The end of an (*almost) era
Hello, dear followers. It looks like Birdsy has finally come to an end, the servers seem to be offline. This means I will have to finally sit down this weekend and find a streaming solution. Please bear with me, this may take a bit (I have tried a bit with foggy head earlier this week and could not get it to work). In the meantime, I have trailcams out in various spots to capture clips and photos but it is of course not the same as a livestream.
I will try Youtube for streaming and the iSpy software for recording but if anybody has a free solution for the latter, please let me hear it.
Let me also again say that the five years with Birdsy were wonderful, and I am extremely sad and disappointed that this wonderful adventure has found such a sad ending. I hope in the future there will be another rendition of Birdsy, and one that conquers the birdwatcher world. Because there is nothing like it and we need it.
As it always seems to happen
when things are fun, there is a downside to them too. And of course during my little trip I caught a cold that strapped me to bed for the entire week. I am thankfully on the mend now but have not been able to do much in the yard because of it. The cameras have still been out, and this was one of the clips I retrieved yesterday. The bathing quandaries of a Hermit Thrush... A lovely fall migration visitor. Too bad that the lens was splashed but thankfully he was aware and jumped right in front 😁 I love these cinnamony cuties! I only see them very rarely. (This was shot with the Ceyomur CY95 trailcam. Because of my cold I have not managed to get the alternative livestream for the pond up but hopefully I can tackle this this weekend.)
After a very few
couple of lovely days in Baltimore for some more live music, I have returned home, ready to tackle the end of summer and beginning of fall. It appears that two of my livecams are now finally down, and I will try to get them running via a different avenue tomorrow. I had the best time seeing my most favorite band as well as Bruce Springsteen and meeting old and new friends for this little getaway but it is also very nice being home again. The kitty cat is very happy, and I have missed the birds and hope that they have remained loyal to my yard. Here’s to a wonderful fall with lovely bird and wildlife surprises!
Yesterday,
I put the photo setup out to see if things are more busy. No fall migrants but some nice ones of the current regulars. After two cold days it is warming up again, and maybe things will liven up at the pond and feeders for a bit. (Chickadee, MoDo, Cardinal, Redbellied Woodpecker)
And a medley from the Ceyomur trailcams. These low activity times are great to sort out cam locations and angles but I still wish I had some more variety. I am almost looking forward to winter 😬
The Orioles
seem to have moved on or have become so scarce that I switched the pole feeder to a seed cam again, and the evenings are feeling fallsy. But some tiny wonders are still happening. Yesterday, this male Hummigbird came through the yard. He visited two feeding stations and could not decide to sit down. They can take a bit to figure out the Allura feeder, and on the Birdfy he tried on the one port that I blocked only. Funnily enough, he was captured by three cameras, the Birdsy, another Ceyomur trailcam (the CY65) that I am trying out and the Birdfy Hum feeder. They all did a good job, and I hope the little man returns today for more footage.
The CY65 trailcam is basically the same as the CY95 but it does not come with a solar panel. It uses 8 instead of 4 AA batteries (I use rechargeable ones and found that you can also use an external solar panel for this camera). This one has the LCD on the front so you can see what you are aiming it at but it also comes with the convenient app. The quality of videos and photos is as great as the CY95. Overall, it is pretty much the same camera but it is cheaper. With a coupon, you can get it now for around 55 bucks here. (For full disclosure, I bought one of their cams myself and they sent me two more to try on the condition that I mention them. They are good cams for not too much, so I am happy to share.)
After three days,
our power has finally been restored yesterday. The noise of the generator is gone, and peace has returned to the backyard. Activity is still very low but things have been happening in the rodent box I made the other week. It looks like a Chipmunk took a liking to it. I am currently streaming this camera on my Birdsy channel and will try to set things up for after Birdsy this weekend. I think I found a solution that enables me to continue using the Birdsy cameras for livestreaming and recording clips. It is a software called iSpy, and I will update on my progress once things start going. In the meantime, enjoy the last remaining days of the ease of using Birdsy. And have a great start into the Labor Day weekend!
While the weather
remains wonderfully summery (I am not ready to wear socks again!), there are signs of fall approaching, here and there. I cherish seeing anything that is not a MoDo or a Blue Jay right now, because they are dominating. But there have been Goldfinches again! They nest the latest and spend the summer away from feeders because nature offers plenty. Well, and I also love a good molty Grack. Happy Saturday!
There is very little
happening right now and I am also a bit busy with work, so here is just a quick little hello from a MoDo and two young Blue Jays. I hope you are having a great week. It has cooled down but is supposed to be warm again. Hopefully there is enough summer left for my tomatoes to completely ripen too.
