Thu 30 Nov 2006
This is a sure-tell sign that it’s about to rain soon…
…I usually see about 3 or 4 squirrels resting in the trees like this when it’s about to get rainy… so it’s a good time to check the trees for possible shots! Video follows below, and due to advice from past shots like this, I composed a short-length light dreamy-like musical background piece in Soundtrack to compliment the video…
Picture and video in this post © Zach Glenwright
Wed 29 Nov 2006
This is a somewhat longer clip than I normally post: 10 minutes of feeding captured over the course of about an hour this afternoon in video, rather than the webcams. It has almost everything - suspense, action, acrobatics, fight scene, romance … well OK, I lied about the last one; maybe in the sequel?
This post, as well as the picture and video from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 28 Nov 2006
As far as I can tell, this squirrel has been in this feeder for almost a whole day - at least, he’s been there every time I’ve looked out or looked on the cams this afternoon. And he’s territorial about it too, I watched him chase another squirrel off across the whole tree when it attempted to share the feeder with him. No wonder I’m having to fill this feeder every day!
Meanwhile, yesterdays bag of nuts lasted less than a day so I’ve put out a new one, suitably improved thanks to Abi’s suggestion.
This post and the pictures from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 28 Nov 2006
Yet more vertical squirrely-ness from yesterday’s Backyard Bag Feeder Project’s version of the vertical Pillow Feeder-esque feeder! They seem to like the seeds almost more then the peanuts… hmm…, what does that tell me…?
Well, it’s come to the point in the week where the squirrels are interested… what does that mean? It’s scheduled to rain again! Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday — don’t you just love it when it works out like that…?? I’m going to try a much larger version of this large version of the vertical feeder that’s going to be my “Mark 3″ as it were for Backyard Bag Feeders… More on that as it develops… and it stops raining… and I can finally put my cords and equipment out… and the squirrels re-re-re-re-acclimate to it… and… and… and…… eh, it’ll be a little while…
Tue 28 Nov 2006
This post and the pictures from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 28 Nov 2006
This post and the picture from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 28 Nov 2006
Pssst… other side, idiot!!
This post and the picture from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Mon 27 Nov 2006
I put the pillow feeder back up today, now on the restored Camera 1. I had to dash out, but before leaving, I came back into the house to take a quick look and make sure the camera was pointed in the right direction - and there was already a squirrel on the feeder! So I only had time to grab this quick clip but here’s the first squirrel of the day making the first hole in the bag and helping himself to the first nut. No doubt there will be more holes and a lot less nuts by this time tomorrow. I am leaving the trough birdfeeder on camera 4 as it’s also very popular with the squirrels and you can often see one on there, but the tray feeder is temporarily not on display as camera 7 is down until I feel like persuading Windows to recognise the drivers again.
This post, as well as the picture and video from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Fri 24 Nov 2006
I moved the entire Backyard Bag Feeder up the clothespole a little to see if the squirrels would acclimate to the new height - well, they didn’t seem to have any problems this time! You can see all of their attempts at besting the higher project in the video below…
This feed was recorded on November 22, right before a huge rainstorm hit — it rained all night Wednesday, then all day on Thursday, so I didn’t have a chance to set anything major out on Thursday… I do have the Feeder Project out today (the 24th) though! I’ve done the following things to make it a little different…
• Change the shot - the shot’s now on a tripod, instead of the ground-level shot - having the feeder elevated kind of screwed the shot I’d get on the ground anyway, and with this setup, the exposure is a lot better!
• Change the project - on Wednesday, I had the Feeder project tied to the pole with wireties. Now it’s hanging from a wire and lightly secured on the bottom to the pole - this will be interesting to see if they’ll figure this version out (probably…)
• Add a mic - I added my shotgun mic to the pole, so that even though the camera is moved away from the shot, the sound won’t be compromised…
Thu 23 Nov 2006
A very happy thanksgiving to my viewers (both of you) 
Ok now we’ve got that out of the way … there has been a load of activity in the yard and here are just a couple of clips of it. The first was captured yesterday evening and the second this morning, and you’ll see how much seed has disappeared out of the pillow feeder in that time - just about all of it. It’s interesting to see that some squirrels will go straight for this feeder, which is far tougher to access than the tray right next door, while others prefer the easier option. In the second clip, a squirrel frantic to get at the very last of the seed actually gets all the way into the bag and has to wriggle out again. I think he gives himself a bit of a scare, but it doesn’t stop him and he’s back again immediately.
Footnote: by lunchtime they’d cleared out all the seeds, the bottom of the bag was neatly chewed open right from one end to the other. As I’ve temporarily run out of bags, that feeder will be down for a short while.
