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Post by pete11 on Mar 4, 2023 9:03:14 GMT
Yep - rooster back again last night. Caught it waking & leaving the box early this morning - not sure but it looked a lot like last year's male, but can't be sure.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 5, 2023 7:41:16 GMT
A couple of lengthy double visits to the main tree box yesterday around midday. Lots of entrance hole pecking and general fussing. Stil yet to be convinced of the image quality of the new camera - to my eyes it doesn't seem a patch on the old one.
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Post by Ann70 on Mar 5, 2023 9:01:11 GMT
Good you have a pair visiting your box I would be over the moon if I had the same in my camera box Colours look ok maybe the dark cloud isn’t helping on a brighter day it will look stronger As you can gather I’m not into the technical bit 🫢🤣🤗
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Post by pete11 on Mar 5, 2023 22:22:57 GMT
LOL you might be right about the poor daylight, but I'm still not quite convinced! Wishing you the very best of luck with visits. Still early days yet. Looked out the window this morning and saw my BT pair were having a look in my side-view tree box.... definitely a double visit with the male waiting inside and then quickly swapping with the female.. I'm reminded how the camera in this box does have a really good picture
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Post by Ann70 on Mar 6, 2023 6:58:48 GMT
Hi Pete You can have a laugh on me for not being into the finer detail of camera quality🫢🤣 Good news you have two boxes having visits you have lots to look forward to Lovely pictures 😊 I’ve been watching for any activity but not seen any hoping I will see it today I’m expecting next week to be the start here 🤞🏻☘️
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Post by johnb2023 on Mar 6, 2023 18:33:40 GMT
Great light in that side view box Pete, which is always the most significant perceptual quality thing. However, that date and time look very different and I have noticed a lot of variation online with these cams. Is that via software?
Activity looks very promising!
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Post by pete11 on Mar 6, 2023 20:59:17 GMT
Hi Pete You can have a laugh on me for not being into the finer detail of camera quality🫢🤣 Good news you have two boxes having visits you have lots to look forward to Lovely pictures 😊 I’ve been watching for any activity but not seen any hoping I will see it today I’m expecting next week to be the start here 🤞🏻☘️ Thanks for allowing me the privilege of a chuckle It was something about the way you said it! I'm crossing fingers for everyone at the moment. And I'm busy checking out the neighbouring gardens to make sure there's no competition! I'm so fed up with the cold. Also I realised today that last year my robins had already kicked off nesting in my homemade box in the ivy. This year I've seen them doing the same courting behaviour all around the garden, but my homemade box is looking distinctly empty, so I'm guessing I might not be getting the trail cam out of its box this season. Shame, as the robin pics I got last year were some of my favourites.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 6, 2023 21:04:02 GMT
Great light in that side view box Pete, which is always the most significant perceptual quality thing. However, that date and time look very different and I have noticed a lot of variation online with these cams. Is that via software? Activity looks very promising! My side-view box is from Gardennature.... complete with camera. It's H265, so much higher quality picture. But more bandwidth hungry so not very powerline-friendly. Also cannot for the life of me work out how to record the stream using ffmpeg - if I try the method I know with this camera I get a massive delay between audio and pictures. Gave up last year trying to fix it, since it wasn't being used for nesting. There's no LED lamp in the box, though - that high quality pic is all down to the frosted perspex window in the box roof letting diffused daylight through. I'm very impressed with the picture quality, if nothing else.
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Post by johnb2023 on Mar 8, 2023 11:29:18 GMT
Hi Pete, I believe OBS while less powerful is less CPU hungry and can do all the streaming and recording jobs needed? What made you use that over OBS? I have motion detection recording set up in OBS now so while I am working I have it open all day acting as redundancy - of course, for precisely nothing atm! As I can control settings precisely, testing with clips of the very minimal action I have had (and a few finger tests) it actually works better than the cam motion detection which I don't trust on medium yet and on high it even records light reflecting through the hole from car windows which is really, really annoying. I get dozens of notifications a day when sunny.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 8, 2023 12:48:44 GMT
I've looked at OBS but I don't want to have to keep an application open on a PC all the time - mainly because I'm out a lot. Raspberry pi worked really well in that respect as I ran it headless and just telnetted to it for occasional admin. I'm considering getting an NVR and also going big with the camera next season - hikvision or something like that.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 11, 2023 6:35:52 GMT
Not sure if it was the same BT last night but one spent quite a long time in the main box at dusk, poised at the hole looking out at the world, then another (assume it was the same bird) ended up roosting in the side-view box all nightm
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Post by suep on Mar 11, 2023 8:59:53 GMT
All good signs for the coming season Pete Sue
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Post by pete11 on Mar 11, 2023 20:48:25 GMT
Forgot to post this earlier... little clip of BT rooster waking up and departing for the day, around 0600. Wake up, turn around, flap wings a bit, jump up, peep out, check coast is clear, then off! No messing about.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 12, 2023 13:57:54 GMT
Some very prolonged visits to the main tree box this morning. I was out most of the morning but have just reviewed the motion detection alerts - there are lots of false alarms due to windy weather with clouds blowing over the sun causing lots of changing light/shadows, but in amongst these are three very lengthy periods of a single BT doing some obsessive and intense pecking of the inside of the entrance hole, and of the box floor. At one point I've convinced myself there were some definite wriggles going on - a bit subtle and definitely not the full-on expansive ones I'd hope for, but still noticeable I'd say (being slightly optimistic). See around 28 secs into this clip:
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Post by johnb2023 on Mar 12, 2023 14:16:02 GMT
Great stuff Pete. Look forward to seeing more.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 12, 2023 22:33:37 GMT
Turns out the BTs have been giving the side-view box similar treatment - especially the entrance hole pecking!
