11/25/25 On 11/16/25 Sandy and I found a BNOW on the ground not far from the cavity. It was hopping around and unable to fly so I scooped it up and got it over to the Orange County Bird of Prey Center to get checked out. By size I thought it likely a male and by where found perhaps the male of the cavity pair. Just the other day I learned it had trauma to its head and an eye but was otherwise doing well.
Then on 11/24/25 I captured this clip from the Limb cam. My sense, and from others too, is that this might have been a new male. But it appears he got rebuffed… Any case, it’s just another glimpse into the behavior of BNOWs. I think we all know that mortality/disappearance of mates likely takes place more often than we might think and that replacement must occur. So perhaps this is what’s going on? If the BNOW in rehab recovers I’ll release it where I found it. In the meantime, life goes on… Pete
10/20/25 Jorge has updated the cam servers and successfully tested them. And just recently he successfully tested the new cavity cam. So now I have to go up to the cavity, mount it, and also check the video feed cable – which is a bit arduous. Any case, I hope to get this done soon and get live cavity video streaming again. Sorry this is taking so long. I will also check the trail cam because I currently have no idea why it’s being so flaky.
BTW, I captured this clip of a GHOW on the limb cam a few days ago. I suspect that the adult BNOWs weren’t in the cavity at the time or their might have been a kerfuffle… Pete
08/23/25 I’m going to have to shut down the Cavity and Bat cam feeds for a while. Among other things, the video servers are having some serious problems that Jorge needs to attend to and I need replace the cavity cam anyway, which may include pulling new cables, etc. Unfortunately this may take 2-3 weeks. So please keep checking back and if you see the video streams again you’ll know that Jorge and I were successful. But in the meantime, the Trail and Limb cams should still work. Thanks. Pete
07/31/25 Just a quick update that I’m holding back on going up to the cavity to fix/replace the Cavity cam because I can still see at least one fledgling hanging out there (on the lip and seen by the Limb cam during the day sometimes). So when I’m pretty sure they’ve all vacated I’ll get on this. Pete
06/12/25 I saw this on the Limb cam early this morning and thought I’d share because it demonstrates an important behavior that I’ve witnessed first hand many times and believe that it’s extremely important to several species of fledgling owl survival. Their ability to use their talons, beak and wings (flapping) to climb is, to me, remarkable and allows them to get off the ground and away from predators before their flight skills are fully developed. Pete
06/11/25 I think it’s safe to say: “So far, so good.” for the 3 fledglings. Below is a clip from early this morning of some “sister and brother together time” on the limb along with a bit of stretching followed by a clip of one returning to the cavity. I’m pretty sure that later on they all returned. Pete
06/05/25 Like it’s often said: “When it rains it pours.” Well, that’s been the case here the last few days both literally and figuratively. Thunderstorms the other day dropped 0.30+ inches of rain and the Cavity cam died – right when the chicks were getting ready to fledge! While I thought that the Cavity cam might have gone down because the power supply went bad like the last time I quickly realized that wasn’t the reason after I looked at the Limb cam and could see the nighttime IR light coming from it. To top it off, Scylla emailed me that it appeared one of the chicks went to the limb last night and failed to get back to the cavity. So today James (our seasonal ornithologist) and I poked around the ground and trees in the vicinity of the cavity tree but couldn’t find anything. I then climbed to the cavity to get a glimpse of who was home and to hopefully see all three. Well as soon as I looked in at least one quickly went up into the attic and another into the pantry. So while I knew there were at least 2 there I couldn’t confirm all 3. To top it off, one of them decided to bolt but I was lucky to grab it before it got away. And then I “encouraged” it back into the cavity (video is below). Though I think that this one was not to be denied because a few minutes after I came down it took off and landed on a limb near the cavity (video also below). The bottom line is that I think at least one of the chicks is almost, if not totally, able to sustain flight. And the other two are surely close behind. Since they are clearly at this stage and me going up there will likely cause all of them to bolt I won’t be going up soon to repair the cavity cam. However, once they are all out I plan to really go through the set up, try to make it more bullet proof to malfunctions, and also install a better quality cavity cam. Pete
06/05/25 It appears this might be the first time one of the chicks ventured out of the cavity. It was last night around 8:30PM. The video is a little over 3.5 minutes and at the end it appears that the chick tried returning and may have missed the cavity lip (see another chick looking down). However, all 3 are in the cavity so it made it back somehow… Pete
05/19/25
From early this AM. Methinks a VERY brave mouse… Pete
05/08/25 The Cavity Cam is FINALLY back up!!! I’m really sorry for all the down time, but this snafu was a bit of an enigma… Pete
05/02/25 Well, I went up this afternoon and while I discovered the camera power supply was bad and replaced it the video still didn’t start playing. Sigh. Anyway I’ll troubleshoot some more this weekend or perhaps on Monday. Very frustrating to say the least. But in the meantime here’s a short vid of the 3 chicks.
