Guess who's back? - Overnight roosting

NEW - there's a friendly little helper called Nightbot who can answer frequently asked questions in the chat. Simply type in one of the phrases below to have your question answered. To be fair, many of them are answered in the text below too!

!camera !eggs !fluffy !gender !location !nest !nestbox !nightvision !species !spikes !weather

Be warned - Nightbot does have a dark side and can also place you in timeout from the chat if you use lots of capital letters (please don't shout), if you keep repeating yourself or if you're a potty mouth.


WHERE ARE THE BIRDS?
The birds pop in and out of the box during the day and one usually arrives to sleep between 5:15pm and 5:45pm UK time. It has been staying in the box until around 6:30 - 7:00am. The arrival time will get later as our days get lighter later into the evening and the morning departure will become earlier for the same reason.

UPDATE Friday 18th Feb
Storm Eunice hit the UK and took our electrical power away for a while so the stream may be on and off again today. The nest box spikes have been changed to a more densely packed, plastic type which you can have a look at here:

https://www.cactus-products.com

The metal spikes which were previously on the roof are now mounted directly to the trunk of the tree behind the box to discourage the cat from even attempting to get onto the roof. Two sections of aviary wire mesh have been added above the box between the branches to prevent the cats from gaining access to the roof by that route. A further aviary wire mesh panel will be added a few feet below the box around the tree trunk which will be in an umbrella shape to try and stop the cat from climbing the tree in the first place. This will be done once the weather calms down.
This is all an attempt to train the cat that it can't get to the box so it stops trying. No one is trying to harm the cat especially seen as it belongs to one of the neighbours!
The external camera is mounted to a nearby tree so both camera and nest box move in the wind (of which there is an abundance today).

UPDATE Friday 21st Jan:
During the evening of Tuesday the 18th of January a cat paw appeared through the entrance of the nest box. From the angle of the paw it was apparent that the cat had managed to climb the tree and get on the roof of the box. Since that night the bird has not been sleeping in the box. Was that to do with the fright or that the temperature has gone up? No one can know,
The birds have been popping in and out of the box during the day so don't worry, they're still around. To try and stop this from happening again the box now has anti-cat spikes on the roof. They're not needle sharp but they are strong enough and long enough to deter a cat (hopefully). They should also stop magpies and the like from hanging out on the roof of the box as well.
The birds will not start to build their nest until March.

Pinned comments in the livestream can only be 200 characters hence having to post the update here!



WELCOME to our live nest box camera! The nest box was installed on the 6th March 2021 and is located on the outskirts of Loughborough, UK.

The box has been cleaned out and the previous nest removed as recommended by the RSPB. The birds will not bring nesting materials into the box until the springtime when the breeding season starts again.

No-one can be 100% sure but this bird looks very much like our female from the 2021 season. Since the chicks fledged there has been a constant group of four blue tits around the garden who have been taking advantage of the feeders! Arrival and departure times will change with the weather and daylight hours.

There are several feeders in the garden away from the nest box which are kept stocked with Sunflower Hearts, Mealworms, fat and protein balls, mixed seed and water.

Please subscribe to the channel and hit the like button so you can find us more easily. Please feel free to share with others who might be interested in what's going on in the nest box.

Things used to make this stream:

In box Camera - Green Feathers wired IP camera
https://www.green-feathers.co.uk/collections/bird-box-cameras/products/hd-ip-bird-box-camera - Use discount code YOUTUBE10 for 10% off non-discounted Green Feathers products across their website

External Camera - Hikvision DS-2CD2643G2-IZS (catchy name)

Nest box - Garden Nature side view box
https://gardenature.co.uk/product/side-view-bird-box

Streaming software - OBS
FREE to download at https://obsproject.com/download

Editing software - Davinci Resolve 17
FREE to download at https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

Streaming hardware - Apple iMac 21.5 2017 3.4GHz