Another shot I did just… because… I had a little time after my typical setup, so I threw the camera on a tripod with the panhead and just sat it at the bird feeder for about an hour and a half. Just to see what would come, I let it run it’s course. In the time I had the camera running, I had a few squirrels try to get food from the feeder (along with some very good closeup shots of one eating from it), a few nice ground shots (from earlier in the day) and a cardinal even decided to show up! — that’s a rare occurance to get on tape, period, but there it is!
Bird Feeder 2005 High Quality Version [11:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup Bird Feeder 2005 Low Quality Version [11:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
Well, I went back to the old method of using the platform to hold the mat to the ground… and (as you can see in the thumbnail, if you’re looking at the website) the squirrels didn’t mind going back. Because I have the $10 camera now as a backup camera and also have another “cheapo” eBay camera in reserve (this one is an exact duplicate of the camera I used when I started the project - an old CCD-FX330, which sadly enough has a LANC jack, but doesn’t accept a LANC controller for some reason), I decided to test with 3 angles this time — the new 3rd angle is basicially another version of the front angle, but a lot wider (it shows the other tree in the yard, so you can see other squirrels checking out what the squirrel on cam is doing.) The 2 main cameras have panheads and LANC control, and the 3rd additional angle is just there to show a wider version of the whole yard. The cool thing about this day is the squirrels take the piece of foam out of the mat, then the one who pulled it out is confused with what to do with it… “OK, it’s out! … Now what…?!”
With the success of the other 2 platform-less mat tests, I tried it one last time just… because… This edit is more about getting closeups of the action than following the general wide action of the squirrels, because I wanted some closeups of them working for the food to show in a master edit. I noticed the squirrels were getting a little more frustrated working with this setup, so I figured it’s probably time to go back to the tried-and-true wooden platform method again, but I wanted to try it one more time to see if they were still interested in working with it free-form the way it was… I didn’t get as many squirrels as I usually do - Patches came and got some nuts out, but she ran off after about 3 minutes (maybe because the camera moved?), and the other squirrel that checked it out left after only a little while also, so this seemed like a good reason to go back to the old platform…
Another platform-less mat test! The test on the 19th did so well that I decided to do it again… same deal as before, same basic amount of food (a small bit on the bottom as well, just to see if they’d notice it) and the same panhead setup… this day went on much longer than the 19th though! A squirrel that I dubbed MDS (Mrs. Destructive Squirrel), who was collectively named Patches (because of the interesting patches of fur on it’s back) destroyed the project completely, getting all of the food out, without any problem of it not being bolted down to anything - and that in itself was an interesting thing to see, because she drug it halfway around the yard to get to it! This way of doing the project is a very interesting thing to watch but it’s essential to both use a panhead, and of course, be there as it’s happening! It was a little more annoying sound-wise however, as I can’t move the mic with the project, so as the project gets dragged away from it, the sound from the shotgun mic is a little less reliable.
Well, now… time for something a little different! Since I now have the whole panhead system setup, and can move the cameras to accomidate any actions that may happen in the area, I decided to try my project setup a little minimalisticly… a little lazier… a little old school… without stapling the bag to it’s wooden platform. With this test, the objective of the day is the same, but the mat isn’t held down to anything, so it gives the squirrels a little more to work at if they want to get the nuts inside of the bag… I wasn’t sure if it would work this way, because the squirrels have a habit of knocking the whole platform on top of themselves and getting scared off because of that, but it seemed to, the squirrels seemed to have fun with it, and as a bonus, they seemed to keep the action close to the microphone, so I have all of the sounds of the day as well! But the plot thickens…
Well, I’ve tried it before, but I wanted to see how the squirrels would deal with it this year - I made a feeder mat with peanuts put in recessed holes in the foam. There is food in the bag, but it’s not visable to the squirrel… so how do they deal with it? Well, this time, they didn’t! The squirrel only found the first few nuts that were visable and ignored the other ones stuck in the foam! They sniffed around for awhile (and there are some excellent natural sounds of that on this recording!) but they didn’t find any of the more recessed nuts… Score one for those who want to hide nuts from squirrels (of course, I’ve done this before and they’ve eventually found them, etc., etc… but not this time!)