Cardinal!
last update: 02/28 @ 09:54

We’ve had cardinals at the regular feeder since forever. And they also seem to be happy to clean up seed spilled on the porch.

So I thought they would take to the Bird Buddy.

But I think this is the first time one of our cardinals has popped by for a snack.

Now, I’m waiting for the woodpecker to do the same. I did see it on the bird buddy a while back but the camera didn’t trip and I was too slow to get the live camera working.

Snow and Ice
last update: 01/29 @ 11:57

Last Sunday we got dumped on. I didn’t measure but I esitmate about 6 inches of snow then maybe a quarter inch of sleet, freezing rain and ice.

This was the view when I work up Sunday morning.

That was all snow and not too bad to shovel; though there was a fair amount.

As I was making a second pass shoveling, I felt the sleet falling and hoped that would be short lived.

Fortunately, Sarah decided to stay an extra day with Michelle in Long Island. They stretched out the Michelle’s birthday celebration for another day.

I shoveled and hacked at the ice a bit on Monday and made some progress. But in some spots, the solid ice is just too thick to really make an impact.

I did consider getting a bigger hammer — I thought the firewood splitting maul would work well — but I worried about the concrete and brick underneath the ice.

And I discovered a new injury: I managed to bruise the bottom of my foot by stomping on the shovel so much to break up the ice. It’s not painful but is a bit swollen, which makes walking and standing feel like there is something under my foot.

Sarah made it home Monday evening, reporting the roads were fine pretty much the whole way to the beltway. That’s as far north as the ice got.

We hacked out a parking place for her and then enjoyed beef stew (my other Monday project) in our cozy home.

The forecast says highs in the 20s for the next several days, maybe another round of snow (I really hope no ice) this weekend and then “warming” to the mid 30s next week.

In the meantime, I felt for the birds and refilled our feeder.

Goldies!
last update: 01/19 @ 17:19

The goldfinches have discovered the Bird Buddy.

They just came back to the feeders a couple of days ago and we think we have gang of 7 now.

The woodpecker has also made a couple appearances lately, but so far not at the Bird Buddy when it’s ready to photograph.

And the most fun, interesting, impressive return is one of the Cooper’s Hawks, but it flew off before I could get a decent picture. Before I spooked it, it was on the porch railing (as it has been before).

I’m sure that explains why the bird seed is lasting a little longer this week and why we’ve seen a bit less of the birds.

Checking in…
last update: 11/22 @ 22:41

The Bird Buddy is working fine.

And the Pigeon protection cage is also doing its job.

But there has been a bit of a slow down with the changing seasons, we’re seeing fewer birds (like this house finch).

Which means the seed is lasting longer — not a bad thing.

Bird Buddy Update 2
last update: 08/20 @ 11:38

One cool gift I received for Father’s Day was Bird Buddy.

I, actually, we have been enjoying it over the last few months.

It’s not perfect — I’d like to get it our on primary WiFi network, but it can’t connect to a hidden network; it requires the access point to advertise itself. I have a feature request with them asking if they could update the configuration to allow that.

And the bird feeder itself is not ideal in our urban environment: the pigeons (“rock doves,” according to Bird Buddy’s bird identification) were too interested.

Our Squirrel Buster feeder is not pigeon friendly and so I thought I’d try to move the camera over there.

And I discovered the magnet that holds the camera in the feeder, also triggers a switch to tell the camera that it’s in the feeder. Without the magnet, it knows it’s not the feeder and won’t automatically snap any pictures.

Undaunted, I ordered some magnets from Amazon which seemed like they would do the trick.

And they did shift the status from “out of feeder” to “ready for birds.” But…

One of the benefits of the Bird Buddy is the secret sauce it uses to determine when there is a bird at the feeder. It has to be close enough and with enough movement, but not too much overall movement.

When I had the camera out of the feeder, pointed at our Squirrel Buster, it said it was ready for birds, but never fired the shutter automatically.

I was able to fire up the live stream and manually take a photo, but that defeats much of the automatic benefits.

So I was back to trying to pigeon proof the feeder.

Which, again, led me to Amazon and the DYAUS 2 Packs Plant Protectors. They seemed flexible enough for my needs.

And the early reviews are in: that seems to work a treat.

I had to bend one panel for the roof; and I think (seeing the unhappy pigeon on the feeder) it was wise to add a bit of of a tie down to keep it in place.

But the finches and sparrows seem to have figured out how to get through the grate and to the seed. Well… some of them, at least.

And Panzer continues to enjoy the occasional Bird Buddy video.

Which is, after all, what’s important.

Bird Buddy Update 1
last update: 08/19 @ 15:25

Part one of trying to pigeon proof the bird buddy.

I thought I could use the camera pointed at our regular feeder.

That was a good idea but…

The BB is too “smart” to be used that way for automated bird snaps.

You can see this was from the live stream and not bad.

Enjoying one of my Father’s Day gifts
last update: 06/29 @ 13:52

Gray headed catbird as captured by my new Bird Buddy.

It’s been fun enough to check out that I’m keeping the guest Wifi running as it can’t connect to a hidden WiFi network.

And Panzer tends to get very interested when I show him the videos it takes as well as stills, like this one.

Quick Robert Visit
last update: 06/12 @ 15:35

Robert’s home!!!

With an internship lined up for the summer, in addition to working for the Tempest/Cascades and Lumen Field, we’re getting a Robert visit in while we can. He’s now a senior!!!

Crazy!

We took advantage of the visit for an early father’s day and I’m fortunate to have several cool gifts:

• new music: Colter Wall; I’m liking his Imaginary Appalachia
• Blazin’ Raisen hot sauce (I’ve not tried yet)
• Dilettante’s chocolate (always a tasty treat)
• A Bird Buddy bird feeder with camera (as you can see).

While he was here, Robert had chance to try his hand at a Metro Speedrun:

The goal is to see how fast you can get through every metro station.

His time (see below), just over 8 hours, is very respectable. The ways to get faster, 7:34 is the current record, involve starting at the ideal station (Greenbelt, in Maryland) at the idea time to catch an express transfer bus between the suburban Maryland stations.

If you have questions, he’ll gladly clue you in :)

Pocket joined him for the first leg on her way in to work. And I joined for the first few stations just because :) I can now say I’ve been to the Franconia / Springfield and Huntington stations.

Ask Robert for his Insta Story for more details.

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