Tag Archives: Birding Know How

Birding via YouTube (Nestcams to Thermals!)

Year 13

I think most everyone knows that YouTube is a great spot to go birding. Trying different searches within YouTube itself can yield amazing results … not just searching directly from Google. My other birding search engine is queries made from within Reddit. I look for interesting discussions on birding topics. This is how I actually found the channel, “Of Human and Nature” this morning. I watched this gentleman’s out of Germany excellent field documented  birding expedition where he was trying out a new thermal monocular (video link).

However, the real reason I wanted to create this post was to remind / inform everyone that even though the date is early in February, we are now starting the time of “bird nestcams”. Here are two of my favorites …

  • Eagle NestCam on Captiva Island in southern Florida. Remember, the best action for this camera will be early morning after sunrise, and the camera is located in the Eastern Time Zone of the USA. NestCam Direct Link for blog email subscribers).

  • Great Horned Owl NestCam in southern Minnesota. Remember, the best action will for this camera will be in the early hours after sunset, and this camera is located in the Central Time Zone of the USA. There is seem to be some “rollout technical issues” for this camera, but it is 100% worth visiting this YouTube link and exploring Stan Tekiela’s channel, Nature Live.

I would be remiss if I did not add links to my own YouTube channels. While I don’t promote these channels very much, I post many nature videos in YouTube that do not end up included here in a blog post.

Now a flashback … longer time subscribers will remember when three years ago I built fuzzball (Great Horned Owlet) a quick lawn chair nesting platform (see the blog post)! The nest from which this owlet had fallen was extremely high in a white pine, and even my friend who is a retired Duluth Fire Captain told me the real nest was too high to be safely reached. The “packing tarp” was to insure neither Mom GHO’s or Fuzzballs would get caught in their new nest.  Police tape was put up surrounding the pine to protect the youngster as the nest was located just off a hiking trail.

More importantly, Momma GHO said “yes” to my nesting platform and fed Fuzzball for over two weeks before the owlet fledged (YouTube link for blog subscribers … Fuzzball gets fed)

Minnesota (Sung by the Marsh Family)

Year 13

I have been debating whether I should post about the horrors occurring here in my home state of Minnesota. The World is strange when a family in England beautifully captures in song the horrors occurring here in Minnesota. regardless … thank you Marsh Family … sung to the tune of the classic song, San Francisco. I never expected the federal government to invade my state with masked men.

Worth a listen and watch. The YouTube video is immediately below this screenshot (video link for email subscribers).

I am sorry if I lose subscribers because of this political post, but I can no longer stay silent. Polite comments w/o foul language from all sides of the political spectrum are allowed to this post. However, new individuals and their comments are moderated which can take me up to 24 hours. As a fyi, this is only the 2nd time out of 2,539 posts over 13 years where I have strayed from my core topics … birds, other wildlife and nature.

BirdNET-Pi Menu Command Screenshots

Year 13

This post is provided to assist the understanding of organizations with whom I will be meeting in the near future. For my readers benefit, I am now working (volunteering) with additional conservation organizations across Minnesota in addition to the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog in terms of assisting them with birdsong research as it relates to conservation projects, including but not limited to the building and configuring of birdsong listening station.

As a fyi … a few days ago, I was featured in an article published by the Minnesota Star Tribune (my home state’s largest newspaper which is based in Minneapolis) about my work in birdsong research. Here is the weblink to that interview.  You may experience paywall issues.

BirdNET-Pi has two web based viewing options:

  1. On your OWN local network, via your browser you may utilize the extensive menu options given later in this post. Learn more about BirdNET-Pi.
  2. From any computer connected to the internet, IF the owner of the birdsong listening station has chosen to make their birdsong public via BirdWeather.Com, you may view the most current sound ID’s, listen to those sound files, and change to your preferred custom dates. Learn more.

Here are the BirdNET-Pi menu command screenshots. You MUST be on your own local wifi network, and on the SAME network to which the BirdNET-Pi is connected.

01: Overview

02: Today’s Detections

03: Spectrogram

04: Best Recordings

05A: Species Stats 1

05B: Species Stats 2 (Great Gray Owl)

05C: Species Stats 3 (Northern Flicker)

05D: Species Stats 4 (Northern Flicker)

06: Daily Charts

07: Weekly Report

08A: Recordings 1

08B: Recordings 2

09: View Log (if the probability of a match does not exceed 70% after the seven software attempts, it discards that attempted ID)

10: Tools (password access only)

11A: Settings 1 (password access only)

11B: Settings 2 (password access only)

12A: Species Management 1 (password access only)

12B: Species Management 2 (password access only)

12C: Species Management 3 (password access only)

12D: Species Management 4 (password access only)

This is what my BirdNET-Pi box looks like. My finger is included to help folks better understand the size of my birdsong listening device. It is small. No monitor or keyboard is required for ongoing operation. The only two items attached to this small computer (pictured in photo) are the power cord, and USB microphone.

My BirdNET-Pi lives inside my home office, but the USB microphone hangs out the window.

End of Blog Post. Contact Rich for detailed explanations, but read this post to learn what is involved in building this small computer and installing / configuring the software.