Birdhouse Cam Blog

Doing repair to "Twirl-a-squirrel".

2010-03-13T12:40:00.000-05:00

At one time, the “Twirl-a-squirrel” had taken a fall. One of the battery holders had broken at the time, but I did a bandaid fix on it which kept it working.
Now is the time for a permanent fix. You can see it above the green feeder in this video.

This thing is worth the 40 bucks it costs. It is great fun to see a squirrel get on the feeder and go for a ride. The great thing, is you can use any kind of feeder. Once you hang it and turn it on, it calculates the weight of the feeder. When a large critter gets on, it spins for about 10-15 seconds. Long enough for the squirrel to decide it better let go.

Here is an old video of such a ride:

Software for streaming video

2010-03-10T14:16:00.000-05:00

I continue to correspond with the developers of EvoLV streaming software for the Mac. It appears that some bugs have been cleared up. It no longer seems to be hogging memory. That was causing the program to crash, especially when a viewer came on or left.
If you notice any weird things happening on the video, please send me a line to let me know.

New window feeder

2010-02-21T10:18:00.003-05:00

I picked up a new window feeder. I am hoping for a closer view of the birds once this feeder gets visitors.
I got (stole) this idea from seeing Spike's great site at bluebirdlovers.com.
It has turned out that the birds found the new feeder. However, I did remove the other feeder to force them to look for this one. It's worked out well.
I will be monitoring this myself as I will be busy most of next week, so hopefully all will go well.
Also, this weekend, John and I set up the bee hive to get ready for spring. You can see a few pictures at beehivecam.com.

URL Stuff

2010-02-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

I did a little housecleaning on the websites today. If you arrived here via trajnet.com, you may have been confused by arriving at the birdhousecam website. I thought that having a separate site for trajnet was kind of a waste. The bird site and weather site are what gets what little traffic I have. They are all on the same server, so I just pointed trajnet.com to the bird site.
In a couple of months or so, the beehive site should become active. I'm looking forward to that, even if I do end up with some bee stings. Maybe it will be good for my arthritis. Hmmm, pay me a buck and I'll let you get stung too.
Anyway, I hope I explained a thing or two here.

Streaming software

2010-02-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

Since using EvoLV software to stream the video, I've experienced some crashing to the program. I have been in contact with the programers and they have been working to solve the problem.
Yesterday they sent me an updated version to test. The problem was that in some instances, viewers disconnecting would result in either a freeze up or the program ceased. The new version looks like it has taken care of that problem. If it continues to show it is corrected, they will release a new version.

Changed video streaming

2010-01-29T15:15:00.000-05:00

Evological.com released their new streaming software that I've been waiting for. Now I do not have to go through Stickam.com to get great streaming. This uses Quicktime, so you may have to download the driver for QT if you haven't already got it.

Some updates

2010-01-18T10:51:00.004-05:00

This morning, I updated the "technical setup" page. Actually, I also renamed it to "How it works". A few more pictures were added and I hope it makes it clearer how my sites work.

Also, I have a new website coming this Spring. I will be starting beekeeping in a few months. We have been getting the required supplies and have everything to start except the bees. I have them on order and in early Spring will start. The website is already up and you can see it here. If everything works out, I will have a camera on the hive to have a close up view of the activity.

Save the link and visit after winter is over.

Regained Audio

2009-12-31T14:53:00.000-05:00

Today I received a new cable that looks to be more weather resistant. So, audio is back. I'm happy again.
Happy New Year!

2009-12-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

Coming new next Spring, we will be starting our bee keeping. I received some bee keeping equipment on Christmas and am looking forward to trying my hand at that. Perhaps I will place a camera there to add more to the web sites.

2009-12-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

I'm not getting 12 volts to the microphone. The problem is in the extended cable. I have the voltage on the other end. I may have to replace the cable and that won't be until after the new year. Bummer.

2009-12-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

I have added a great outdoor microphone to the bird feeder. This is located at the bottom of the feeder, where the pole meets the feeder. This is a powered mike and is fairly sensitive. This should make viewing more enjoyable. It will however, pick up on some neighborhood noises such as the dog next door and kids bouncing the basketball. All in all, I think it will work out great.

Traj

2009-09-13T14:13:00.002-04:00

I added a squirrel feeder to the mix. Maybe it will keep them away from the bird feeders and with a camera on the squirrel feeder, it will add entertainment.

2009-08-09T11:27:00.001-04:00

The Downy woodpecker has made house #2 it's roosting place. It comes in about 5:00 pm or so and leaves around dawn.

2009-07-30T07:33:00.001-04:00

The woodpecker has been staying in the birdhouse nightly. It arrives by about 7pm and leaves shortly after 5 in the morning.

Meanwhile, a wren makes an occasional visit to check the house out.

2009-07-27T15:31:00.001-04:00

The woodpecker made another visit this afternoon at around 3pm. It did a little more work on the hole and left after a few minutes.

2009-07-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

A woodpecker is currently enlarging the hole to make access easier in birdhouse #2.

2009-06-05T07:00:00.002-04:00

Now that the eggs are gone, I've switched back to monitoring the birdfeeder and the birdhouse at the same time. The wrens are still at the nest, so I don't know what's going to happen there. I wonder if anyone actually is interested in all this. The guestbook is still empty after being there for over a month. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the expense I've put into doing this. I guess if I like watching that's all that matters.

2009-06-04T18:36:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, all seven eggs were gone from the nest. I found one on the ground with a crack in it. I only had the sensor recording no more than every 30 minutes, so I wasn't able to see what went on.

The wren continues to come into the nest and looks to be occupied with adjusting the nesting material a bit.

2009-05-31T10:36:00.004-04:00

This morning I was surprised to see 7 eggs in the nest. Last year, 6 was the maximum. The incubation has been started but we managed to snap a quick picture. A little too quick, since I didn't have the proper focus, but you can see all seven. What you can't see is that the eggs are a light brown color with darker brown speckles.

2009-05-28T07:05:00.001-04:00

This morning the fourth egg arrived. This week has been mostly overcast and cool. Warmer weather is on the way this weekend.

2009-05-26T06:05:00.001-04:00

It appears that there are a couple of eggs in the nest. They blend in with the nest so it's hard to see.

2009-05-19T10:44:00.001-04:00

The wrens have been busy all morning on house #2. Click the streaming video link to watch live.

2009-05-03T11:32:00.001-04:00

As luck would have it, the wrens are building in one of the houses that do not have a camera set up. We'll have to see if anything happens in the others.

2009-04-29T10:44:00.002-04:00

The wren has started to bring in more nesting material into house #2. I have decided to place it online now. If for some reason it stops building, I will switch again.

2009-04-29T09:34:00.003-04:00

This morning, the first twig was placed in bird house #2. Hopefully this will become the new home for the wrens. Once I see that constant building is going on, I will place this camera online.