URGENT (9 hours) - Will opening my bird box while birds are away scare them off? (1 Viewer)

Hello all, thanks for taking the time to read my question

A breeding pair of great tits started moving bedding in to my camera nest box yesterday, but they must have flown up and nudged the camera focus and now the image is blurred! To adjust it, I have to take the front off the box.

I was wondering, they don't seem to stick around at night just yet, will I scare them off somehow if I wait until it's late tonight, go take the front off and adjust the lens? I'll stick some tape on the focus to stop it from moving again too.

I really don't want to scare them off, but I can't find an answer to this question anywhere! I guess it's a pretty unusual question. And if I'm to act it needs to be now, before they permanently move in. Thank you so much for your help

P.S Once I've sorted this out I'll get some pics and video together if you're interested, started recording audio with the video yesterday too!

I'd say you'll be fine. Just check with the camera that one isn't roosting in the box before you start - presumably the focus is good enough for that!

Mick

MTem said:

I'd say you'll be fine. Just check with the camera that one isn't roosting in the box before you start - presumably the focus is good enough for that!

Mick

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll definitely check and will sort it out tonight

I actually reviewed the footage just now to see how they managed it, there's a slot about 3/4 inch wide and 2.5 inch long where the camera and IR LEDs peep in to the box from the roof cavity, and the bird perched on it upside down and really went to town on the camera!

Hopefully there won't be any more tampering after I secure the focus.....I'd covered the camera circuit board (low power, not dangerous) in a bit of insulating tape but I never expected the birds to actually peck at it! I just hope they don't get at the ribbon cable or anything sensitive, haha.

Job done! Thanks for the advice! Duct tape on the screw focus will stop them from "adjusting" it in the future

I was actually surprised by how deep the nest is, it's not easy to tell depth from the birds-eye video! I took a quick snap as I was closing the box up, oh and here's a screengrab I took as part of my image comparisons:

http://i.imgur.com/rGbPdOX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3eCrlee.jpg

If you're at all interested in the components I used and a talk through of the scripts I wrote to capture/upload the video and identify images of interest etc (scripts aren't 100% done yet though so unreleased), then check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elvqAR0aqf4 (there's some video footage of the birds there, though it's from before i got the camera's auto brightness/colour balance under control!)

Not trying to plug myself, I really hate sharing my own videos - makes me seem needy But if you're interested in my setup there you go A bit of entertainment as thanks for helping me out!

P.S I'll be getting an actual website up in the coming days to archive all the footage and images and stuff, but for now it's all dumping to a hidden youtube channel in preparation. And I'm adding audio, hopefully, today's the first day I've added it to my scripts and I'm waiting for it to process now to see if it syncs up with the video over time or not!