They look great and are certainly downy enough to stay warm until the female returns. And I also left a few mice. But again, while I think that we all know by now that I won’t interfere with them in general, this was just a “Sorry for bothering you…” offering. Pete
04/25/25 Turns out that I’m going to have to go up to the cavity to see if I can get the cam working again. So here’s my plan: Next Wednesday 4/30 the youngest chick should be 3 weeks old which should be about the time the female starts being able to go out to hunt too, i.e. not having to stay there to keep the chicks warm. In fact, if any of you have in your notes the post-hatching dates she’s started to leave in past years, please email them to me. Any case, if we have a warm day I plan to go up there just before dark to see if I can fix things. Something else, and I know this may be difficult, but if any of you see BOTH of them on the limb – or any other way that indicates they’re BOTH out of the cavity – please let me know. This will definitely confirm that I can go up there and not bump her from brooding the chicks. But, again, I’ll make sure the day has been warm and will go up right before it gets dark. Right now I’m thinking Friday, May 2. Thanks. Pete.
04/20/25 There’s something I’ve yet to figure out that causing the cavity cam to not function. While it should have restarted on its own after our power outage it’s not. Jorge’s checked the configs that allow streaming and they’re working fine – this is why you can see “ALIBI” on the screen, which is the name of the digitizer. So the problem must be with the cam between the cavity and the servers. But this presents a problem because if it’s at the cavity I don’t want to go up there while she’s brooding the small chicks and bump her off. Any case, I’ll keep testing and trying to repair things from the ground. Wish me luck… And I’m really sorry about these snafus that seem to coming often these days. Pete
04/16/25 Ugh, I’m having trouble getting the Cavity Cam streaming again after a short power outage we had last night. I’ve contacted Jorge and I’m confident that he’ll be able to troubleshoot this better than me and get it fixed. Any case, we’re on it. Pete
04/15/25 3:30 PM PST Cox Communication will be shutting down our internet and telephones starting around 4PM today for updates, service, etc. and they may not be restored until late tonight. So if the cams are down during this time that’s likely the reason. Pete
04/8/25 12PM PST IMPORTANT By now I suspect you all know that I had a major meltdown with the Starr Ranch website, including this BNOW cam page. But if you can see this, at least it’s been partly fixed. In the meantime Gretchen is going to try to drill deep and restore this page so that the comments are current and not missing the last two years or so… Though she might not be able to get to this until Thursday 4/10. But feel free to comment now as usual; they should appear normally. I’m also about to try to restore the 4 video feeds. So if you don’t see them now please wait a bit and refresh the page. I’m hoping I’ll have this done before 1PM PST.