This post and the videos from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Thanksgiving Movie #1, 11-23-06 [5:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup Thanksgiving Movie #2, 11-23-06 [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in PopupWed 22 Nov 2006
This is a slightly better quality clip of a squirrel on the pillow feeder. Not terrific and certainly not up to Zach’s quality as it was shot at a high level of digital zoom, but at least there is a better and more colorful image than I can provide with the webcams.
This post, as well as the picture and video from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 21 Nov 2006
Due to the bag falling over on the 20th towards the end, I wanted to make a more sturdy design, so I tied the chain I was using to hang the bag up to the pole down with a wiretie and put a large rock in front of the bag to keep them from pulling it down (which did cut the challenge back a little but not too much!) One more day, I left everything sit outside, and true to the 20th’s project, nothing happened during the day… no interested squirrels, no squirrels even in the area… nothing. But fortunately for me, and also similarly to the 20th’s project, the cavalcade of squirrels came around at about 4pm — they’re still interested, and they’ll stop at nothing to get the nuts out of the bag, even if it means climbing down from the top of it! A few squirrels (it may have been the same one more than once) climbed up to the top of the mat to get the nuts out of the top of it! As you can see, they’re getting more acrobatic, they’re more interested in it (one of them even scent marks it, at about 1:50 in, making it theirs) and they’re more into the challenge of the hanging feeder idea! Next time… the entire setup will be about an inch higher off of the ground… but rain’s coming, and that severely limits the length that I can keep cameras outside, $10 camera or not!
Mon 20 Nov 2006
I left the Feeder mat and the camera out overnight on the 19th to see if anything else would chance the project during the day… and nothing did… but that all changed in the middle of the day! At around 3:30pm, the squirrels started to come — and this time, they were determined to get the nuts out of the bag! One of the more interesting shots of the day (there were many good shots!!) was the squirrel literally digging into the bag with it’s back claws to prop itself up to get a nut out of the top of the bag - one of the things I wanted to see if they would do on my vertical design (they’ve done it on Chris’s version of my project many times, even when it’s dangling in mid-air!) and they did! Very, very, very cool to see them working to get the nuts that way! I didn’t think to try the vertical design before Chris tried it, because I didn’t think the squirrels would be interested — even after I started to try it I didn’t think I would get anyone interested here, but the squirrels are proving me wrong, to the point of making the entire bag fall to the ground towards the end of the video! With the bag being on the ground though, it was a little too high compared to the camera’s height, so you don’t see as much of the squirrels working, but you can still see them!
Mon 20 Nov 2006
I was going to post this on Saturday, but I didn’t have any time to… Once again, the squirrels at the Pillow Feeder brought it down, double-strength wire or not! Video 1 is a shot of one of the squirrels tearing at the bottom of the bag to get the rest of the seeds, and Video 2 is the shot of the squirrel snapping the wire again - it’s interesting to note that before when they’d snap the wire, they’d jump off of the bag - now they’re so used to it, they just ride it down to the ground!
And down she goes again!
Although written by me (Zach), the picture and videos in this post are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Video 1 - Bottom Tearing [6:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup Video 2 - Wire Snapping! [0:55m]: Play Now | Play in PopupSun 19 Nov 2006
Chris wrote yesterday:
“Mind you it didn’t quite take the challenge of the bag and ran back up its tree, but it’s a hopeful sign. It looked thinner than my squirrels here, I wonder why“
Weeell…
Well, in the upcoming 2 hours after the clip from my live feed was recorded (thanks again!), both of those facts would be debunked! About 20 minutes after Chris watched the video, a curious squirrel got one of the nuts out of the bag! A few squirrels actually came and rose to the challenge, you can see that in the video below!
I’m going to keep the live feed rolling again tonight - the best time to watch is probably going to be around 1:30-4pm EST - that’s when the squirrels finish their foraging. I also had a few sparrows come by and an occasional Mourning dove, so hopefully if/when anyone checks in, there’ll be something to see!
Wed 15 Nov 2006
Sorry for the delay in getting the pillow feeder back on cam after the squirrels cut it down, but it’s back now. This time around I doubled the thickness of the wire and double-bagged the seeds inside too, and I also suspended it from the center rather from both edges, so it rotates now just to make it a bit more of a challenge. In this clip you’ll see that it doesn’t offer a challenge to the first squirrel at all; the technique is to chew a small hole right in the corner and then hang from that side, so that the bag acts as a funnel which just lets one seed out at a time. Half way through the clip, the squirrel is chased off by another, who hasn’t quite figured out the technique yet and spends some time trying out different approaches and different angles, but after a few minutes he, too, gets the “hang” of it.
