Twitchers, Ornithologists & Feathered Friend Fanciers #5

[AB Editor]

Hello, and welcome to the fifth edition of "Twitchers, Ornithologists & Feathered Friend Fanciers".

As usual the previous issues of this illustrious thread are located below.

Do any of you go on regular bird-watching trips? If so, what do you normally take along with you? I understand that you'd need binoculars and a flask of tea, but are there any other bird-watching "essentials" that you just cannot do without?

Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

Issue 4

[tamborine]

My owl is back stalking again. Same tree & outbuilding. She brought off 3 owlets last year. More fun this year if the magpies keep off.

[redman41]

RSPB Conwy report first Sand Martin of the Year so Spring is in the air !
Siskin are feeding at the Bird Tables ,Wheatear and Chiffchaff on the Trails along with Goosander on the Lagoons, with G C Grebes going through their mating displays.
Contractors are Upgrading the Trails and Landscaping one of the Ponds.
Conwy is in a beautiful location and well worth a visit. 'Twitchers' laden with all sorts of equipment can be a distraction but they live in their own world but not mine fortunately.

[vivandorron]

For the past three days I have been keeping tabs on my 'subscribed threads and only by accident have discovered that that thread is dead and we now have 'sticky No.5.

Thanks Ed for staying in the nest with us birdies.

Incidentally, as an OAP, I can't afford to be a Twitcher....Just genuine binocular bird watchers are Viv and me.

Ron.

[seadogg]

Good on you Ron! Do you think the ed could be persuaded to leave Twitcher out of the title as I doubt any of us are here.

[seadogg]

comma after "are"

[rowanwitch]

I have twitched a couple of times.....prefer the term 'birder'

Seadogg I haven't seen the Ospreys yet but hope to get to Wales during tthe spring with the aim of seeing them as they will be a life list bird for me....

[boxtops]

I looked out of the window this morning, to see a lady blackbird taking a bath in our cats' large red water dish. Brave bird!

[NazNomad]

lol, peeing in the cat's water - the ultimate 'in your face' bird statement.

As long as he's gone when the cats get out there.

[ladybirder]

My cat won't drink from her water dish but drinks from the bird bath.

[boxtops]

Ditto, ladybirder, which is why I keep a large dish outside - water indoors is of no interest at all (except to the frog I found sitting in it one morning!)

[vivandorron]

Hi seadogg....I may have been a titcher in my younger days but I am now past such activities (oops.. freudian... missed out a 'w' in my typing). However, it would please me if the Ed did drop reference to the twatchers. { apologies again about my typing errors.:-) }

Ron.

[seadogg]

Good luck Rowan. It's become so much easier to see them. It was a traipse to Loch Garten. We like to visit the Bassenthwaite site in the Lakes though you can be lucky and see them in passage. Last year I was driving a car full of birders to Bempton RSPB and the were so busy chatting that nobody noticed one on a telegraph post.

[seadogg]

Never give up titching old thing lol. Would be happy with just "birders". Ornithology sounds a bit hard.

[ladybirder]

Can anyone on here recommend a wireless camera to go into my nesting box? Seen loads of ads for them but would rather buy from word of mouth. Probably a bit late for this year as I noticed tits popping in and out of it today but that gives me time to research ready for next year. Any advice welcome.

[vivandorron]

Say no more seadogg, because I don't really want to get into a serious discussion about my being an old softie, so far as birds are concerned. :-)

Ron☺☺☺

[vivandorron]

ladybirder....It might be a bit late to set-up a nesting-box camera for this year.

Nevertheless, I am very interested in the idea of such a device and in view of what NazNomad has posted earlier, I am hoping that he reads this and gives us both the benefit of his advice and further details of his set-up which it seems he can view on TV.

Ron.

[ladybirder]

Let's hope so Ron.
Oh, BTW, I did say it was too late for this year:-)

[NazNomad]

This is going to be almost no help, as it's out of stock (with no known date of return), but I have this one ... http://www.amazon.co....nfrared/dp/B003D17YRA but I'm sure you could source it elsewhere.

The camera can be powered by battery (short lifespan) or with a mains adapter. I opted for the second option and built a rubber-socketed extension lead & the mains adapter into the top of my nest box. The lead is then plugged into the mains to power the camera.

The picture (and audio) is superb - Infra-red night-vision is equally good. You can adjust the focus of the camera to suit the distance being watched. Quite a wide field of vision - I can see the hole in the front of the nest box AND the floor of the nest box. Hopefully, I'll see the whole nest-building, egg-laying, hatching, feeding, fledging process.

The receiver plugs into the TV with standard RCA plugs (yellow for composite video and white for mono audio) and there's a fine-tune knob on top.

I did have it temporarily focused on the bird table, and the quality was great, so the scope of this camera - from kitchen to bird-table or just inside a nestbox - is quite good..

[ladybirder]

Thanks Naz that's just what I want although I shan't have mains access. Pity yours is out of stock. I just googled and got this. Would this be as good as yours?

http://www.paramountz...pycam-nightvision.htm

[NazNomad]

It would, but a quick read sees "Mains powered (both adaptors included)", which suggests you might HAVE to supply mains power to it. It's significantly bigger than my camera (without bracket, mine is about 1'' x 1½''). It seems to be geared at surveillance rather than nestboxes, lots of night-vision LED's on there too. I would think batter power might make that one impractical.

This seems to be the one that's replced my version http://www.amazon.co....qid=1300578735&sr=8-1

The camera looks the same as mine.