Nestbox Cameras

The cameras are currently switched off due to lack of activity in the nestbox.

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The ten most recent videos from both the overhead and side-view cameras can be downloaded by clicking here.

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Welcome to The Birdcam Blog
Tuesday, February 09 2010 @ 10:22 AM GMT

Introduction

Welcome to the Birdcam Blog. This website documents the activities in a nesting box near Melton Mowbray in the East Midlands of England.

Since spring 2005 we have been following the activities of nesting Bluetits in a camera-equipped nestbox mounted on our garage wall. That first year our equipment was fairly basic, with just a wireless day/night camera displaying fuzzy pictures on our television. Watching the behaviour of the pair of Bluetits and their chicks was enough, however, to inspire us to improve the setup for the following spring so that we could watch them more closely and clearly. We've been trying to improve the setup ever since, and it turns out we're not alone. There is a whole community of people addicted to building increasingly elaborate Bluetit and Greattit nestboxes (you'll find some of them in the links section of the website). Many of those people have created online diaries to document their birds' activities, including some amazing pictures and video footage, and this website is our contribution to that collective effort. We hope you find it of interest!

Feel free to read and comment on the various diary entries, and visit the other links scattered around the website. You can also view live images from the nesting box by clicking on the Live Nestbox Camera link at the side of the page.

The latest diary entry will always be shown on the front page. For previous entries, please click the links at the side of the page.

The latest videos, updated approximately every fifteen minutes, are always available here or by clicking the link at the side of the page.

Still nothing ...

Tuesday, March 17 2009 @ 04:00 PM GMT

Contributed by: steve

Not a lot of news unfortunately, though after reviewing the video capture logs I found one brief visit by a Bluetit back in early February: Brief Encounter. There has been nothing since then.

I can think of three reasons why the box has been so quiet:

The box location may be less than ideal,
The slightly colder winter compared to recent years has reduced the bird population and delayed the onset of nesting,
Our three cats - new arrivals last summer - are scaring away any potential nestbox residents.

Whatever the reason for the lack of activity, I wish they'd get a move on!

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All Quiet So Far

Sunday, February 08 2009 @ 10:37 AM GMT

Contributed by: steve

It has all been very quiet in the nest box over the last few weeks - not a single visitor of any shape or form has shown any interest. I'm beginning to wonder if the new box position is just not to their liking.

The weather of late has been cold and snowy, much more so than recent winters. We had around 5" of snow a week ago followed by another 2" midweek. While the roads are now clear, the fields still have complete cover, and yet more snow is forecast.

Because of the snow cover, we've seen plenty birds visiting the feeders and table (that is, when our cats are not on the prowl) so they are around. They're just not paying any attention to the nest box.

Still, fingers crossed. Once the weather improves and young birds' minds turn to Other Matters, we may yet see some action.

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Up and running - more or less

Monday, January 05 2009 @ 05:30 PM GMT

Contributed by: steve

A little later than scheduled, the nestbox is up on the wall and pictures are being captured.

Unfortunately there are still some wrinkles in need of ironing out. Specifically, the capture software will require some tweaks to cope with two video capture cards in the same machine (it's mostly an issue of getting audio onto captured video for both overhead and side cameras). So for the time being no live nestbox videos are available. [EDIT] The software has been modified and is working well. Next step will be to enable upload of video to the web server.

Another niggle is the picture quality. The new computer has only two PCI slots, and both are used for the capture cards. This means the cards are adjacent to one another in the computer, and this has resulted in them interfering with each other's picture. Despite my best creative efforts with tinfoil, I've been unable to screen the cards adequately to eliminate the vertical bars evident in the pictures. I still have a few things to try, but this problem may be unsolvable. [EDIT] Cause found, and temporary work-around in place. Proper fix when I get the time!

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Preparations for 2009 season

Monday, December 01 2008 @ 05:15 PM GMT

Contributed by: steve

Preparations are underway for the 2009 nesting season, with a view to having the nest box in position and ready for occupancy by around the middle of December 2008.

Changes for the 2009 season include:

Lighting has been improved by the addition of five more white LEDs
A new location for the nestbox has been decided upon. The original location provided no shade from the morning sun, leading to rather hot conditions for eggs and chicks. It also restricted our children's use of the back garden due to fears they would disturb the birds.
A fast dual-core computer will be dedicated to capturing video and audio this year rather than the somewhat Heath-Robinson setup of 2008 which used two not so fast computers (one of which was the workstation used for my day job!).
There have been some improvements and bug fixes to the lighting control box.
And of course some tweaks to the layout and colour scheme of the website.

Hopefully the next update will be to announce the Switch On for 2009!

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