Mostly it’s just watching what comes and goes - so I can see when they visit, start tracking times - if I’m away from home, I can check in and just watch and enjoy the hummingbirds.
So here’s my view right now…
My current setup…makes it hard to get a foot away…
Once the ground unfreezes, I can get a second shepherd’s hook to place a foot away and then use that for a camera…otherwise this is an ideal location (for now) for a feeder in wintertime. Once certain flowers start blooming, and hummers are hitting those up, I may move the camera off of the feeder anyway and onto the garden as a whole.
Good ideas. Now that I have a cam up in the chicken yard (my 94 mother just got the app on her tablet so she can see them anytime she wants), I’ll be getting another cam to put near the bird feeder for her to watch, too.
I put our feeder cam on an Echo Show at our table. We can watch them up close when we sit to eat, or when working in the kitchen. Now and then, in place of using the TV for background noise, I put the live feed on the big screen. Or I just run a video on there if company comes over in the evening. Our friends love the feeling it gives the room playing quietly in the background.
My Feeder Cam is mounted exactly like yours–right on the pole. The platform feeder is about 4" away on the closest side. With the stock lens, the only thing in focus were birds at the far side–about 17" away. When I tested the stock lens, the closest decent focus seemed to start around 14".
After I re-focused the lens, everything on the platform is in focus (squirrel pic) unless it is standing on the near side of the feeder rim. You can see the cardinal is fuzzy. I’m going to try and re-focus for that near side, provided it leaves enough range to keep the far side in focus. That might not be possible, as I’m going to be focusing down to 2-1/2 to 3".
All things considered, this is an amazing little camera, I’ll probably pick up another one or two for wildlife. I would surround my house with them for security if the price hadn’t gone up. I doubt it will come down, even when the materials prices drop, so…
I tried to set it up with Alexa last night but was having some problems - I have some Amazon Fire Sticks at home and want to put my bird feeder one up sometimes.
I run the Wyze app on my phone, then “cast” my phone to my Roku to watch on the TV screen. You should be able to do the same with your Firestick from any phone or PC/laptop. I believe on your Firestick it is called “Stick Mirror”.
I open up the Wyze app and cast FROM my phone. In other words, whatever my phone shows appears on my TV via Roku. Goggle your phone and Roku model to see the specifics, as they differ. Some setups call it cast, some call it “mirroring”.
Basic setup is simple. On my OnePlus I select CAST, then select Roku from the eligible devices. The Roku displays a screen on my TV asking permission to allow the connection. From then on everything on my phone is visible on the TV. I just bring up the Wyze screen and rotate it to landscape. It fills most of my big screen.
BTW, why have you never used your Roku. I have about 40 free “channels” installed, with thousands of free TV stations and movies! Good luck.
Thanks, I’ll look into it. Well, my brother uses it at his home and talked me into getting one. But since I don’t watch “tv” anyway, I didn’t see much I wanted to watch, and I have to disconnect my computer from it’s monitor, it was more of a hassle than it was worth. So I threw it in a box and forgot about it. I mainly just watch youtube homesteading and nature videos (and a few others) on the computer. If I ever want to watch something from tv land, I just go to their website and find it.
We go through about the same amount of seed. The price had jumped ridiculously. Squirrels normally can’t get to my feeders. I had a 5 gallon bucket at the base of the feeder covering the 5V adapter X extension cord interface to keep it dry. Just enough for one crafty bugger to jump past the baffle!
I don’t really like having 120V running to the feeder, so it is temporary. The extension cord will soon carry 24V to the feeder. That will feed a 24V X 5V dashcam transformer housed in a standard size outdoor outlet box. It will also serve as a hub that can feed 5V to my Woodpecker Cam on the same pole, and 24V to my Bluebird Nest Cam.
We have a neighbor couple who are animal lovers and they dump (well, place, nicely, in a dish) pound(s) of seed on the parkway every day (the dish is always full) subsequently we have a passel of deadbeat pigeons loitering on the power lines all day and a troupe of rocket j. sparrows zipping around. They’ve assembled a sort of Watts Towers installation on their front yard over the years with reviews among the neighbors mixed but it’s undoubtedly the most interesting expression of humanity on the block…
/edit
I love birds, btw. Even pigeons, which apparently are quite bright. We have an old wooden pier jutting out from the coast hereabouts and I’ve spent a good amount of time out there watching them perform.
I found I can mirror my iPhone to play through the Roku. I have an 4th gen.12.9 iPad and that will mirror directly to my Sony TV without the Roku. I don’t know why the TV doesn’t show up on the list of devices to mirror to on the iPhone. Maybe have to turn cell data off?? I’ll keep play with it to see if I can figure it out. Maybe I have to turn on Apple Air Play?
I bought a second V3 before unscrewing my lens. In case it didn’t go too well I would not be down. It was actually pretty easy. Now I want to put a zoom lens in the spare one to watch the woodpeckers and nuthatches on the suit feeder. It will be mounted and powered on my feeder pole, 25’ from the suet. I need to figure out which zoom lens will fit inside the camera to maintain water-proof seal.
I have gotten ok results by mounting a magnifying lens in front of the camera. I used tape. It is not optimal for night stuff with the v2 because the IR lights or when it rains but it improves the focus without having to “refocus” the lens.
