BirdBox 2021: tits, robins & wrens

Its been a strange season, and no mistake.

The cold weather, early on, seems to have delayed everything.

And we have seen at least 4 things we have never witnessed before.

BirdBox2020: it didn't end well

It was shaping up nicely for an interesting bird box season.

Several birds tried our camera nest box for size and some even laid a few eggs.

But with only a week to go before the chicks were due to fledge, it all went tits up!

BirdBox 2020: April...it's been a funny old month!

There has been a lot of traffic in our maple tree bird box during April.

 

We've seen trespassers, thieves, and changes of ownership.

So guess who our current tenants are?

BirdBox2020: here we go again

Listen! ...I can hear the birds!

The Covid Crisis has resulted in an unexpected benefit...

...a dramatic drop in traffic noise.

Newts, hedgehogs, bats & BirdBox2019

I wasn't really prepared for this spring.

There was too much going on inside the house for me to be able to keep an eye on the garden.

Fortunately, time waits for no man...

BirdBox 2019: early interest (...plus hog & bats update)

Seeing small garden birds showing an interest in our bird boxes is a reminder that the nest box season will soon be upon us.

There is a long run in, a couple of months of building, egg laying and chick rearing, and then its all over for another year.

So make sure you are ready by putting up any new boxes now!

BirdBox 2018: time-lapse video

For 2018 I thought I'd try to gather periodic snapshots from my Maple tree bird box.

The idea is to make a series of time-lapse videos.

I'm hoping to capture nest building and maybe show the chicks growing from tiny naked blobs to fully feathered birds.

Nature with Tech 2018

Although we have had some very bright, sunny days during February, it has also often been very cold.

And it looks like we have some seriously cold days to come during early March.

However, there are still some signs that our garden birds are thinking about nest building...

BirdBox2016: 2nd Pi Power box deployed

We fixed our second Pi-powered bird box to the Canadian Maple in our garden yesterday afternoon.

In the first few hours this morning, bathed in glorious winter sunshine, we had plenty of interest from a blue tit or two.

So this is a very promising start to the 2016 nest box season.

BirdBox 2016: fitting the UV LEDs

Although initial testing with a bunch of UV LEDs did not look too promising, I've decided to push ahead and fit them to a bird box anyway.

They were very cheap, and I'd like to say they were easy to retro-fit into last seasons bird box.

But a wiring error resulted in a blown Darlington driver, so it took up more of my Sunday afternoon than I'd expected.

BirdBoxPi2015: using a Picaxe controller

Looking back at my last 2 posts, I started thinking about how I might incorporate a Picaxe into the BirdBoxPi2015 controller.

Although the 8 pin Picaxe is a little more expensive than the 555 timer currently used, it does offer more flexibility.

My RaspberryPi bird box system runs from a 12Volt, 12Ahour "mobility" lead-acid battery.

BirdBoxPiCam2014: Chicks in the nest

Things are really kicking off now, as chicks have started to hatch in the great tit nest box.

Dad brings in most of the food, as mum still has the job of keeping chicks and remaining eggs warm.

This is generally seen as the final, and most interesting stage of the process.