I hope everybody
had a wonderful Christmas time. On Christmas Eve, I put out some milk and (homemade) cookies to lure Santa here, and added some kitty food in case he brings his favorite opossums along. It seems like this plan has worked well 😂
Critter cam!
I worked some more in the garden today, and when I do that, the birds are more shy because of my presence. So I used the opportunity to put a camera on the ground. These are not perfect photos but I found them hilarious. The adult Groundhog is a momma of four, and the second photo is one of them. So far they are staying in their condo under our shed away from the house but I hope they all move out and seek their own stomping grounds. They are super stinking adorable but as adults can be a destructive force. I had to reinforce the veggie garden fence because momma had found her way in.
Nestbox news: Bird talk
The other day while playing around on TikTok, I found out that there is an auto-caption feature that looks through a video to detect speech. You can set it to whatever language you like and it will scan the video to see if it picks anything up. Now since a couple of days ago I saw it interpreting BB talk into a phrase, I am trying with every BB video I have to see what comes up. And this morning, there was a whole cute little dialogue going on. It is so cute. As somebody who is a professional subtitler, I find this highly interesting but also amusing. AI subtitling may have improved a lot recently, but if you are being serious about it, a human subtitler, interpreter and translator is the way to go.
The hot phase of the summer
is here, the air gets stickier by the hour, and because of all the rain we have been getting, there are a lot of bugs around. I am happy for the birds but I am hesitant to spend a lot of time outside because I get eaten alive by the mosquitoes. The natural spray did not cut it this year, I have to get DEETed, but even that only helps for short periods. So I am happy that the cameras do all the work without me having to be present. Because there are some fun things happening. Like this Grack with a tonsure molt. There is one like that every year, and it always makes me giggle.
Video: The squirrels
have taken over this ground feeder,
and they are taking the most hilarious videos.
Video: Catbird meowing at the pool
I love this guy, and I am so happy he is sticking around. I was working on my computer when I heard the first meow, and I actually thought there was a real cat haha He seemed quite surprised that the young Starling left.
Video: Baltimore Oriole
This Oriole showed me what it thought about taking feeders away for cleaning.
Video: Robins at the bird bath
Robins are natural born bathers, and will use a bird bath frequently. The Birdsy camera captured this hilarious scene involving three excited Robins and a Starling that was not tolerated at bathing time.
