eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

First, here's a video we just made of grackles doing their very best trying to re-create Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". This is an unusually long video (apx. 10 minutes) and the camera gets shifted a bit in the process, but IMHO worth the view. Note how even the crows complain because they can't get to their standard buffet tray. Good to see at one point where "Don" the squirrel sends them scattering... I'm pretty sure red-wings are in the mob somewhere, not that that really helps any...

I don't know about you, but that just gives me the creeps. It also makes me worry about birdseed consumption and the grackles scaring away other birds. Not too much to be done I guess. Besides, with that kind of food source, it's only a matter of time before a hawk takes care of the problem for us. And on another front, we have the outdoor streaming cam hanging tough for 35 hours plus...

That's not bad considering that I'm streaming off an old tired AMD machine and that the video server service (CamStreams) often gets hammered... I guess the next hurdle will be to build a water-tight enclosure that will meet the following requirements:

• protect the camera
• be truly weather-proof under all conditions here on stormy Cape Cod
• be optically perfect in normal weather, and acceptable in inclement weather
• not diminish the light reaching the lens any more than necessary

I gotta tell you... Part of me wants to go with one of those water-proof camera bags, and the other part wants to build a shelter from scratch - something that would be more or less open yet still be buttoned up should things turn ugly... Hmmm...

I'll be mulling this stuff over by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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