tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64188608399695846732013-05-12T06:37:41.474-04:00a homemade contraption to record nocturnal animals at homeanimal detectorsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-90478753746882255062012-02-01T23:03:00.000-05:002012-02-01T23:04:27.740-05:002012-02-01T23:04:27.740-05:00

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-54830669294838981722011-11-25T11:06:00.003-05:002011-11-25T11:22:33.794-05:002011-11-25T11:22:33.794-05:00

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-30608120610042001412010-05-18T21:03:00.007-04:002011-04-02T03:16:55.611-04:002011-04-02T03:16:55.611-04:00

4:54am, near our shed

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-18118262308576485052009-09-12T15:09:00.010-04:002011-04-02T03:17:36.817-04:002011-04-02T03:17:36.817-04:00

A nice view on the underside of an old chair outside our house. We discovered them hiding in there after my son sat on the chair and the wasps came rushing out. One stung him on the head. After taking care of that, we taped the webcam to one of his toy trucks and pushed it with a long stick, wheeling the webcam closer and closer. Creak, creak, creak, we thought the wasps were laughing at us, but

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-40961630646163716652009-08-12T22:33:00.012-04:002011-04-02T03:11:07.441-04:002011-04-02T03:11:07.441-04:00

The light goes on and the bubbles appear when an animal walks by. This curious cat looked up to see where the bubbles were coming from. Here's the setup:

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-5827598067621470122009-06-27T08:16:00.008-04:002010-05-26T20:53:48.283-04:002010-05-26T20:53:48.283-04:00

We thought the motion sensor might be able to start recording every time a firefly flashed, and not record between flashes, if we set the sensitivity just right. It worked!Here are all the flashes projected onto one picture.

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-1848496367241863482009-06-06T18:45:00.006-04:002009-11-23T22:22:35.882-05:002009-11-23T22:22:35.882-05:00

We mounted the webcam in front of our birdhouse, left it on motion sensing, and caught the mother wren bringing insects to her chicks! This is a house wren. We built the birdhouse from really simple plans that we found online.

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-20749642496693796452009-05-05T17:28:00.014-04:002011-04-02T03:18:26.470-04:002011-04-02T03:18:26.470-04:00

After our not-so-impressive attempt at a green screen background for possums, we posted our video online in case anyone else wanted to try. We have a response! Someone named 'Jacques DuLong' has done an amazing job - we had to look carefully to check that it really was our possum. The spooky thing... after all this technology, the new background looks almost identical to our backyard, right down

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-60521507349902389462009-05-03T10:33:00.026-04:002011-11-25T11:23:17.621-05:002011-11-25T11:23:17.621-05:00

We mounted the webcam just over a nest and filmed by motion sensing or timelapse nearly every day. The last baby flew out of the nest yesterday. Here's an almost-daily view for three weeks (click to enlarge):Time-lapse: warming eggs, leaving for food, warming eggs, leaving for food, all day:A kymograph below reveals the on/off the nest pattern throughout the day. We found info online stating that

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-71071178950571098212009-02-20T21:25:00.006-05:002011-04-02T03:19:31.600-04:002011-04-02T03:19:31.600-04:00

We had no idea there were foxes in the neighborhood. This gorgeous animal is a grey fox who popped by at 2:01am.(bait: some flowers... we were hoping to attract some birds at sunrise)wider view video | motion photo

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-63797576136095850482009-02-08T21:17:00.003-05:002009-11-23T22:25:52.211-05:002009-11-23T22:25:52.211-05:00

...or, as my son suggested, maybe it's a brown cat covered with snow...

