feedmecam.com/blog

Cooper’s Hawk invasion

Kip Draper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:28:35 +0000

I was out of town for 7-days and at least two Coopers hawks have found several prime, low-to-the-ground ambush spots in my absence. I haven’t seen nor heard from my bluebird male since my return on 6/21 and I’m afraid he may have been taken, as that’s atypical for him this time of year. Hopefully, he’s busy with another nest somewhere, but I’ve written him off at this stage.

I haven’t seen the female either, and she’s obviously abandoned her 2nd nest, but I heard/glimpsed at least one juvie today so that’s at least a positive sign.

On an unrelated note, it looks like I will have to discontinue the user-controlled cams due to bandwidth/cost issues ($400/month and my ads cover about $100/month so I must stop the bleeding). Nonetheless, that cam will be the main ustream cam and the frames-per-second smoke the control cam and it doesn’t cost me a dime.

feedmecams down until 6/22/2009

Kip Draper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:10:17 +0000

Well I’m down in Sanibel Island, Florida, and I set the cam computers up with remote control software before leaving. However, something has knocked the power out on all the cams on the pole so they’re dead-in-the-water until I get home. I suspect the squirrels chewed through the power cable again and kicked a breaker. The nightvision cam is the only cam that’s still on because it pulls power elsewhere.

Bummer but I brought my bird book down and have been having fun identifying shorebirds. So far I’ve seen a lot of Magnificent Frigatebirds (90″ wingspan!, longest wingspan in proportion to weight of all birds), Little Egrets, a Great Egret, and Ospreys–one with a fish in talons that was almost as big as the Osprey. ~~We’re headed to Ding Darling State Park, so I’ll have some pictures to post later in the week.~~

UPDATE: We had a lodging/transportation malfunction so didn’t make it to Ding Darling this trip–apologies…long story.

Ding Darling State Park
“The refuge is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. It is world famous for its spectacular migratory bird populations.”

Birds, cams & babies update

Kip Draper — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:45:52 +0000

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, but with as many cams as babies and devoting a lot of time to chat this breeding season, I ran out of time for this hobby & something had to give. So…

Bluebirds:
First egg was laid on April 10th, 2009. Last egg was laid on April 14th, 2009. Hatching began on April 28th. Mother stopped brooding & abandoned feeding duties on May 6th. Father took over. All 5 fledged on May 16th 2009. I was not able to get a great recording but did get one outside the nest & one leaving. Go to the feedmecam live stream and click “ON-DEMAND”, then “Eastern Bluebirds Fledging”.

To simplify things, I will not be doing multiple bird streams in the future, so if they do a 2nd brood, I will be broadcasting it it all here with other cams as multiple windows instead of multiple streams that you have keep track of: www.ustream.tv/channel/feedmecam. So a one-stop-shop from now on for streaming/chat. Bookmark it, pass it along, stop in & chat…

Chickadees:
4 eggs laid. 3 hatched. Only one made it but looks good. UPDATE: the little one fledged at around 2PM on May 23rd. I think I caught the fledge on video & caught some of it outside the box. I will post that in the “ON-DEMAND” area mentioned above soon.

Feedmecam (user-controlled):
The user-controlled feedmecam has been upgraded to an Axis 233D. ~~However, USRelay is still having problems getting the presets to line up but hope to have it fixed & tweaked soon.~~ UPDATE: Yee-ha. I’m declaring the control cam FIXED.

I have started using twitter more to update fledge time, where the cams are (lol) etc., so please feel free to follow me on twitter:
http://twitter.com/kipdraper

First chickadee egg laid April 14th, 2009

Kip Draper — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:48:03 +0000

She dropped one in the house sometime before dawn. Pretty white egg with maroon-colored spots. feedmecam.com/birdhouse/chickadee

First bluebird egg laid April 10th, 2009

Kip Draper — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:04:18 +0000

I awoke this morning to no egg. Electrical storm hit, cams went down, and she snuck an egg in! Stay tuned: she usually lays one-a-day: feedmecam.com/birdhouse

Egg#1 came on April 10th between 7:30 & 8:00AM EDT.

