Mech1's Bird Box and Feeder Cams

kerry4sam

TopTec wrote: »

^^^^ Plus 1^^^^

My OH says watching this is as good as watching a soap opera!

TT

This is better. This is RealLife

Mech1

adblock plus works wonderfully on my live stream.

Mech1

All feeders removed from my garden tonight except the caged mealworm feeders, hoping to deter through any and all means the magpies / Jackdaws etc from visiting for the next while.

I gotta be the scarecrow for the weekend, shouldnt be too different.

Mech1

Im setting up a dedicated Magpie / Corvid feeding station at the green area end of the street tonight, the locals down there might not be too happy but I need to get them drawn away from here for a while.

fr336

Pat you're some man

Mech1

fr336 wrote: »

Pat you're some man

I have much, much more direct means of dealing with the magpies if it comes to it!

But at the moment I will try this.

fr336

Mech1 wrote: »

I have much, much more direct means of dealing with the magpies if it comes to it!

But at the moment I will try this.

Get the boys from the airport on this

Mech1

OK people the time has come I expect hatching in the next 48 hours if she is following the rule book, keep a close watch and if you have my number phone me if you see any hatching starting, otherwise post it up here.
Thanks.

kerry4sam

Mech1 wrote: »

OK people the time has come I expect hatching in the next 48 hours if she is following the rule book, keep a close watch and if you have my number phone me if you see any hatching starting, otherwise post it up here.
Thanks.

How are you sleeping man? Wake Up! Nothing's happened, but it could like. Approx 48hours ; countdown is on. Put the kettle on

Mech1

kerry4sam wrote: »

How are you sleeping man? Wake Up! Nothing's happened, but it could like. Approx 48hours ; countdown is on. Put the kettle on

Im fine, gotta team here watchin, its gonna be great!:D

Hopefully, nature can be cruel, dont anybody get their hopes up for 8 lovely little new bluetits.

GrumpyMe

Get out the cigars and start the paternity leave...

I'm sure this one was moving!

GrumpyMe

At least 2 chicks!

GrumpyMe

They learn quickly!
"FEED ME"

GrumpyMe

Ménage à trois

Mech1

At least 3 hatched now

Alun

Mech1 wrote: »

At least 3 hatched now

Congratulations!

I'm having some concerns now for the 2 runts of our brood. The others are so big now they're smothering the smaller ones and I'm not sure if they're getting fed.

TopTec

My OH was watching at 1046/7 this morning and thinks there was some hatching going on... pretty quick but Mum was very active afterwards...

TT

TopTec

Yep. At 1054 Mum left nest and there are 4 eggs hatched. She came back within a minute and tried to feed what looked like a mealworm to one of the chicks.

TT

Alun

I think 3 of mine, the ones that hatched earlier than the rest, have already fledged, leaving the other 4 behind which is good news.

Mech1

Hey Grumpy, keep the pics coming, I cant record here atm.
Thanks.

GrumpyMe

Can see only 1 unhatched egg but can't get seven open mouths
Five in a row is best so far

GrumpyMe

6 beaks, one sleepyhead and one late developer

Alun

Unfortunately one of the 4 remaining chicks appears to have died One other is still very small compared to his two siblings and may die too unless he manages to stand up for himself and get his share of the food. Hopefully the other two will fledge and leave him in peace.

Mech1

At this stage I think we can assume that Dad is gone.

Thats not great news as he should be doing his bit collecting food etc for the little ones.

Mum seems to be coping at the moment, but I dont know if the food supply is adequate.

Im doing the best I can here by having a Live Mealworm / puppy jelly dog food / boiled and blended egg yolks supply in a starling proof and roofed cage, almost outside her front door. Mr and mrs Robin and kids are loving it! But mrs Bluetit Only rarely pops in for a quick peck or two.

Alun

Well, of the remaining 3 chicks, the other runt looks to be fading fast The mother keeps poking it when she comes in to feed the other two, but it just looks so underdeveloped compared to them, still has those bulging eyes, whereas the others look almost like proper birds now. It's a bit difficult to watch to be honest, but that's nature I suppose.

EDIT: RIP little runt

Alun

HOLD THE PRESSES! This morning the two older remaining chicks had obviously fledged sometime early this morning, so I expected to see an empty nest, but no, not only was "runty" still there and moving, but there was the other smaller runt moving as well, so all along, they'd just been hidden underneath their larger siblings. I've just seen mum in feeding them and removing a poo sac from one of them as well, so fingers crossed!!

I must say, I'm surprised at the time period over which they're fledging. Last year, apart from the one runt that died quite early on, it was just one big bang fledging, but these lot seem to be taking over a week between them from start to end.

EDIT: Actually now I'm not so sure .. maybe one of the two remaining is actually the smaller of the two older ones, if you get what I mean. Still at least one runt is definitely still alive at this stage. It's all very confusing, maybe I should get them to wear name tags

cubix

Read through most of the thread and wondered if there have been any improvements in camera tech. I am still looking but was thinking of retro fitting a camera to a sparrow terrace. For the money is this camera up to the job, once in was going to add bits to it to get it on line or is there a better all in one soloution for vid/sound

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HI-RES-COLOUR-CAMERA-KIT-FOR-NEST-BOXES-ETC-POWER-SUPPLY-CAMERA-AND-20MT-CABLE-/181747224423?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a50fa8f67

GrumpyMe

Can't see more than two open beaks and the remaining unhatched egg, all morning...

Nest appears very uncluttered!

Mech1

Yes dwindling numbers im afraid. Looks like she has cleared up the ones that didnt make it.

Alun

cubix wrote: »

Read through most of the thread and wondered if there have been any improvements in camera tech. I am still looking but was thinking of retro fitting a camera to a sparrow terrace. For the money is this camera up to the job, once in was going to add bits to it to get it on line or is there a better all in one soloution for vid/sound

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HI-RES-COLOUR-CAMERA-KIT-FOR-NEST-BOXES-ETC-POWER-SUPPLY-CAMERA-AND-20MT-CABLE-/181747224423?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a50fa8f67

By the looks of it that's one of the new(ish) Sony CCD cameras. They do a 420, 540 and 700 line version, and I'd imagine they'd be better than the older CMOS cameras, such as the one I have.

See http://www.handykam.com/Wired-camera-kits/View-all-products.html (scroll down to the end to see the Sony cameras).

Mine has never given anything remotely like a colour image in daytime, and I don't know whether that's down to the camera itself, the available light (I have a frosted glass window in the box's lid) or the cable (long, bad quality cables will cause the colour component of a composite video signal to degrade first).