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-46833440213486015642008-11-02T13:19:00.006-05:002009-12-24T23:02:09.183-05:002009-12-24T23:02:09.183-05:00

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-1439571554073089052008-11-02T13:07:00.008-05:002009-11-23T22:26:57.159-05:002009-11-23T22:26:57.159-05:00

My son asked if animals walk on our roof at night, so we put the detector on the roof. No animals came at night, but a robin peered into the camera in the morning. (Black path in the cover frame is the path of the robin. Places where it paused are in white or in color.)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-87361849813720404372008-10-19T00:35:00.007-04:002009-11-23T22:27:22.261-05:002009-11-23T22:27:22.261-05:00

(sped up about 3x)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-82743439508244235872008-10-18T14:27:00.004-04:002009-11-23T22:27:43.566-05:002009-11-23T22:27:43.566-05:00

A worm crawls by just after sunrise (film sped up about three times)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-789752843772631642008-09-20T14:01:00.013-04:002009-11-23T22:29:12.185-05:002009-11-23T22:29:12.185-05:00

Download original here.

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-8752748634494510232008-09-17T22:44:00.018-04:002009-11-23T22:28:53.781-05:002009-11-23T22:28:53.781-05:00

5:16am: A possum wanders into our woodland scenery backdrop and takes a good look at the new decor.(bait: cat treats)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-9242403911343094022008-08-30T09:57:00.012-04:002009-11-23T22:29:39.669-05:002009-11-23T22:29:39.669-05:00

3:04am: Cat pops in, changes its mind.(bait: a piece of a hot dog)The photo at the start of the film is a multiple-exposure view, with a white trail showing where the cat walked. Hi-res multiple-exposure view

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-3538592167871317162008-08-10T21:41:00.010-04:002009-12-24T23:03:45.744-05:002009-12-24T23:03:45.744-05:00

Admittedly, we had to reverse the video to make it look like they were bringing us offerings, but it's really much more entertaining this way.

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-2206100940778961982008-08-09T23:46:00.021-04:002010-05-26T21:04:27.636-04:002010-05-26T21:04:27.636-04:00

This past week, we took the device to the beach. One afternoon we set the light aside and pointed the camera skyward, leaving it recording the motion of pelicans and seagulls flying by for a couple of hours. The birds and their wings traced such elegant paths across the sky. The multi-exposure traces below were made by importing quicktime films into ImageJ and making Z-projections of the

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-73749518616938970572008-07-25T23:57:00.023-04:002009-11-23T22:30:44.343-05:002009-11-23T22:30:44.343-05:00

We decided that it's time to stop leaving food outside for vermin so often after we witnessed a feeding frenzy by the back door last night. 1:21am: At least 4 raccoons feed and slobber on the window.2:47am: Raccoons again. One faces away from the camera and pees on the lawn.3:05am: Possum with a cut on its head finds nothing left.(bait: cat treats)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-81666160735480776382008-06-29T08:07:00.021-04:002009-11-23T22:31:10.484-05:002009-11-23T22:31:10.484-05:00

Well, as long as we're getting the same wild animals every night, we figured why not see if they'd mind a background. This is just a big piece of orange paper, but since they don't mind this, we're thinking about other backgrounds...1:54am: a possum(bait: cat treats)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-74444344348527315472008-06-25T19:56:00.006-04:002009-11-23T22:31:23.919-05:002009-11-23T22:31:23.919-05:00

3:04am: adult possum visits4:31am: baby possum visits(bait: cat treats)This film is sped up 3x.

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-89841705636522077652008-06-21T08:06:00.008-04:002009-11-23T22:31:36.659-05:002009-11-23T22:31:36.659-05:00

4:05am: time warp! this young possum walks in reverse each time the light comes on. We're getting so many possums these days... we're hoping for a mother carrying babies one night.(bait: cat treats)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418860839969584673.post-91903114587277320372008-06-17T22:02:00.009-04:002009-11-23T22:31:47.371-05:002009-11-23T22:31:47.371-05:00

3:48am: finally, a possum! The Virginia Opossum is the only American marsupial species. This one circles when the light comes on instead of feigning death, which we thought all possums would do when frightened. The possum is our 11th species.(bait: an olive)

animal detectorsnoreply@blogger.com1