The Orioles Are Back!
Now... About those orioles! Is that a cool bird or what? (We looked at these guys back in June, 2007...) Other stuff about the creatures...
- They're back from their winter in Mexico, and Central/South America... That can be a 2,000+ mile jaunt. Not bad for a little bird.
- The Baltimore's distinctive "peter, peter, peter, peter" song adds to the backyard racket.
- We usually plan on hosting the orioles from early May through late August/early September.
- While they do like oranges and grape jelly, they don't like orange marmalade, (go figure).
- For those of you in the eastern part of N. America with an interest in photography, these birds typically remain quite steady in front of a camera... (If only the hummingbirds were so calm...) And if you're looking for an excuse to buy a decent camera with your tax rebate check, birds like the Spring and Summer Oriole fill the bill rather nicely.
Whist on the issue of photography, the oriole pic above is only 1 of 32 the NovaBird remote camera shot today... If all had been functioning properly, we probably would have gotten 300 or more photos. What was the camera's cantankerous behavior a few weeks ago has turned into a complete "no go" today. I finally got around to putting a multimeter on the charger and the battery... The charger was delivering a robust 6.89 VDC, but the "fully charged" battery was producing a pathetic 0.02 VDC - bluntly, the battery is dead. (The camera itself is fine in that if we briefly connect the charger to it, the NovaBird springs to life.) Time for a new battery... Not a problem. In the mean time, you can roam around the eBirdseed.com photo library or check out our webcam below. (Hint... The "Favorite Bird Photos" portion of the photo library has more than a few images that would make for great wallpaper, and it's all free.)
Gotta run,
See you by the feeders, and I'll bring the oranges if you bring the grape jelly,
CapeCodAlan
eBirdseed.com photo library
Comments
hi, i have orioles too, my feeder is the flat one, with all in one feeding, oranges, jelly, sugar water, except they cant figure out where the sugar water is any suggestions??
Posted by: jenna | May 22, 2008 5:18 PM
I have lost the directions for my Novabird camera and cannot remember how to set it up. Can anyone send me an e-mail with the basics?
{CCA: Hi Joseph, I'll take a look at my "Manuals Drawer", and see if I still have my instructions... If I do, I'll scan and send them to you. But in general, the camera operation works as follows:
i.) Make sure that the battery is charged.
ii.) Position the camera such that the lens is 15" away from the feeder.
iii.) Depending on the memory card being used (I use a 256 MB Kingston "SD/256" card - it's about the size of a postage stamp), you can plan how many photos you can get... I've left my Novabird out all day and taken over 400 photos with no problem.
iv.) It's been a long time since I adjusted the other settings... The toughest to figure out would be the micro switches. I have mine set such that only the left-most is "on". That sets the camera to be ready to shoot every 10 seconds.
See: http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2007/04/a_day_of_testing_etc.html
I'll keep looking for my manual.
Thanks for reading...
CCA
}
Posted by: Joseph Shapiro | May 8, 2009 12:16 PM