Feed Me!
I finally got around to putting up the bird feeder for the winter. It’s a Bird Buddy feeder, which includes a camera that sends photos and video clips of birds that show up. It also uses AI in some way to identify birds for you.
We’ve had it for a couple of years, and the company has been sending out occasional app upgrades, but let’s just say it’s a work in progress.
The AI is still kind of hit or miss. If you’ve ever noticed how Google’s CAPTCHAs are still asking people to click on crosswalks and bikes, that’s a hint that their AI is still struggling to recognize things they don’t want their cars to hit. This bird recognition AI is OK at identifying birds, but it will still struggle to identify even basic cardinals and mourning doves if it captures them at a funny angle.
The Bluetooth connection is also a bit wonky at times, and like pretty much every app ever, setting it up can involve a bunch of spinning and spinning and spinning.
But of course the birds don’t care about any of that as long as there are seeds, and it does a perfectly fine job of delivering food to hungry beaks. And it does managed to deliver a lot of interesting closeups of birds chowing on sunflower seeds, even if there are a number of duds.
So let’s talk, Deadsplinterseeders, about anything remotely related to this. Are you feeding birds this winter? Had any interesting visitors?
Had any struggles with squirrels? This year I remembered to set up the pole far enough away from anything squirrels could use to jump over to the feeder, and the baffle on the pole seems to be working so far.
For that matter, have you gotten a chore done that you had been putting off? Maybe you’ve had an encounter with AI which hasn’t worked as advertised? Or maybe you’ve struggled with an app which hasn’t made life easier, or simpler, or gotten the job done?
Have you seen any interesting birds or beasts on walks or driving around, wild or domesticated? Or since it may be really cold where you are, seen any good animal documentaries?
Share what you like, friends!
no feeding the birbs here
partially coz we dont seem to be having that kind of winter
and partially coz it probably means i need to worm my cats again
i dont feel bad about the birbs either….. i watch the wee fuckers taunt them and twitter amongst themselves
and then one… misstimes it
awww
Every couple of years a hawk nails a dove in our yard that was getting too confident and didn’t take off when the other birds were going for shelter.
is hard to feel sorry for birbs what sit on my shed….and take turns hopping to the middle of the garden and fly away from the cats at the last second
play stupid games win stupid prices is a birb thing..turns out
I just got a Bird Buddy for Xmas & thought I remember you saying you had one. I got it set up and birds are visiting (mostly chickadees) but it has misidentified the same bird as multiple things & called the tail of same bird a robin. It also doesn’t send me alerts most of the time when the birds are there? Hopefully it gets better or I figure out if I have some setting wrong.
My daughter turned me on to Merlin which is great for identifying birds & knows the most common ones & uncommon ones in each area. You can also play the sounds it makes which can bring them closer sometimes. We have been walking near the water & watching some amazing Barrow’s Goldeneye & Hooded Mergansers. We have been trying to get pictures of a Kingfisher that hangs out in the same place every day but he is very skittish.
We still have daily battles of Annas hummingbirds even with the cold and wind.
They’re going to a subscription service (of course) that lets you fine tune how many photos you get and to improve the filtering. I won’t pay for that.
Saw a Cooper’s hawk perched up high in a neighbor’s tree a couple days ago. Too far away for my camera phone, but just nice to watch through the binocs.
Got my thistle feeders out there and took the hummingbird feeders down, but I need to get the suet feeders out next week. I’m late with those, but still hope to see some woodpeckers and waxwings on those.
I just use an old cup to toss birdseed out in the back yard each morning. I’ve had bird feeders over the years, no matter what I get the squirrels destroy it. Even the tray feeders that literally… are completely open on the top, those assholes chewed through the metal screening and still ruined them.
I used to put out suet for the woodpeckers, but the damn grackles just decimate the suet feeders before the woodpeckers can get to them.
That being said, winter birbs mean my faves, the dark-eyed juncos, are back. Aside from them, we’ve got the usual suspects – mourning doves, lots of cardinals, blue jays, some robins, house sparrows, some white throated sparrows, Eurasian tree sparrows, American tree sparrows, white crowned sparrows. Basically, a fuckton of sparrows.
Also some smaller hawks, the kind we’d just say ope there’s a chickenhawk. Probably cooper’s hawks or red-tailed hawks if you could see their tails.
My neighbor hunts with red-tailed hawks. It’s a frightful and awesome thing to watch.
Hunts what? Small game or birds?
Those talons are scary enough they might even take out small children.