Sorry about all this and thanks for your understanding and patience. Pete
1/23/23 I have been working with Jorge to try to fix all the cams. But the problems are a little bit baffling. I still don’t know why the Trail and the Limb cam aren’t working and Jorge recently identified a failed hard drive in the PC that powers the Cavity and Bat cams. So I’m trying to deal with all this but the fixes haven’t been straight forward. Sigh… Pete
8/22/22 Hey y’all, I’m really sorry about all the cam probs and will try to fix them ASAP. Was taking a little vacay last week but now am back in the saddle. Any case, I think the Cavity and Bat cam are now back up after a little switcher meltdown that I luckily was able to quickly fix. But the Trail and Limb cams are still frustrating me about why they aren’t working. Nonetheless will try to focus more on fixing them tomorrow. Thanks again for your patience. Pete
8/8/22 Trail and Limb cam update. I’m having a lot of trouble trying to isolate why these cams aren’t working again. Typically, when we have a power outage they automatically come back online when power is restored. But this time it didn’t happen and I have yet to figure out why not. I will keep trying and appreciate your patience. BTW, being so darn hot here these days just adds to my frustration… Thanks, Pete
8/6/22 OK, the Cavity AND Bat cams should now both be back up, though I still need to troubleshoot the Nest Cams that are on the Limb and Trail. I’m quite sure I’ll figure them out, but for now that they didn’t automatically come back after our power was restored baffles me. Stay tuned… Thanks, Pete
8/4/22 Tomorrow, Friday August 5, SCEdison will be cutting off our power to do some maintenance. This will likely be between 9AM and 3PM PST, so the cams will be off. When power is restored it will take me a bit to recreate the YouTube Cavity and Bat cam URLS and restore them to the page. Thanks.
Pete
3/4/22 I cleaned the bat cam lens today so hopefully you now have a clearer view of the box. Am also looking into buying a new cavity cam that has a built in mic so I can replace the current cam and not have to deal with a separate mic. So stay tuned. In meantime pls know I’m peddling as fast as I can… Thanks. Pete
1/28/22 I’m really sorry, folks. I’m just having a lot of trouble getting the cavity cam to show again on the page. Jorge and I are in touch so hopefully will be able to figure out soon. Pete
1/27/22 Sorry, but I’m having trouble getting the Cavity and Batbox cam YouTube feeds restarted after our power was restored around 4:30PM PST today. I just contacted Jorge who I know will be able to bail me out of this mess as he always has… In the meantime, thanks for your patience. Pete
1/27/22 Cams will be down for most of today as SC Edison replaces a power pole. Should be back up again around 5PM PST. Pete
12/09/21 We have been part of the CA Mountain Lion Project for a very long time with many cougars having been GPS collared at Starr Ranch and, as of last count, at least 5 using Starr Ranch’s Bell Canyon as a major movement corridor. Recently, The CMLP partnered with FLOAT to try to raise a few bucks via T-shirt sales. So if interested, visit: https://float.org/collections/california-mountain-lion-project. Thanks, Pete
11/28/21 Cavity cam should be back up. Sorry for the delay. As usual, Jorge helped walk me though the process once again… Only thing left to do is try to figure out why the Cavity and Bat cams don’t auto play when you load the page. Pete
11/26/21 Our power is back on as of 11AM PST and I was able to recreate the YouTube stream for the Bat Cam and get it back up. But am having trouble with the Cavity Cam. May turn out to be a cam hardware problem. Any case, I’ll attack this problem early next week. Will be a lot of cleaning up of wiring and connections, which I hope are the easy fixes to the current problem as well as the flaky audio and interference often seen on the video. Never a dull moment… Pete
11/25/21 Cams are down due to high winds staring last night and SCEdison cut our power for fire/safety reasons (There’s a 12KV power line that provides us our electricity running over almost a mile of dry grass and coastal sage scrub – so we get it…) Any case, winds are supposed to be calm again by tomorrow AM (Friday). If so, and and as soon as we get our electricity back, I’ll relaunch the cams. Pete
11/12/21 Thanks to some tips from scylla and Jorge – and me finally realizing that I had copied the wrong link, DOH!!! – all 4 cams should be up again. Sorry for the delay. Pete