UPDATE: Egg#2 came on April 11th at around 8:45AM EDT.

UPDATE: Egg#3 came on April 12th at around 8:50AM EDT.

UPDATE: Egg#4 came on April 13th sometime in the morning. I was away from my computer for an extended period and, of course, the power went out while I was away so nobody caught it. Sorry!

UPDATE: Egg#5 (should be the last) came on April 14th at around 12:15PM EDT. Full House!

First hummingbird spotted April 9th, 2009

Kip Draper — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:00:56 +0000

Put the feeder out yesterday and there one was. It’s not on a cam at the moment, but I have a hummer nest contraption with a cam so we’ll see how it goes. If she spins a nest, I’ll broadcast. Related posts:Video should be much improvedA few shots of bluebirds feeding in rare Georgia April snowBluebird [...] Related posts:

A few shots of bluebirds feeding in rare Georgia April snow

Kip Draper — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:18:28 +0000

It didn’t last, but old man winter let out his last breath with big beautiful flakes and a dusting this morning. Almost a bluebird feeder roof slide! Male is first 4 shots, then female:

Close-up Webcam photos of Bluebirds eating mealworms - Spring 2009

Kip Draper — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:36:19 +0000

These shots were all taken from the new main feedmecam. It’s a Canon VB-C60 and I’m pretty happy with with the close-ups, though I’m still getting it dialed-in. It’s challanging to get it to perform OK in most situations: still shots, video, user-controlled presets, etc.

Pretty decent nature shots for a webcam on a cloudy day at dusk in my opinion. I took all of these shots from the homepage by clicking the new “Reload New Live Still Image Now” link, then right-click, and “Save As…”. Unlike the other cam which uploaded a new image every ~10-seconds, this cam gives you a brand new image every time you click that link, so you can capture large (640×480px) shots a bit easier. Controlling the cam in another window helps!

Bluebirds have started Spring 2009 nesting activities

Kip Draper — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:50:49 +0000

The bluebird couple has started taking mealworms and nest-building activities (thanks to Stephanie for one of the shots). The female laid the first egg last year on April 18th so it’s getting to be that time again.

It’s not looking like a nest yet, but I’m going to call it. The female is bringing in the material so it appears we have a successful launch. I should have the full color cam running soon, but for now, the nightvision cam is running 24-7 (sometimes it crashes) so you can watch her spin her nest.

Here’s the lovely couple in the house together (Monday morning, 3/30):
Bluebird House Cam

What’s killing my pine siskins?

Kip Draper — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:22:12 +0000

I recently removed an otherwise healthy-looking (but plump) dead pine siskin from the platform feeder. I’ve noticed that sometimes when I approach the feeders, I can almost touch a siskin before it flutters off. They almost appear to be drugged.

Andrea sent in the above photo of another hardly-moving siskin on the platform feeder (only sunflower, un-shelled). This one apparently survived as she saw it hop off of the feeder.

At first, I thought they were gorging themselves—wrong. After some nudging from a few bloggers, I made a trip to my local bird store to find out what was happening: Salmonella! Here is what I gleaned from Sonja (blueridgebirdseed.com) about the situation; I’m going from advanced-novice, mental note-taking here, so I might fumble on a few interpretations:

POTENTIAL CAUSES:
- pine siskins do their thing every 3-years, and this is the year here and they’re having a baby boomer time of it
- there are just too many at certain feeders
- they are extremely sensitive birds; as I recall Sonja said they were perhaps the most sensitive backyard bird
- they eat & poop where they are, which contaminates refuse seed on the ground, platform feeders, seed catchers, etc.

POSSIBLE CURES:
- rake old thistle/other seed off of the ground (I dunno, I have mounds of it; I’m thinking a power washer or a leaf blower might give me less seed per square inch!)
- clean thistle feeders, seed catchers, etc. w/ 10% bleach solution
- remove thistle feeders for a week or so to thin out some of the population