Baby Blue Tits Diary 2002

In 2002 we put up a new bird box for the resident blue tits in our garden complete with internal camera.

INTRO > Diary 2002

NEW: Click here for the Blue Tits Diary 2003

Intro:

Birdbox

We chose the birdbox on the web from www.birdfood.co.uk and opted for an Inspection Nest Box with a 25mm hole.

Camera

Following on from the recommendation of other web sites that had done something similar we purchased a "PRO-240 B/W camera 380 TVL 0.1 Lux, 6 IR LED's 3M" black & white miniature camera from Henry's Electronics Ltd. This camera has a built in microphone and is housed in a rugged case with a hinged mounting bracket. After trolling Tottenham Court Road for an hour or so I would definitely say that this is the best camera on the market in its price bracket (~£60).
Henry's also sell a cable extension kit that is well worth buying. I would also recommend that you also buy a set of screwdrivers at the same time that fit the screws holding the case together. The reason for this will become clear later.

Fitting the Camera in the Birdbox

This is best done before mounting the box and is relatively straightforward. Do spend time working out the optimum mounting point to ensure that the inspection lid will still close.
Our camera was fitted looking directly at the bottom of the box. We did try and arrange it to capture the hole as well but the box simply didn't have enough depth to allow this.

Once the camera was installed it soon became apparent that there was a problem. The intensity of the InfraRed LED's saturated the small space. They were simply far too powerful. They also focused very specifically. Ideally what we needed was less intensity and more diffusion.
This problem was resolved by sticking gaffer tape over the LED strips. It was quite suprising how much tape it took to bring the light level down! It also helped diffuse the light more evenly. Take care not to cover the tiny microphone hole if you do this.
I'm not entirely convinced that this is the best solution and I have this image in my mind of young curious blue tits pulling it all off at some point in the future...

We used a box of matches as test subject and realised that the camera was badly out of focus at close distances.
There seemed to be no way of focusing the camera, and this is where the recommended screwdriver kit comes in handy.
The screws are very difficult to remove without the right tools. With perseverance it is possible to get in to the electronics, and by removing a further two screws the delicate electronics can be separated from the case.
A single screw on the lens acts as a locking screw. Loosening this off slightly allows the lens to be twisted from the outside on its own very fine thread so that focusing becomes possible.
With this adjustment the camera can be made to focus with excellent clarity at close range.

Mounting the Birdbox

We removed the old box which we guess had been there for at least 5-10 years and was full of fleas and mounted the new one in its place.
The camera cable was run in to the house through one of the airbricks by first desoldering the DIN plug, feeding it through the vent hole, and then reconnecting it.

The camera was switched on and worked perfectly. After a few minutes the picture became much worse and we realised that condensation was forming on the camera lens due to the heat generated by the circuit and LED's. However, this cleared itself after 5-10 minutes of being switched on.
Unfortunately the picture was not as good as it could be due to the large holes at the bottom of the box to allow ventilation and drainage. Light was flooding in causing a poor image.
To solve this we had to cut a small piece of hardboard to the exact dimensions of the box and lay it in the bottom. It did the trick.

The 'New Home'

Eventually the birds came to see what we had been doing. Fortunately they weren't put off.
However they did have a problem with the size of the hole. The previous nest box had a slightly larger hole, so either they were used to that one, or we had chosen one which was too small.
Each bird did take it in turn entering the box, although leaving was a tight squeeze.

Since then they have returned on a regular basis and spend part of the morning each day making the hole bigger...

Afterwards we discovered that you can buy bird boxes with cameras already built in. However these do cost slightly more and there's always something gratifying about doing something like this yourself...

 

Diary 2002:

23 February 2002:

We wired up the camera to a PC and TV screen in our dining room, so we could look into the box without disturbing them (and record them too).
Within a couple of days a pair of blue tits were busy at work trying to enlarge the hole. It was funny to watch them squeezing in and out of the small hole as they checked out the new box...

Today we caught our first full glimpse of an adult inside the box, pecking at the hole to try and enlarge it.

25 February 2002:

At 9.30am one of the blue tits landed on the box and began to peck at the hole. It then went inside the box and had a good look around, eyeing up the camera in particular! I got a very good view of its head and eye! Then the second bird landed on the box. I could see the first bird call out to it, then suddenly the second bird entered the box.
There was a bit of shuffling around and the first bird left. The second bird pecked at the hole from the inside, for a good five minutes. The 'tap-tap-tap-tap' noise could be clearly heard even through our double glazed windows! All that could be seen from inside the box was its tail, which was moving around all the time as the bird did some crazy acrobatics to keep its balance.

17 March 2002:

The birds are still determined to increase the size of the hole. This still was taken as one of the birds briefly hopped into the box during the enlarging process.
It has been a particularly wet week, as can be seen from the damp in the bottom of the box.

8 April 2002:

Unfortunately there has been absolutely no activity in or around the box in the last couple of weeks and we have come to the conclusion that the blue tits have decided to nest elsewhere. Either they didn't fancy widening the entrance hole, or perhaps they were put off by the camera housing inside the box.

We doubt that any other pair of blue tits will decide to nest in the box now, it seems too late in the season. We can only hope that we get some birds back in the box in 2003!

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Update - April 2003:

We have started a new page for 2003, with video and pictures of the birds nesting in the 'birdcam' box!

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Links:

Jeremy Pidgeon's wildlife website, includes bird box cameras and plenty of photos: http://www.gardenwildlife.co.uk/gw_box2m.htm

Blue Tits Diary 2002 at Daviv's website: http://www.daviv.com/diary_2002_page01.htm

Or you can read the story of our baby blue tits in the box in 2000.