11/11/21 Still having problems getting new YouTube feeds going for the Cavity and Bat cams. At least Firefox doesn’t like it although it was just a cut and paste of a new URL over an old one. Pete
11/10/21 I’m having trouble relaunching the Cavity and Bat Box streams. I’ve contacted Jorge, who as we all know is a whiz at this. So I suspect he’ll get them back up ASAP. Pete
11/9/21 SC Edison has to do a pole repair at Starr Ranch so our power will be down today from about 11AM thru 3PM PST. All cams will be off during this time. Also, it may take me a while to get two of the feeds back up that use YouTube streaming once the power comes back on. They’ll need new URLs. Thanks, Pete
8/12/21 I just took the HOFI cam offline and will put it back up if/when the HOFI’s return next spring. Chances are high that they will. Pete
5/11/21 I just took the Trail Cam offline and replaced it with a House Finch cam for now. I just noticed today that the HOFI’s had a nest at our office and, as luck would have it, the cam from last season was already in place. However, I’ll still monitor the trail cam and post vids when something interesting walks by. Like Earlier this Morning…
3/16/21 Interesting that the male has been a no-show for a while. Could be something happened to him, but also could be that he’s getting in the “mode” of roosting outside the cavity as he eventually has in the past as chicks start hatching and it starts to get a little crowded in the cavity. However, it seems a bit early for that. Any case, let’s just see how things unfold. Pete
3/14/21 Hmmmm, 32 days since first egg laid? First hatch should be soon…
In meantime, for those who sent me their t-shirt info as part of your egg pledge I need a little more time than anticipated to send them to you. I’m reluctant to go to the post office due to this covid mess. However, I’m fully set up at the ranch to weigh and print correct postage. The down side is that the USPS is getting pickier about what they’ll allow to be left at our mailbox for pickup. They’ve twice returned a t-shirt to Wynne that had the correct postage. It was because it was “bulky” that they didn’t accept it (?!). And this was not done by our really great mail carrier, Tim. It had gone through the system after he picked it up so he was compelled to return it. Any case, I ask for your patience. You’ll eventually get your t-shirt. Thanks. Pete
3/3/21
Thank you EVERYONE who donated to the 2021 Egg Pledge! This means A LOT to Sandy and me and really helps Starr Ranch. And also to PLowrie who kept this all organized so well!
For those who donated $5 or more, this is the T-shirt link for you to go to so you can provide the info I need to send you a Starr Ranch T-shirt. It uses the “old” Starr Ranch website look so there might be some bad links in the right side bar. But the form should work fine.
Note: I have plenty of T-shirts except that I’m out of Short Sleeve Adult Medium. Sizes tend to run large so, if you think you’re a medium, a small would probably work. Pete
2/24/21 Latest egg dates:
#1 – 2/12/21 – 9:13 am
#2 – 2/14/21 – 12:39 pm
#3 – 2/16/21 – 5:52 pm
#4 – 2/18/21 – 9:38 pm
#5 – 2/21/21 – 2:03 am
#6 – 2/23/21 – 11:40 am
Pete
2/21/21 Thanks to all who are pledging a donation/egg or contribute to Starr Ranch in other ways! Given that Sandy and I have to raise a few hundred thousand dollars every year to keep the wheels on Starr Ranch, this all helps! Eggs laid as of today:
#1 – 2/12/21 – 9:13 am
#2 – 2/14/21 – 12:39 pm
#3 – 2/16/21 – 5:52 pm
#4 – 2/18/21 – 9:38 pm
#5 – 2/21/21 – 2:03 am
Pete
2/16/21 The Cavity and Bat Cams should now automatically play when you load the page. Jorge discovered that even if the code included the autoplay command, they wouldn’t because YouTube was reluctant to have embedded video that might have mic/audio suddenly start playing upon loading a page and blast the user with unexpected sound. So he found the code to have these two videos load with the sound defaulted to mute. Which is a non-issue because neither of these feeds has audio… Thanks, Jorge! Pete
2/7/21 Gretchen told me that the plugin that allows one to add a pic to a comment is no longer supported. So she’s looking for another one. Pete
2/6/21 The Limb cam is now running and also has an active mic in the vicinity of the cavity. But two things:
1) If you want to hear the audio make sure the mic (speaker icon) is clicked to “on” in (usually) the lower or upper right corner of the Limb cam feed.