This post, as well as the picture and video from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Wed 15 Nov 2006
This is just a quickie as I have to rush off out this morning but I wanted to post this pic anyway. The pillow feeder is off camera 4 at the moment because, as you may have read, the squirrels literally cut it down yesterday. When the weather cleared up last night I went out and picked it up and propped it up against my garage door, which is well away from the tree, intending to deal with it later today. When I looked out of the window this morning, guess what … yep, a squirrel had tipped it over and was tucking in happily.
I hope to have the feeder back on camera later today, weather permitting.
This post and the picture from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Tue 14 Nov 2006
I thought I’d seen everything with the Pillow Feeder…
The squirrels have figured it out time and time again, different kinds of challenges, different kinds of food - they always seem to figure out exactly what to do to get their prize. Whether it’s going in through the bottom, making a hole in the middle or just going through the side, they’ve always amazed me. But yesterday’s feed upped the ante a little bit more…
Yes, that’s right - they’ve actually figured out how to bring down the feeder! Twice even! I recorded the feed on Monday as I usually do when I have a chance to (and when things look like something could happen), and nothing happened in the few minutes I was watching it, so I let it run a little while longer. I came back to check it out again a little more than 2 hours later and saw that the feeder wasn’t even in the shot! Of course, at the time I believed that it probably just fell to the wind - either that, or a squirrel jumped on the bag and the line loosened…
Guess again!
Upon further inspection, the squirrels actually chewed on the fishing line tying the feeder to it’s support! They did it once, which you’ll see in the video below, then Chris put it back up (I didn’t show that :)) and the squirrels chewed it down again! They literally found the ultimate loop-hole to the hanging feeder idea - stop it from hanging! I have to admit, I have no idea if another webcam was watching where the feeder actually fell, (is there a cam stationed in that area?) but I’m pretty sure the squirrels had no problem with the feeder once it was on the ground! Maybe it’s time for another support idea… maybe a old clothes hanger or some sort of chain… that’s what I’ve been using (of course, my squirrels aren’t as acrobatic as these ones… yet…!)
Although written by me (Zach), the picture and video in this post are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Mon 13 Nov 2006
For those who are interested, here is the video of all that went on with the Pillow Feeder feed on Sunday morning. With the design change, I figured it would be a *little* harder for the squirrels to crack, but they went right at it with precision and cleared all of the nuts out… err…… yawn, that’s old news, heard it before, been repeated time and time again, whatever, etc… But there was something different about yesterday’s recording - the Black squirrel came back! Maybe it wanted to survey the situation for a week or so before trying it…?
Not only that, but the tagged squirrel put in an appearance or 2… very cool! - I’ve never seen the tagged squirrel at the Pillow Feeder before (correct me if I’m wrong of course…) I still wonder why it’s tagged - if it’s been around this long, it’s interesting no one’s (or at least no one to your knowledge) has come around looking for him/her, if it’s a pet, or what…
Chris, you said in the last posting about the latest setup that
“I reckon that’s about it for the pillow feeder idea“
If you’re done with the whole idea, I just want to thank you again for trying it - I didn’t think anyone would have been interested enough in the idea, let alone willing enough to try it, and let alone again to stick with it until it worked! It’s been an interesting few weeks to see how someone else’s squirrels deal with a project similar to my original design! I’ve also learned a lot of things from your designs, tried newer methods of getting videos (including the up-shot, which I’ve been trying to get for 2 years, and is now a possibility), and would have never thought have doing if someone else didn’t prove it was possible! I didn’t think any design similar to mine had any chance working in a vertical design like the Pillow Feeder, and your squirrels have shown again, and again, and again that it’s not even an issue! Very, very, very cool!
It would be interesting to see if your birds would take to the idea also, but I don’t think it’s the right time of year for them - bird activity/interest usually peaks in the Spring, so maybe you’ll want to try this again next year — plus the squirrels would most likely just take the feeder back from the birds anyway, of course…
Although written by me (Zach), the picture and video in this post are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
Sun 12 Nov 2006
As expected, the pillow feeder is empty again. This time they made a neat hole in the outer layer, about three inches across and right in the center of the pillow, and simply took all the nuts. I reckon that’s about it for the pillow feeder idea; I might rearrange the view one last time but don’t expect anything I do to be a challenge or last longer than a day now. The squirrels are just too savvy and too adaptable.
This post and the picture from it are © 2006 Chris Osborne, originally published on The Backyard Voyeur. The “Pillow Feeder” is his feeder project based on my (Zach Glenwright’s) Backyard Bag Feeder Project…
All videos, pictures, and other materials on this site are © Zach Glenwright unless otherwise stated.
This WordPress theme is a somewhat modified version of Connections, downloaded originally from www.vanillamist.com
~ And last but not least, Zach Glenwright's ~Gull's Wing Media~ Backyard Bag Feeder Project is powered by WordPress -and- PodPress ~