Mid-August is a weird time
in the yard. Activity is super low, and most of what I see are MoDos, the occasional Chickadee or House Finch or Grackle and Cowbirds. Blue Jays are currently ruling the yard, and they all look pitiful in their various states of molting, which means that they lose older feathers and grow new ones. I love these scraggly babies!
Sad Birdsy news
Those of you who use it as well have gotten the email... After five fun years, Birdsy is shutting down due to lack of funding. Apart from my heartbreak over this happening, this means that my live cams will not be live and recording anymore within a matter of days, and I will have to find solutions. Streaming is possible via YT but recording clips may prove more difficult. Birdsy was so perfect for that, and I hate that the industry did not see it. In order to keep clips coming without screen-recording from a livestream, I need a solution for recording that is not breaking the bank, and tips are welcome. I wish more money would be put towards projects that bring joy. Farewell, Birdsy, I am going to miss you.
It feels like
I have not been posting here as frequently recently. The reason is that I have been doing more video than photos, and they just do not post as easily here as on the social media pages. There is not a lot happening either, things have slowed down, migration has started and the big baby book has dried out. I will post photos again too but right now, with me also working a lot to catch up with the hospital bills, videos take a lot less of my time. If you want to see my posts more often, I recommend to follow me on the social media pages. I am on FB, Insta, Threads, Twitter, Mastodon and Tumblr, and all my profiles are public, so you have choices 🙂 And of course, there is also my Youtube channel that I am somehow trying to keep up to date too. This is where the video below is posted as well.
Friends like the creative and crafty WildlifeKate from the UK have inspired me to add a setup that may work for a rodent recently. I have set it out, and after a couple of days, a Chipmunk came to inspect it. I doubt that it will use it, I was thinking more of a mouse or similar, but we will see what happens. Maybe nobody will use it at all. It was fun to watch, so here you are.
(If you have constructive tips, please feel free to air them, I am always happy to learn and improve.)
Happy #worldcatday!
Our fuzz nugget is strictly indoor, enjoys watching birds and helps me with editing and choosing stuff to post with her calming attitude 😊
It’s rained
cats and dogs today, and there was very little activity, adding to the relative calm that the beginning migration is causing. Today, only those that really need the nutrition to grow new feathers came out. And someone who made the best out of the weather and indulged in the full bowls with no competition 😝
The week began
with lots of work for me and with air so thick, hot and humid you could probably cut it. The garden is happy, the mosquitoes are thriving, and the birds are giving their best wet mug shots, some more sassy than others. Baby MoDo (last photo) is already starting to defend the food bowl from others like a pro.
Happy Friday and a new visitor!
i love it when i check my phone in the morning to see what the cams have caught over night. This morning, the Birdfy camera showed me that it had identified a Redheaded woodpecker. That was a huge surprise because I only ever once had one visiting, and that was a juvenile. I know they are around here but they just never really visit. I may have to get a lotto ticket today… Have a fantastic Friday!
Nevertheless,
I have also continued my quest for baby Cardi photos, and had a nice one the other day by the bird bath. They love going there early and late in the day, so you may see them on the livecams. am still hoping I will get one on my photo setups too but there are tons of critters this year, so we will see if that works. (Click photo for larger view.)
This week started
a little slow, with the weather on the cooler side and less bird traffic. My hope of a hummingbird deluge (even one a day would be just that) has not fulfilled so far. They are making themselves very rare this season. I think the male Orioles started migration already but there are still females and youngsters, and Grosbeaks visiting the jelly. And along with them, the smaller birds are returning. Much to my surprise, there are Chickadees on the jelly every day now. I have been busy with work and had little time for photo editing, so here are just two fun shots from the jelly pole trailcam.
Oh, and the House Wren babies have hatched. They started yesterday and finished today. Six tiny little babies, taken care of by very diligent parents.
A Chipmunk, a Groundhog and a Squirrel
walk into a backyard… And then they eat what’s not protected by a baffle. I’m feeding birds, there are naturally also critters around that benefit from either what’s fallen to the ground or what’s offered when I try to get photos of the Cardi babies. They all look friendly and deserve their own portraits every so often too. Have a happy Saturday!
Bird girls
are always especially interesting to me because of their different looks. It is always fun to try and figure out IDs of new sightings. And it is even more fun when they are as cooperative as these two here, a Cardinal and a Rosebreasted Grosbeak. The Grosbeak female looks like her babies, and you can tell the sexes apart by looking at their armpits. Boys’ are red, girls’ yellow.
It is a busy work week for me,
and I don’t have as much time as I want for bird stuff, but I managed to go through photos yesterday. Traffic has slowed down a bit but it feels like there are still more babies to come (going by bird parents carrying food to different places). The first load of Blue Jay youngsters is feeding mostly by themselves now, They still have that adorable baby bird look though 🙂.