2)There’s a longer delay before you see/hear the live Limb cam feed than the Cavity cam feed. So while you might hear audio from the Limb cam mic it likely won’t sync with the Cavity cam activity. Pete
2/1/21 This is part of the nuts and bolts needed to keep the cams going. But it’s fun for me. Love doing it. Just wish there weren’t so many tech glitches to deal with. Then again, that’s just part of the deal. Pete
1/30/21 I started working on replacing the PTZ cam today. But among other things, mice have chewed a bunch of wires so I have a lot of repairs to do and may have to pull new wires. So this may take some time. But I’m hoping that if not by tomorrow, maybe Monday things will be back to “normal” again. (But is there any such thing a “normal” any more…?) Pete
1/29/21 Trail cam change is done. Pete
1/29/21 I’m about to change the trail cam to a better, hopefully higher resolution, model so it may be down for a while. Also, when things dry out here a bit, tomorrow I’m going to go up to the cavity after dark and after the pair has left and install a static cam in place of the PTZ to view the limb activity. It will also have a mic so it should be able to pick up audio in the cavity as well. Pete
1/29/21 All – Please don’t put your email address in a comment. It’s way too easy for a bot to grab it and then start using it to spam you. If you want to get in touch with another viewer just send an email to me and I’ll email that person asking if it’s OK for me to share their email with you. I’m happy to do this. Pete
1/21/21 I’ve emailed Jorge about the constant cavity cam buffering. Will fix as soon as I hear from him. In meantime I removed the 360X270 cavity stream. Was redundant anyway and just wasting bandwidth. Pete
Hey Guys!!!
LOVE the poem Emma! And Trish…thanks for keeping up with the birdies at SR!
I guess we could make National Cheese Day a nod to Wallace and Gromit! What do you think?
Hey Lynn, have you seen the sequoias in person? Seeing them is definitely on my bucket list! I know they are just MAGICAL!
Scylla…where you at cat?
Sending tons of love, light and peace your way!!!
An article on what the giant Sequoias are facing with fires and climate change. They and the redwoods give me goosebumps and tears. They are so magnificent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/09/california-fires-sequoias/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F34ed5e1%2F6161bfa09d2fda9d41061f44%2F59699e519bbc0f6d71c58d2c%2F25%2F70%2F6161bfa09d2fda9d41061f44
This shouldn’t have a paywall:
https://wapo.st/3uZcZG9
“A JOYFUL SIGHT”
alas, tis once again
l check and no owl l see
l hope it won’t be long
until inside the cavity
a beautiful barn owl appears
and we all feel delight
after months of waiting
it would be a joyful sight
we might watch it sleep for hours
occasionally shaking its feathers and such
it might eject a pellet or yawn
to please us doesn’t take too much
hey maybe, it will happen tonight
there is no ruling that out
then maybe all around the world
there will be a collective shout
of WOWZA! WOWZA!
YIPPEE KI-YAY!
COWABUNGA &
HIP HIP HOORAY!! 🙂
Dear emma, it is always a joy and a delight to be on the receiving end of one of your delightful poems. Thank you, once again for expressing so well what we all feel. 💖
Thank you emma, love the words, and I’m patiently (not) waiting 🙂
Have a Happy World Octopus Day!
Oops. Was yesterday.
Today is National Cheese Day.
Now there’s a day for me!
I see the incredible sight of light rain falling on the trail cam and can hear it in the limb cam audio. Such a welcome sight to see and I hope it makes it to my house in Anaheim.
Good Morning, Trish! Still seeing a few raindrops on the Trail cam. We have had enough rain to dampen the streets so far, today, here in San Gabriel. Hope it is a sign of more gentle rain to come for the day. We need it to be slow and soaking right now.
Wishing one and all a damp day. 😊
Hoping you got a bit more rain there than I did in Anaheim. Just a sparse drizzle for me, but hoping the hills and inland areas got a little. My weeds are fine without.