One of a handful of visits from earlier today:
This box does sway a fair bit in the wind - hence the look of the BT gaining its 'sea legs' when standing inside!
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Post by pete11 on Mar 13, 2023 22:39:12 GMT
Discovered another little visit from yesterday in the side-view box. Now I think I can tell the male and the female apart, thanks to this one being a definite case of male coming into the box first, hunkering down awaiting the female, then doing a very quick escape as she comes in. I've looked at the markings on the backs of their heads and I think this female is the same one I've seen in the main tree box - she's the one obsessed with pecking the entrance holes!
It does seem as if everything's delayed a bit this year compared to last. This time last year it all went quiet and then material appeared about a week later. This year, they still seem to be doing the visits and I've not noticed much clearly identifiable wriggling going on...although my main tree box camera was out of action for most of February, and I wasn't recording it continuously before that, either (unlike last year).
Here's the little swapsie visit from yesterday afternoon - some faffing about outside before the male comes in around 25s into the clip:
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Post by suep on Mar 14, 2023 10:30:34 GMT
Great clips Pete, I reckon she thinks she’s a woodpecker Sue
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Post by matt on Mar 14, 2023 14:15:48 GMT
Looking promising Pete!
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Post by pete11 on Mar 15, 2023 22:50:27 GMT
SIDE-VIEW BOX ------------------ Three or four more double visits this morning. All of them proper male/female swap-over visits, with some more furious pecking by the female - the floor of this box is starting to look a bit sawdusty as a result!
MAIN TREE BOX ------------------ Hard to tell precisely what's happening in the main tree box at the moment as I'm not recording that camera continuously - just relying on the app + motion alerts. There were definitely some visits though.
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Post by pete11 on Mar 16, 2023 17:40:22 GMT
Nesting wriggle! Lots and lots of activity in the main tree box this morning and early afternoon - furious pecking is I think a sort of combination of spring cleaning and resilience testing! Anyway, I'm delighted with the full-on wriggle - see about 10s into this little clip: Edit: less delighted with the realisation that the audio is out of synch in the video clip. Another problem with this new GF camera
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Post by matt on Mar 17, 2023 11:52:10 GMT
Great stuff Pete! Remind me, did you get a nest last year or would this be first successful year? (if it happens - touch wood - but looking really promising!).
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Post by WildlifePaul on Mar 17, 2023 22:41:54 GMT
I love this time of year the "will they won't they" seems to go on FOREVER though It does look very promising though Pete!
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Post by pete11 on Mar 17, 2023 23:15:35 GMT
Great stuff Pete! Remind me, did you get a nest last year or would this be first successful year? (if it happens - touch wood - but looking really promising!). Yes indeed Matt - I was lucky enough to get a BT nest in the main tree box last year. Also got a Robin nest in a homemade box that I managed to capture some of on a trail cam. No such luck this year with Robins - they've chosen next door's ivy!
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Post by pete11 on Mar 18, 2023 16:36:18 GMT
Action in the side-view box seems to have dwindled to nothing in the last few days. But in the main tree box it's all go - one BT (female I'm assuming) is coming and going for extended periods doing some furious pecking on the floor of the box - it very much looks like she's trying to remove all traces of year-old poop that the BTs cleaned up last season. It could be her that cleaned it up originally! In the past few days there have been three, four, five extended visits per day, with manic pecking and including some wriggles (see last post for one of these). The wriggles seem to be increasing in frequency, too. Another one about 18s into this clip. Camera quality still frustratingly lower than with the old camera.
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