Snow Storm 12/19/09

We had quite a storm, around 13" of snow! All three of my web cams were busy, which limited my web site updates. I am not complaining, this is the kind of problem that I like! My weather site had 75 unique visitors, the most ever, not counting the time that I accidentally hijacked The Weather Underground radar. :) So I thought that I would post some of the snow pics. First off, here is a shot of the feeders from the web cam. Unfortunately, there no birds at the time. Here is a mocker, some finch, goldfinch, another, and a chickadee. I have been looking for juncos since it started to get cold. Some people call these snow birds, guess I know why! This is a shot of the driveway, from the web cam. The doves don't seem to mind the snow. This is a shot from my window, you can see the snow covering the birdcam in the lower left. I saw this downy today, while I was outside without my camera. Luckily, he came back. Here is a nice pic from the Wingscapes camera. Finally, I sort of like this pic, she looks lonely.

Edit- I wasn't happy with the pics from my window. I zoomed in on the downy. The goldfinch didn't get much better, though.

Birdcam 2.0

Wow, I did not realize how long it has been since the last post! But there is news. Wingscapes announced two new bird cams, The Audubon, and Birdcam 2.0 The specs on Audonbon sound close to the original Birdcam.
The original, what I use, high res is 2048 X 1536.

The Audubon:
WSCA03 Audubon BirdCam High 2560x1920, Med 1600x1200, Low 800x600. Video Format AVI files, 640x480

The Birdcam 2.0 has higher resolution, and adds a flash.
WSCA02 BirdCam 2.0 Photo Format High 3264x2448, Med 2024x1536, Low 1024x768 Video Format is the same.

Unfortunately, the one thing that I was hoping for, a rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack, was left out. The new cameras use the same as mine, (4) "D" size batteries. These are big, bulky, heavy, a pain to replace and not "green". Wingscapes does not recommend re-chargeable batteries, but I use 12,000 mAh re-chargeable, and they work fine. These are pricey, but they pay for themselves.

If you are interested in one of these Birdcams, search Google Products for the best price. They are much cheaper than what the Wingscapes site advertises. Also, I would recommend buying the mounting arm.

Here are some of my recent pics. Wish I could lose these guys. Last year I saw a lot of goldfinch. This year, not as many, but they do show up. I like chickadees, and I feel sorry this guy. Where is all the food? This is the first mocker that I have seen this season. And finally, the first carolina wren.