been a pair of Greenfinches (male and female) feeding side by side. On closer inspection this was no Greenfinch but a rather handsome Siskin. Possibly only the second time I have seen one visit the garden. The previous visit appears to have been in April 2009. As is often the case when something interesting visits, the Sun hid behind dark clouds so the shots I managed are rather grainy:







At least the surprise visitor made up for this morning's missed opportunity. There were two Robins on the edge of the bird bath. The male was feeding the female, something I have only seen once before. They should be nesting nearby fairly soon.

Not long after that a Grey Squirrel came bounding across the lawn hoping to raid the bird seed feeders. Just as it reached that part of the garden Penny decided to go out. The squirrel was out of view behind the summerhouse so she didn't spot it. Next thing the squirrel was on top of the summerhouse watching Penny for a while before deciding to try for a free meal elsewhere:



Mrs Great Tit continues to incubate her clutch of eight eggs. Hopefully by the middle of next week there will be some chicks hatching and activity in the nest box will become more interesting.

Heath Robinson and the Hacked Microscope

This morning I tried to install my microscope USB camera on the laptop but Windozy 7 threw a tantrum and would have nothing to do with it. Tried searching for an up to date driver - no joy. Humph! What to do - buy a more up to date model? Nah. Too expensive for a decent quality camera. Think - painful but useful exercise. Last week I bought a couple of cheap USB web cameras. I was hoping to use one to monitor the bird bath while I had the laptop in the summer house. That idea was a complete flop as they are not designed to work in bright lighting conditions and the software I have couldn't make a usable compensation. Complete and absolute over exposure.

But - the USB webcams are focusable and I had already experimented to see just how close they could be made to focus. Almost down to zero - the only limit, leaving enough room between the camera and the object to let light in.

So - how to mount one of the cameras solidly to give it a chance of reasonably clear pictures? Simple - hack an old hefty microscope and mount the camera on that. Both cheap cameras worked well but the clincher was the one which had the cable emerging from the centre of its back. That meant it would be easy to route the cable up through the middle of the focussing tube once all the microscope lenses had been removed.

Final solution:

 

 


That was followed by a long session playing with the set up to see how it performed.  As I said, the webcam hates bright light which is ideal for this job as it can be pretty dull right under the lens. Here are some of the items I tried:

 


And here the actual photo grabs made using the free version of  Debut Video Capture Software, warts and all - no cropping or tweaking:

The circular mat


Bee Legs:


Screw:


Flower:


Leylandii:


It was difficult to get full colour shots - too much light could wash out the colour so even in the shade of the summerhouse I sometimes had to add extra shading right next to the microscope. Watch out - I could be finding this set up useful for the Monday Macros.

Instead of £50+ this cost me £4.99 (free p&p) for the webcam from eBay. I was lucky, they are now £5.79 (free p&p) If you are a tinkerer like me and interested the camera I ended up using was

"USB 12.0M Pixels 6 LED Camera Webcam" from ornahouse on eBayUK

Magnification is not high but will do for what I want. It might even be worth trying a bit of focus stacking. BTW the LEDs are of no use for this job - it is too close to the object to illuminate in the right place. I have no connection with the seller, just a happy buyer.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Just about made it. Finally cooling down a bit after two glorious 20C+ days though it was a tad exhausting today when humidity dropped to about 12%.


Just the two guesses last week, both correct so TexWisGirl and Adrian gain the virtual gold star for correctly identifying the cuddly Hedgehog - one of Penny's squeaky toys. To be exact this could more accurately described as a grunty toy by the sound it makes.







On to this weeks 'macro', a small crop from a larger photo
Guess What:


Clue: Not a puppy dog's tail though it might belong with one.

No prizes - just for fun.

Still Nest Building

Mrs GT fetched some more nesting material this morning.
It looks as though there are still 8 eggs in the nest so it seems that laying has now finished. Assuming incubation has started then we should be able to look forward to the first hatching sometime near the 16th May. Better weather should increase the insect population which will be needed for all the food these, and those in other nearby nests, will require.

Incubation Started?

Not sure whether another egg was laid last night. It would appear that Mrs Great Tit has finished laying and has now started incubating her eggs.

Update - it looks as though there are 8 eggs and Mrs GT is still leaving the nest from time to time. If they all hatch (2 out of 7 didn't last year) it is going to be a very busy time feeding all those hungry youngsters.

Seven Eggs

Today it was possible to see there were seven eggs in the Great Tit nestbox:



So far, up to yesterday, the video stream had been accessed 200 times.