Listening in for awhile, lots of Common Poorwills were calling for quite some time with some rustling sounds off camera. Then Seth Raven started in and poorwills stopped. Also heard very faint rooster calls of what I gather is a distant Great horned Owl, and the Acorn Woodpeckers are starting to wake up too. Red-shouldered Hawk called once as well. And now is calling again as I write this. Love listening to the sounds, but very challenging with the audio so low.
Have a groovy day Wynne, and all of youze!
We got only 0.03″ in Altadena.
What we had when I wrote is all we got. I’d say that Lynn’s measurement was pretty much in line with what we got. Sigh…
Gray Fox had a quick wander almost in circles last evening but couldn’t be snapped clearly. Then this afternoon our Bobcat appeared just as a longish buffer resolved – we only got to see it walk out of our picture on the right:
Talking of “if only an owl”… I remember when we used to be glued to the PTZ reporting every rasp, chirple, cleak, screech – and there weren’t many so it was really special to hear something. Don’t hear nuttin these days tho 🦉
BOBCAT – should I have left this well alone? But you’d hardly see the cat in the trees if I hadn’t cropped it.
Did it bring a small prey item with it? I think it did.
2m48s
Great capture, thanks as always Scylla!
Now if an Owl would show… that would be great. Gotta be hard to make a living out there right now. Doing a rain dance that we get more weather in the area.
I agree with Wynne how nice the thunder and rain was the other night. I think we got 0.13″ of rain, so not nearly enough.
Here are some pictures of beautiful birds (including a condor and vulture — beauty in deed.)
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2021/this-stunning-collection-bird-portraits-explores?ms=digital-eng-email-ea-newsletter-engagement_20211006_audubon-magazine_summer-2021-issue&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=engagement_20211006_audubon-magazine&utm_content=summer-2021-issue&emci=00d80988-bc26-ec11-981f-c896653b9208&emdi=9bec32a5-c226-ec11-981f-c896653b9208&ceid=291075
So good to see the regulars. JoAnne must be over the moon with her grandchild. Take care.
Beautiful photos of beautiful birds, thank you Lynn 🥰
Several of them, I’ve never heard of !!!
Thanks Lynn for sharing cool information!
Such beauty and keeping me learning, still haven’t finished my lessons from Caturday 🙂
Warmest wishes of Peace for you and all of yours.
Hi Guys!
Just poking around! Lots of mouse and spidy activity I see! Scylla were the barks high pitched? If they were they were probably coyotes.
Well, good night …sending lots of love and light your way!
Oh look, we’ve got a new member – MsGeorgia/PromPrincess 🌻🌼🌷💐
Would you believe, I searched for the barking audio right away but couldn’t find it – it must have come from outside my windows.
AND – another possible misjudgement – did I get the Fatty Spider survival evidence from BEFORE the mouse attack, having made an error when re-cutting the footage? I’ll have to keep a special watch for him.
Hi Guys!
Checking in again….bobcats are crazy gorgeous! Thanks Scylla! Well let me go. I have a lot to do…a rain dance for SR and finish a painting I will probably toss…
Sending tons of love and light your way!
BIG DRAMA on a SMALL SCALE 😯😯😯
(You don’t miss anything as a result of the cropping, whatever happened was disappeared.)
What a coincidence that we were talking about this the other day!
Heeheeeeeeeeeeee 🕷
Sounds like a dog barking – on and on and on – but could be a coyote of course.
Pause… single short bark… stopped?
Lotsa lightning – I’m trying to get video/audio, it will take a long time – wot with one thing and another.
Very disappointing sound, I’ve amplified as much as poss but there are gaps where there were clangs etc that had to be eliminated because of… well I know why.
3m03s
A _very_ windy spell has just subsided somewhat… for now.
Isn’t it wonderful? We had some of that here, too. Thank you for documenting that it does, indeed, sometimes rain in So. Cal.
Before all that – this is Fatty Spider’s web – I had seen him working on it, going to ‘n fro under the arch but it wasn’t until this daycam view today that it came to light 🕸🕸🕸
One of the “pictures of the week” in a UK bird magazine.
