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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 24 1:16 am Post subject:
and their "roads" and alleyways

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 24 7:36 am Post subject:
I have just looked it up Jam Lady, and I was wrong. Apparently they do have bladders, all be it very small, but then they are very small. They just have a bad habit of urinating everywhere. Humans must be rather sensitive to acetamide, or perhaps they just mark rather a lot as it is always possible to tell where they are by the smell.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 24 1:21 pm Post subject:

around 80 small squirts a day, which is where a tail storage and distribution talent is useful for the in-between moments

puddle, tail, trail

very useful for route finding in the dark, ratty has night vision only a little better than humans, good sense of smell though

see in the "dark" has limitations for a tunnel happy critter, ears nose and whiskers work

the scent thing is far more than boundary marking, tis sophisticated road signs and a restaurant guide

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 24 11:31 am Post subject:

birdtown is in spring mode

the daws are delightful, and are starting to properly observe me hand feeding other birds
they have started to ask but still like to keep a distance of around 3 m between us

i might want the big gloves for hand feeding them

rather beaky

the weather, light and my capacity with a hand held big lens is difficult at the mo
i need to find a good way to make effective use of the wireless remote, tripod etc
shoot a box of space when the beast is in that space does seem to work for flight, posing etc, behaviour snaps are better hand held
using the video head for the tripod is plausible for burstshoot snaps as well as for HD5 video, if and big IF i can get comfy in a suitable position to follow the action

the classic move and hold it, i am a tripod, will not work for me any more
i could go mid lens but most of my critters are small and although there is a slight compatibility issue the old big lens seems to work for me for the birds and mice

the tiny stuff is easy with a hand held 30mm macro, unless i have to wait for it or need four hands to drop stunned bait into the web

i think i need to sort kit and get direction re control gear style for the job, i have a feeling i can control/monitor this from the pooter if i use the wires and abilities of camera and pooter

iirc i have seen such rigs on wildlife in the "challenging" jungle shows

the critters will oblige for whatever method as they do not mind my close presence or strange equipment

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 24 6:05 am Post subject:

Can you use a wide strap for the camera round your neck? It might mean holding your breath for a short time while you get the shot. You could do this rather more effectively sitting as long as you don't get your knees in the shot. Nice the birds are so tame. Hearing the birds in the garden a great deal today; one blackbird proclaiming loudly and a robin joined in later when I had been clearing leaves from the patio. No doubt telling me to go away so it could investigate the interesting things I might have uncovered.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 24 10:53 am Post subject:

the camera and lens is close to 3 kg and nearly half a meter long if fully extended

it has a strap and cheese plates and a handle, it balances well at about 300mm

for some stuff that is ok,if it is from a comfy place and fairly quick or using the small lenses that are more manageable, to wait until it is in place and photograph the place the tripod will have to do, crouching while still is now impossible, adapt style to fit the kit which includes me

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 24 4:56 pm Post subject:

ps i quite fancy trying the 5k video now i have the trimmed bush and places for shiney lighting for it, no way i could hand hold that even with expensive image stabilization by camera and lenses, not 30 yrs ago and not now, my hand or shoulder held vid is ok for some stuff but not wildlife standard, just them moving helps a lot

rather strange birdtown observation, for which video would be perfect

hansom the pigeon had a stick in his beak, the proportions would be a staff for a person

at first he seemed to be trying to break it in half, perhaps for transport

then i noticed he wasn't but the stick was worn at both ends and in the middle where gripped

he was poking it into things while showing his prize to a "lady", ok perhaps courtship offering and show off nest skills

then he started using the ends as a digging stick to get seeds from inside the mouse castle

is that what i was watching? yes, he poked seeds were loosened, and then he ate them

some birds do use tools to get to tasty things, but i have never seen or heard of a pigeon doing it

spose showing off and a lucky chance is plausible, i will see if he does it again

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8625
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 24 5:18 pm Post subject:
Not such a "bird brain" as some people make out

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 24 8:20 am Post subject:
Birds can learn where food is concerned. Perhaps lucky chance by some pigeon and then another learnt from it, or he may have thought it out himself. We had a robin who learnt to land on a peanut feeder, and taught others.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 24 5:44 pm Post subject:
i've only seen it that once so far, a few more times and chance goes down the list at the mo i'm open to he was getting something wrong but the digging went surprisingly well

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 24 6:11 pm Post subject:
ps hansom is the one formerly known as scruffy, grin made him an orphan on his first day out, i sort of raised him, but outside in the wild, so he has seen hand tools etc during his "education" if he repeats it is behaviour rather than chance and "interpretation", why he repeats it would be the next puzzle

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 24 6:53 am Post subject:
If he finds it gives him food, is that not a reason to repeat it?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 24 6:56 am Post subject:

I have seen pigeons raising a wing towards rain or a fountain; one in Hampshire and one in Birmingham. The one in Birmingham raised the other wing away from the fountain, so perhaps this is learnt behavior too. It soon realised it wasn't getting water under that wing and turned round. Some experiments have shown that pigeons are quite good at recognising things so perhaps they can associate certain behaviors with results.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45538
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 24 12:20 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

If he finds it gives him food, is that not a reason to repeat it?

yep, although at the mo he finds eating out of my hand easier

as i type he and his lovely wife are doing pigeon pawn on the wall top a few feet away, he might leave tech research until later

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15612

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 24 8:01 am Post subject:

Took someone for a walk through the woods yesterday. The bluebells are out in the bottom part of the wood, although need a week or two to get to their best I think, but they aren't fully out in the top part; higher and further north I think. Found both early and common violets in flower, Solomon's seal in bud, twayblade starting to bud, and toothwort going over a bit. Primroses still flowering, and leaves starting to come on the trees, so rather lovely. Plenty of birds singing too.

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