6 Mar 2010
A bird in the house
As you know, 2 years ago I set up a bird box camera, but got no birds in the first year. In the second year, I didn’t even look, I was too busy and involved in other things, but I’ve decided, that this year will be successful.
Over those two years, the camera has been outside in the bird box, unused, so I wasn’t sure if it would work. I leant out of the window where the box is located, plugged the camera into the mains, set up the receiver box, and – nothing.
I did lots of fiddling inside, and thought that perhaps the problem was with the camera, maybe the power connector had got dirty or rusty? So, I leant out of the window, lifted the box off, and brought it inside… With hindsight I should’ve checked to see if it was empty first.
It turns out that I had a blue tit using the box as a roost, and I had just woken him up. So, an hour of chasing a blue tit around my spare room ensued. Well, I didn’t chase it, I just opened the window, watched and hoped it would fly out of it. No chance. My wife worked out that he was attracted to the light, so she held a torch (near my head) and pointed it at the window, before switching the light off.
Big mistake. It’s amazing how a blue tit can look like an eagle when it’s flying at your face in the near dark.
Plan b – place the torch on the windowsill worked like a charm.
24 hours later, I reconnected the camera, it’s working flawlessly and my blue tit (named Pandora by my wife) is back in there and asleep. I’m disappointed that the image is black and white though. Perhaps I should install a window and let in some colour…