Starling, about to bite the hand that feeds it 😁
https://www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/sturnus-vulgaris/1080012
The GOOD NEWS is:
The Trail cam has kept going for hours and hours and hours!
The BAD NEWS is:
I didn’t find a single solitary soul in all that time.
And only mice on the Cavity/Limb cams.
TRAIL – Late evening an Opossum walked thru right-to-left, not clear – then buffering all night until I refreshed manually @ 07:30, no-one seen since.
Mice were busy in the cavity, here’s one going up the wall while another runs towards the back:
On the Limb cam the mice branched out (or rather, down) onto the lower branch and sent my heart into my mouth 😵 There was a long buffer which left the mouse teetering near the end (not “teetering”, of course, that’s for the sake of more colourful language) but when the buffer stopped the mouse continued where it left off, back to the euc trunk 😁 Next time it only got a short way along before it froze without a buffer sign, but again it carried on when the freeze ended. So we’re not necessarily missing anything, but it’s easy to see how the Limb and Cavity cams get miles out of sync.
No Starlings or ACWOs this morning, but there was this bird – you can hardly see it so I’ve upped the sound in the hope that its voice will show up but I don’t think it does.
It’s very embarrassing because it’s too light in some places and too dark in others, so I’ve made it Unlisted – which means that TRISH won’t get notified so I hope she pops in 😊
1m13s
.
I can’t find anything more exciting, WYNNE 😢 but here were three mice setting out this evening:
2m10s
Foxy was here – s/he came down out of the trees but at this point turned and walked out leftward:
A bit later s/he returned and walked thru from left to right – but was too ghostly to snap clearly.
Ritz mouse was just out doing its evening exercises, running out the upper branch and back a few times. Fun to watch. I don’t know for sure about the rest of you, but I’m ready for something a bit more exciting.
There was just a repeat – and in the cavity the mouse was showing up well several times at the front, but the dang interference spoils it.
While it was on the upper branch I was on the phone to my friend telling him about dreading the mouse falling off – but he said the mouse would probably be OK, what with leaf litter and parachute effect and other scientific stuff 🥴
And now the Limb cam has just buffered itself onto day so I have to manually refresh it…
G’night fowlks!
Hi all. Happy Caturday. Here is a free “course” on Owls from Cornell. On the “what will this baby Owl grow into”, our very own Barn Owl was so easy (not all are). Have fun.
I used to get emails from Imgur every Caturday but they suddenly stopped ☹ I haven’t tried to get them reinstated (if they still exist) because you never know, you might get inundated with other stuff you don’t want.
Imgur started out purely as an image hosting site but has been trying to become a social media platform for a long time now, so they try to draw you in to the general frippery that people upload.
Lynn, how good to “see” you again! I hope all is well with you and your family.
Morning! What’s up Buttercups??
Scylla…you are not alone out there! I have been peeking in and I know others have been too!
Thank you for hanging in with us here across the pond while we try to sweet talk some owls to come home to the Ritz!
Love and Light zooming your way everyone!
Amy
Amy
And right back at you Amy! I peek in all the time, but not much to say. It’s that quiet time on the cams. Thank goodness for Scylla keeping us in the loop on what we miss out on during the evenings! Have a super day everyone reading this! Patti 😀
Late morning, BOBCAT was on the Trail but didn’t “perform” for us:
1m22s
I joined those 2 clips with a new video editor I’m trying to learn – it’s much more sophisticated than what I’m used to but, to be honest, I think it’s very crappy (I’d never say that word on an English forum but I gather that it’s OK in America 🥴 ) it’s so torturous to do simple things.
Nifty capture SCYLLA! You do give us gifts each day
and it is most appreciated. Perhaps you could include
some Barn Owl shots…okay??? )))
🙂 🙂 🙂
It’s OK, dear Emma – I know you’re having a little jest with me 😉😉😉
Hi all – I’ve been having a torrid tech time and have got nothing done – or what I did do was unproductive, eg frozen Trail all night and much of the day so far… and other troubles.
