January 2009

Hanging Feeder

Someone wrote Jack Hubley, asked what they can do about squirrels. Jack said, if you have a bird feeder, you pretty much are going to have squirrels! He said, you may as well enjoy them! He showed a video of a squirrel, flying around on a stick, that was mounted on a spring. That was a home made squirrel feeder, and looking around on line, I didn't see anything close to it. I did see some interesting feeders, though. I sort of liked the squirrel under glass, and there was a twirl a squirrel. My favorite was a squirrel bungee. You hang an ear of corn on the end, and watch squirrels bounce around on it. I ordered the bungee from Doctors Foster and Smith, along with some of their Big Ol Kobs.

When I went out to clean the birdbath this evening, I saw a downy in the tree. It was chirping away, hopping from branch to branch around the tree. I got the camera, and stood out there for about 5 minutes, waiting for it to go to the suet feeder. When it finally did, it kept the feeder between us so I couldn't get a pic. I did get a shot of it in the tree, and it turned out to be a male. This is the first that I knew for sure that there is a male.

After a couple of days at the new feeder, the Birdcam caught quite a few of my favorite birds. A dove, a goldfinch posing, two titmice, five goldfinch, the male cardinal, and another titmouse. This pic everybody is on the lookout! When I filled this feeder, I figured I would see more chickadees than ever. Turned out, I only got one good pic.

New Birdcam

The Wingscapes people sent me a replacement Birdcam this week, at no cost to me. My camera was over ten months old, so I was very pleased. I only had it out for a couple of days, but I caught the male and female cardinals. I wanted to point the camera at the platform feeder, but the weather has not been cooperative.

I think that I figured out the problem with the webcam, so I moved it outside again. As soon as I had it outside, before I even had a chance to adjust the picture, I saw this wren. Later, it started snowing, so I clicked this pic. I will have to keep an eye on the webcam. If it stops again, I will try insulating the enclosure. I don't think the problem was caused by the cold, but who knows? I didn't have it outside during the extreme cold weather that we had. I recorded a low of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit the other night. I couldn't blame it for not working in that kind of weather!

Webcam Relocated

I moved the web cam to the outdoor enclosure. I think the quality is better, but you can't expect too much out of this camera and lens. Here is a pic that Skip captured from the web cam when it was inside. Compare it to the ones from today. A Goldfinch, a chickadee, the male cardinal, and the ever present HOSP and HOFI. Click here to view the web cam. Use the name nhpa, nhpa1, nhpa2 or nhpa3 and the pass is birder. (The cam is bookmarked on the right hand side of this blog.)

I also enabled the sound on the web cam. I heard some geese flying overhead, so being in the enclosure doesn't block it entirely I did hear a noise from time to time, I believe it may be the enclosure's heater, I'm not sure. Mostly, I don't think the sound adds a whole lot.

The Wingscapes camera is still not 100%, but I think I have a handle on the problem. It seems moisture gets inside when it rains, then it takes a day or so to dry out. I hope to hear from the Wingscapes service people this week. So far they have been pleasant to deal with. I found the receipt, I bought it in March of 2008. I can't believe it has been that long! The camera did not capture anything special lately, except for this oddity! A wren feeding from the bottom?

I plan to move the Wingscapes camera to point at the new hanging platform feeder, as soon as it is 100%.

edit- The web cam stopped working today. I tried a number of things, but it is cold and windy outside, so I brought the camera inside. After a couple of hours, and a number of resets later, it is working again. The heater in the housing is working, so I am still not sure why it froze up. I don't feel real inclined to move it back outside!