One of the tutors at Preston Montford, Dave Morgan recently
embarked on a project to take photos of our local birds using his camera as an
improvised motion sensor. The camera was rigged on top of the bird table to
take photos when a change in the environment is perceived. However the camera
will be triggered by any change in the environment, whether it is a chaffinch parading
on the table or a bush swaying in the breeze.
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| The Pocket Pigeon 2000 |
The camera was stationed on the table with a pile of bird food
acting as the bait. Problems soon occurred as the birds were not falling for
the fowl play; even the resident robin was behaving cautiously. The reflective
camera case was our most likely explanation for this bashful behaviour. As a
result Dave created a cardboard camouflage so the camera would be less conspicuous
in its surroundings.
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| The Peeping Wren 3000 |
The camera was left out for a couple of hours before we
decided to bring it into the office to examine the results. After trawling
through hundreds of pictures of passerby’s and bushes in slightly different
positions, Dave finally got a picture of a rather star-struck Blue tit. After
this success we were compelled to try again. Sadly on the second attempt the birds
went back to being shy and our make shift camouflage was falling apart, so Dave
went back to the drawing board to make it more effective. Soon after the new
camera trap was being trialled, we caught a glimpse of a robin posing on the
edge of the bird table and more Blue tits. The other week we even had a Woodpecker
on the table, but as is always the way … the camera was not set up!
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| The Focal Falcon 5000 |
We shall be
continuing our efforts to catch as many pictures of birds as we can and post
them on our twitter @prestonmontford, why not follow us for the latest news on what’s
happening at the centre? We also have an interesting course on songbird
identification which runs from the 26th to the 29th April
Happy twitching!
Albat-ross Cornish
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| I spy with ... |
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| Robin 'unhooded' |
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