I came across this yesterday, maybe you’ve all see it before but it’s worth another look, I’m confident 🙀🐈
That’s one scared pussycat, screaming loudly! The bobcat had no fear of the cat, only of the video operator. I wonder what the bobcat would have done if the camera operator had been less intrusive…..maybe invited the cat to come outside to play?
I was impressed that the pussycat didn’t run away 🐈
Hi All. Three mousies playing and chasing in the cavity. That’s all that’s happening.
TRAIL – lots of buffering overnight, not much rain, I didn’t find any critters except this one:
All round, it’s been a very, very quiet night and morning up to 07:45. A tiny spider was spinning up ‘n down in the cavity for a while, we’ve seen them before – I remember one time a litte one had been working for some days (?) and a Cellar Spider suddenly decided enough was enough and captured it 😥
An Acorn Woodpecker checked outside the cavity but only for a few moments and it was dull light.
Last night:
A single Acorn Woodpecker turned up in the morning, mainly clung to the euc trunk pecking at this ‘n that, then 3 Starlings but they didn’t stay long.
Mice have started their explorations, no other activity seen on Limb or Trail.
G’night fowlks!
TRAIL overnight (nothing further up to 11:30 this morning)
Rain, Gray Fox, Bobcat twice – the same one, or… ?
1m12s
I think they were two different bobcats because one had very little tail and the other had a more floppy little one. But I can’t imagine how many hours of scrolling through video footage you must spend to zero in on the ten seconds of good footage! You are amazing, scylla! And patient!
Hi Meg!
I am so grateful for your rain! I know not only hoomans but the critters are thankful too.
Wow Scylla, never thought about a mouse eating an insect or spiders! So, now we know! I have tons of spiders here at the barn. Killed a Black Widow the other day moving a stack of wood…ICK! I totally need mice here but I guess the cats have eliminated that solution for me.
I’m so glad to see the birds you caught Scylla! I alway think of birds as the sacred connection between sky and earth.
Oh well! Enough philosophic thought for the day. You guys have a SPECTACULAR day! Sending love and light your way!
Raining again. We’ve had cloud here all day (mixed with smoke from the north) and a light misting of rain this morning. It’s supposed to clear and get hot again by Thursday.
Thanks, Meg. I was wondering if that was rain or spider webs on the Trail cam. You answered my question.
Every little bit helps.
🐭🕷🕸🐭🕸🕷🐭
I’ve been wondering about the absence of spiders, particularly Cellar Spiders, in the cavity, so I asked Google a question – and the answer was:
“Mice eat most insects they can get their little claws on. They will eat flies, grasshoppers, caterpillars, spiders, and other small insects”.
But apparently they don’t actively seek out spiders.
Dear scylla – I am hereby declaring you an International Treasure!!!
Thank you for everything you do. I honestly don’t know how you manage to do all you do, but I know your SR family certainly appreciates you.
Amen to that Wynne
Yes! ever so much…
a wish of Peace for all
The ACWOs soon returned for a repeat performance, except they stayed longer. Then much-missed Seth Raven turned up – heard more than seen:
53s
(BTW – please be assured that on neither occasion could the ACWOs be seen on the cavity cam, they didn’t poke their heads in far enough.)
.
No-one seen on the Trail up to 17:30.
No Barn Owl yet, but… 😃
(I admit I cheated but not by much, the mice ran out a few minutes before and afterwards.)
23:10hr
Then my cam froze until 04:44.
This morning, this birdie made me very upset because it brought home how many of our lovely birds I’ve forgotten. For example, I could remember “California” and “Spotted” being 2 versions with the same name but couldn’t remember “Towhee” until I did a search of my videos 😥
Well, I wondered if this could be female Scott’s Oriole but it doesn’t look the right colours, but that could be deceiving and it’s blurry.
24s
Mid-morning, and another interesting little visit:
1m33s
I think the yellow, black and white birdie is a Lesser Goldfinch. The Acorn Woodpeckers are both males.