First Bird Box Movie

Just a quick post today, to test out my first birdbox movie. Go on, press play -

I know, I apologize that although it's called a movie, there isn't actually any movement in it. I was thrilled last week when a pair of robins started building a nest in my camera bird box. And for the last few days Mrs Robin (or possibly Mr and Mrs Robin, since I can't tell them apart) has been in and out of the nest all week adjusting the grass and moss to her satisfaction, and has laid the first egg this morning, since when she appears to have cleared off. Temporarily, I hope. Probably stocking up on worms and peanuts, for the forthcoming brooding scenario, during which she'll get precious little of anything I imagine.

 If the scheme is the same as it is with chickens, and I imagine this applies to all birds, she first makes the nest, but doesn't sit on the eggs until she has laid as many as she considers make up a decent family, so we should see one extra egg a day until she decides to sit. This is obviously so that all the eggs hatch at more or less the same time.

I haven't worked out how to stream live video to the blog yet or indeed if this is even feasible, so this is just a quick test video to see how it looks. There doesn't appear to be any sound either I notice. I will continue to update as things proceed. I hope this is viewable to everyone, please let me know if it isn't.

Hopefully I'll have more action in my later movies, this is after all, my directorial debut.

Bird Box Camera

I'm worried that I'm turning into Bill Oddy.
It's not that I'm growing a beard, or even the somewhat more rounded shape I've assumed over the winter. No, it's the new bird box camera that David gave me for Christmas. It's from Handykam and you get a whole kit in a box, nest box, feeding station, tiny video camera and all the fixings so that you can watch the interior of the nest box on your kitchen tv. (After you've got your technical son in law to fix it up for you of course - thanks Brown!)

 I'm was thinking that maybe we hadn't got it in quite the right place, as there seemed to be no activity for quite a few weeks, but then I noticed this (bear in mind that this is a photo of a tv screen)

Ok so it may not look all that exciting, (it's a bit of moss in case you can't tell) but it indicates that a bird has actually been in the box. Having a look round, possibly thinking of making a home here, and bringing in a bit of moss to try it out. What I really need now is the avian equivalent of Kirsty and Phil to point out to prospective residents all the advantages of living in this luxuriously appointed New Build complete with double glazing and level access to all local amenities (if you can fly) not to mention full cctv security arrangements. How could any bird resist?

All I need to do now is to work out how to get the video linked to the computer so I can have a live video link on the blog. And I'll need to work on my slightly annoying, over enthusiastic wildlife presenter skills too...
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