Birds, Bats and Beyond: Nest Cams






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    With the help of a screech-owl cam, Jim Wright keeps watch on North Jersey's winged wonders.
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Nest Cams

May 01, 2008

OWL: Great horned owls!

   

  A woman who reads my stuff in The Record e-mailed me to say that she had a great horned owl and two owlets just beyond her backyard along the Hackensack River.
   I was dubious, and it turns out I was right.
The owls were just beyond her neighbor's backyard, just close enough to get good shots with telephoto lens and a muliplier.
   I tried to be as quiet as possible, and not stay too long,  and keep my distance.
    The video here probably makes it seem that I was even farther away than I was, but I wanted to make a point that it is not a good idea to go anywhere near nesting birds -- or animals -- to photograph them.
   The photo that begins the "Think Worms" video, for example, was taken from inside my house with a telephoto and a great deal of cropping...
   The great horned owl Mom was a very cool customer, as you'll see from the video. She is, after all, at the top of the food chain.
   I am vague about the owlets' location, just as a precaution.

April 21, 2008

OWL: 'Think Worms,' a video poem

   Pat Cooper, a friend of this blog, was inspired to write a poem based on one of my posts about Mrs. Ace the screech owl, waiting for food in the nesting box.
  And I was inspired by her poem to do a 40-second video (above).
  The poem is called: "Think Worms."
  It is based on this posting.
  Here's the poem:

        Think Worms

        By Pat Cooper

Can't leave, Can't leave. Can't leave.

Eggs. Sitting. Waiting. Sitting.

He means well but I get so tired

of moles and moths, moths and moles.

Do I hear rain?

On rainy nights, think worms.

-- copyright 2008 by Patricia L. Cooper

April 13, 2008

CAM: Quacker Tracker (w/video)

   

   

Last fall, I had a contest to name a videocam that I had installed in a wood-duck box.
  Over the winter, a squirrel ate through the wire, and I replaced the cam just as the female owl moved in to the nesting box next door.
  Just before then, a female wood duck looked into the wood-duck box a few times but did not move in.
  I did a little video (above) the other night just to show you the image quality of the Quacker Tracker.
  Here's what happened last spring, and why we needed a camera in the box. 
  Click "Continue reading" for more.

Continue reading "CAM: Quacker Tracker (w/video)" »

April 11, 2008

OWL: Feeding fest (video)

This one-minute video features six of the 11 snacks that Mr. Ace brought to  Mrs. Ace over a 40-minute span one recent evening.
   Although you never really see him, Mr. Ace is the star of the show, bringing back moths and worms like he was running a relay race.
   If you listen closely, you can hear them talk with each other. You'll also see why "Winnie" is such an appropriate   name for Mrs. A.
   The Aces are the ultimate nuclear family; Mr. Ace brings home the bacon while Mrs. Ace takes of business in their studio apartment.

March 27, 2008

OWL: The story thus far

    If you are new to this blog, welcome. If you are an old friend, welcome once more.
   Mrs. Ace, a screech owl, has been sitting on five eggs for a few weeks ...
 

Click "Continue reading..." for an amazing owl video and more about the owls this spring...

Continue reading "OWL: The story thus far" »

March 26, 2008

OWL: Four eggs!

Img_0053

    

Mrs. Ace is a fast worker this spring -- four eggs in eight days vs. four eggs in 10 days last year.
   She may have more eggs, but I doubt it, and I do not want to count any owlets before they hatch.
   Incubation takes from 26 to 31 days.
   Let's hope for the best.

SPRING 2007: The owl archive

Mrs_ace_0328jpg

For those who want to see how the Ace family developed last year, as well as a timeline, I put together this index   of posts.

  It also includes posts on wood ducks, red-shouldered hawks and some nice writing.

  Holler if any of the links are broken.

  Click "Continue reading..."

Continue reading "SPRING 2007: The owl archive " »

March 24, 2008

VIDEO: Mrs. Ace with mouse

     

    I took this video with the digital recorder on Saturday night. I ran the recorder for six hours and came up with this 30-second video. 
   Mrs. Ace flew out around 2 a.m. and return over an hour later with this morsel.
   You can hear her "drum" loudly during the brief clip, and you can see her two eggs quite clearly.

March 21, 2008

OWL: Two eggs now (with video)

   

I awoke early this morning to find two screech eggs and a dead little critter.
  Since it was almost dawn, I realized Mrs. Ace might be returning soon.
  She did. She looked into the box, hopped in, made a little drumming call, then flew out again.
  The video takes about a minute and a half.
  Sorry, no flashy mandolin music by the amazing Hunger Mountain Boys this time around.

March 19, 2008

OWL: Another videocam, another owl

Img_dawn

 

Very early the other morning, I activated the nest-box cams to see if Ace (or Mrs. Ace) was in the owl box. She was.
   I hit the switch to check on the new wood duck cam, and to my surprise, there was an owl jumping around inside. By the time I got the camera ready, the owl was gone.

   It turned out that the new cam does not provide as wide an angle as the owl cam -- the new owl was sitting in the opening. I fired off a couple of pictures by the dawn's early light and got this barely usable one (below).
  But there are two owls in the area, and it is getting into breeding season, so things could get interesting.

New_owl

TOP VIDEOS

Click here for Celery Farm Memories, a three-minute video about the past and present of this wonderful place in Allendale, New Jersey.
Click here for the link to the Baby Owl Video, featuring four adorable baby screech owls and a rousing bluegrass soundtrack.
Clickear aqui para ver el Video
Click here for the video of the release of the red-shouldered hawk.

ABOUT

JIM WRIGHT, a senior writer for The Record, is the author of four books on local nature, "In the Presence of Nature," "Duck Enough To Fly," “Swan Babies” and “Icky.” He is also the author of "Jungle of the Maya," about Central America's vast rainforest.
E-mail wright at northjersey.com

AceACE is a screech owl who has been living in a nesting box just beyond Wright’s backyard since mid-November. Last spring, Ace and his mate had four owlets successfully fledge from the box.

THE SCREECH CAM is an infrared video camera that provides an amazing window into what's happening inside the nesting box. Wright has also a video-cam for his wood-duck box.

THE CELERY FARM is a 109-acre nature refuge in Allendale. It is owned by the borough of Allendale and maintained by Fyke Nature Association volunteers. It is open daily from dawn to dusk.

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