More bluebirds

I may be approaching the point of diminishing returns on the bluebirds. But here are some good ones from today. Maybe I'll try some video.

Hour by hour

Here are some more trailcam images from yesterday. I usually don't crop trailcam images, but the blur of activity in the first image was accentuated by cropping it, IMO. As mentioned in the previous post, the new Browning snapped 865 images yesterday. After going through them, 698 had a bird in them, so very few false triggers.

Blur of activity

Traffic jam

Inbound

Levitating

Nesting Material?

Day by day update

I finally got a few shots out of the 1D/PIR today, but the new Browning provided literally hundreds of action shots. The first four are from the 1D, the last is from the Browning. I think the bluebird couple is actually moving in. I saw them with vegetation in their mouths and they went in and out of the nest hole dozens of times. But I've gotten my hopes up before.

The new Browning is superior to the older Brownings in image quality and features. My two Reconyx cameras have better image quality, but my recollection is they're not that sensitive to small birds and I don't get 865 images in one day, like I did today. I think the new Browning is the best I have for this task.

The fourth image shows the distance from the trailcam to the nest box. I moved the the camera a little closer and lowered it for tomorrow.

New Browning

The wind was howling in Montana the past few days. When I brought the 1DII/PIR in Monday night, it was crusted in ice. Whoops, I didn't think that was going to happen, but weatherproofing has been a major selling point of the Canon 1 line since the first EOS-1 film camera was introduced in 1989. I dried it off and it seems fine.

Melted Browning #6 had been pointed at the bird house during the storm, but there was excitement yesterday when a shipment from B&H arrived. The new Browning BTC Patriot FHD superficially resembles the 5-year-old Browning #5, but is wider and the camo is perhaps a bit darker. (It would also resemble #6 if #6 wasn't fire-damaged and wrapped in tape.) It also has two camera lenses, one for day and one for night. The most interesting thing is the listed "effective pixels" of the daytime sensor is 4208x2368. If true, that's about 10Mp, so I set the image size to medium. With all my previous trailcams except the Reconyx, I always set image size to low, about 4Mp, because the manufacturers lie about camera resolution. Even this new camera claims 24Mp resolution, which it achieves through upsizing the 10Mp image. That's not resolution. (Reconyx does not lie about camera resolution, but the image size of the two cameras I have is only 3Mp. They have a newer camera that is 8Mp, but it costs more than 3x as much as the new Browning.)

The new Browning has been designated as #11 (although it says #13 on these images; I forgot how to count) and is now in service watching the bird house. My first impression is the image quality is a lot better than the previous Brownings, but the images are still a bit oversharpened. I wish they would just leave it alone and let the user do sharpening in post processing, but I suppose that's not their target audience.

I see the info strip now has barometric pressure. Something I didn't know I needed.

More bluebirds

I put out the Canon 1DII with the PIR trigger the last few days, but haven't gotten anything yet. I am taking delivery of a new Browning Recon Force Patriot FHD. Trailcampro is the only site I've found that seems to do useful reviews of trailcams. The model I'm getting was introduced in the past couple of weeks so there is no review yet, but Trailcampro's top 10 reviews include eight Brownings and two Reconyx. It seems like there are a lot of new brand names on the market, and I don't know if that means there are more good cameras or more crappy cameras. My suspicion is it's all generic Chinese electronics being sold under different names. The two Browning Strike Force PROs in my possession have been as good as anything else I've had, except the higher-priced made-in-the-USA Reconyx, so hopefully the new model is an upgrade. Anyway, here are the most recent images from melted Browning #6.

Bluebirds are back

The bluebirds have returned to my back yard, and I got a few images on the melted Browning #6. I blotted out the date/time at lower right because I forgot to reset the clock on the trailcam when I changed batteries. Also, it was probably 15 degrees cooler than what is shown on the image. I don't know whether that's from the sun shining on the camera, or whether barely surviving a forest fire screwed up the thermometer.

The images are kind of fuzzy with jpeg artifacts, so I'm dusting off the 1D Mark II and the PIR sensor for deployment today. I already set out the bird bath (which froze overnight) and a meal worm feader, so hopefully like the property and move in this time. Last year they hovered around the house for months, went in and out a few times, but never built a nest inside.

Click on the images to see a larger version.

Winter

We've had giant rabbits and a fox in a back yard this winter. No deer. My theory is the snow is packed too hard for them to get to the grass, so they just stay in town (a mile away). The camera is Browning #5.

Upon further review: When organizing my photos, I noticed the fox has something in its mouth. Probably one of the rodents that has been hiding under the snowdrifts and eating the lawn. Click on the image for a larger version.