Any bird watchers out there?
-
![]()
One thing when out and about - Wildlife take a longish time to add new threats to their instinctive sense of danger. they currently do not associate Cars and other enclosed vehicles with humans, although they do associate humans with danger, This means that if you drive to a suitable site and park up switch off the engine etc and wait a short time the wildlife will go about their normal habits and so you have your own personal Hide, (or Blind in USA),
One other fact is that wildlife does not have a sense of "How Many" so when in a public hide you are best to walk in in a group, (no need to know the others) and allow some of the group to leave before you, as the Wildlife will see humans enter and leave so feel that the hide is safe again and behave naturally.
One other tip is if you have a window or outbuilding that you regularly use for photography with a long lens, make a false lens - Plastic "pop" Bottles of a suitable size painted the same colour and the size of the lens are ideal), that is always present at the place you use when you go to actually photograph from the spot you replace the false lens with your actual lens - wildlife is unaware of your camera as they have got used to the fake being there
-
-
![]()
Nigel, To quote "Arte" Johnson from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In; Interesting, very interesting.
Our feeder is roughly 10' from our living room window and I can attest to the fact that wildlife will become tolerant to familiar, passive activity around them. The birds will scatter when I approach to fill the feeder but by the time I'm back in the house they're back and our motion on our side of the window doesn't faze them, even Candy our cat watching on the sill wouldn't bother them.
This also applies to other wildlife with some exceptions.
My neighbor until he passed had a deer feeder and he could get one or two to eat out of his hand the others stayed near the feeder watching warily. I have rabbits that will allow me to come within feet of them. Some of the local birds let me get close, but I have one chipmunk that scurries off every time he sees me. 
I need to work on my window shots as I have a screen that causes a polarizing effect on any of the shots that I take, it's a pain to take off then put back on but if I want good pix I'll have to make the effort, eh?
Makes me wonder if that screen has an affect on the birds vision...
-
Took these the other day, not the best quality. Male and female Mallard ducks.
-
-
-
I think I may have a go at building one of these? https://mynaturewatch.net/daylight-c...eid=725da4e621
I already have most of it on hand. My camera module is one of the originals, less mega pixels, should still work though. I only have a 2000 MAH power pack but it should be good enough for test runs.
-
As soon as I saw it I thought; 
'that's a natural for Pi', then further down it fits! I should've known.
If the software is compatible with the original module's hardware, and the lower pixel count would require less power you should get some results...won't know unless you try.
-
![]()
The camera is a custom Pi foundation camera made to connect to the Pi's CSI connector. Raspbian as far as I know is compatible with both the new and old. So if this disk image is based on Raspbian it "should" work. I've been meaning to buy one of the new camera modules just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Always seems to be something I need and or want more. I just modified one of my official Pi foundation case covers to make my old camera fit. Just had to make the hole where the camera lens pokes through bigger. Now I just released I don't have a Pi Zero without a GPIO header soldered on. 
Its a one or the other but not both deal. The camera and cover won't fit with the header in there. May have to go back to plan A and find another way to mount my camera. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I was going to put this in the window aimed at my bird feeder and skip the battery powered part. I do have one Pi not in use with a female header on the back side, that should do for now. Until I order a new Pi Zero with camera. Might even just order the octocam kit. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/o...-w-project-kit
-
That octocam looks to be the best option, no muss, no fuss just hook it up.
-
-
-
Just flashing my image to my SD card. Then comes the some assembly required part. I've been tempted to buy the octo came for a while now. As soon as I put the blind up to try and take pictures the feeder empties. And then any movement in the house, like raising my camera spooks the birds. That or my cat sits on the window ledge just to piss the birds off, lol. The octo cam I could just stick to the window with the blind down behind it.
EDIT: The Raspberry Pi Thread [4] - Page 89 - Windows 10 Forums
Last edited by alphanumeric; 14 Jun 2018 at 12:44.
Quote
