Thanks for sharing the info about the trail cam. Seems like you've gotten a lot of info about your birds by using it. I have one just sitting around that I could set up near my fountain.
Zora Dermer
Seattle
Sent from my iPhone
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On Feb 3, 2024, at 8:17 AM, jimbetz at jimbetz.com wrote:
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Hi,
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A little over a year ago I asked on this forum about using a trail cam for my backyard.
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So I bought one, set it up covering my fountain ... and promptly forgot about it. Last
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week - a year later - I retrieved the card in order to process the images. To remind,
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we live in Burlington and do not have a lot of native conifers near our house.
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The first lesson is "Don't Let It Go That Long Again" ... there were almost 11,000
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images on it! (Yes, that is -eleven- thousand roughly a thousand a month.)
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So I started looking at them using the 'dumb' image viewer in Windoze - and quickly
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learned that about 2/3rds of the images can be instantly eliminated due to the trail
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cam either not capturing the bird (flown out of frame before shutter tripped) or the
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shot was 'unsuable' due to lighting (esp. back lit) or other quick reasons. So I
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started going thru them and getting rid of the easy ones ... I'm about half way so
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far. I intend to complete this first pass before I move on to selecting a few and
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seeing how they stand up to "post processing".
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The lessons learned:
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1) The smallest birds (passerines and hummers) are usually images that are too
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small to be of much use as images ... but relatively easy to ID the bird(s).
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2) It is common for the smaller birds to "share" the fountain with each other, no
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matter what species - but as soon as a much larger bird such as a flicker or
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Stellar's shows up they leave. Often just moving to the nearby bush to wait.
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Individual birds can be 'aggressive/territorial' and attempt to chase off
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others - sometimes chasing a competitor results in a 3rd or 4th bird using
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that time to use the fountain ... *G*. This aggressive/territorial behavior
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does not seem to be related to species - it is more of a "this is MY fountain".
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3) Exceptions to #2 is that the smaller birds will happily share the fountain
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with both species of doves (Mourning and Asian Ringed-Neck). And they will
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always share with Towhees and usually with robins or waxwings. Usually.
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In general. (you get my drift).
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4) Northern Flickers visit the fountain much more often than I knew.
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5) There is a Cooper's Hawk (more than one?) that visited every 2 or 3 days
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last summer for an extended time (weeks dragging out into months).
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I even have some shots of it consuming smaller birds while sitting on
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the fountain - but none of it actually making the kill so I don't know
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if it caught the bird on the fountain or brought it there.
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6) There is much more of a "seasonal aspect" than I expected - where a particular
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species is present for weeks/months at a time ... but not at other times
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of the year. I expected some ... just not as much as is obvious.
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7) Birds seen at our fountain are: finches (all varieties), Chickadees, Juncos,
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sparrows, Robins, Towhees, waxwings, flickers, Stellar's, grosbeaks,
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waxwings, nuthatches, and Cooper's.
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8) Birds -not- seen were: Kestrel, gulls, jays other than Stellar's, large
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raptors (eagles, buteos, vultures, owls, etc.), pipits, kingbirds,
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larks. Etc. Since I am only about half way thru the first pass I'm
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still hopeful some of these will be added to the "seen" list. Also
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no crows/ravens or woodpeckers other than flickers.
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9) The camera images are good - but no where near as good as I get from my
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birding camera (Lumix until late May and then R7). Still useful.
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10) I got some images that are welcome surprises - such as a very close up
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(full frame or more) when the birds flew directly at/past the trail cam or
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perched in the bush right in front of it. The fountain is about 4 feet
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from the trail cam - that bush less than 2.
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11) Most of the species use the fountain for bathing and not just for getting a
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drink. Often these images are "fun" because the bird's feathers are often
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in large disarray.
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12) The one thing I hope to change is the shutter speed - at 1/30th it is too
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slow to capture many of the images and the bird is completely blurred.
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But sometimes, even if it is not a hummer, the bird in flight will be
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either frozen or everything-but-the-wings frozen.
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13) I also got images of non-avian visitors ... mostly deer. And some where
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the camera tripped after dark and the image is from infrared emitted by
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the trail cam.
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I consider this to be a very useful tool - and I'll continue the "experiment".
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I might reposition the camera to also capture the hummers at their nectar
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feeder.
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- Jim in Burlington
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