6:58am: We think it's a gray catbird. What kind of bird flips when lights turn on, and enjoys apple pie?
(bait: our last slice of apple pie, slightly out of date)
Catbird flips!
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Our original animal detector
The videorecording version
(1) Bait. Usually cheap cat food, or old fruit, or scraps from the grill.
(2) Computer and webcam, set up inside, pointing out a window. We use a Mac, a Logitech high-def webcam
, and a simple Mac program called BTV Pro that can record just when it detects motion in the view. There are similar, inexpensive programs for PCs with webcams too.
(3) A cheap security light
, set up outside. This was the only part we didn't already have. We wired it up to a cord
so we could plug it into a wall outlet. We added a tin can, with both ends cut off, around the detector. This narrowed its range so that only a warm animal at the bait would trigger the light to turn on. The computer records 5 seconds of video when the webcam sees the light go on or off.
Make your own!
Instructions: here's a pdf file from Make magazine
, and this guy made a 4-minute instructional video.
, and this guy made a 4-minute instructional video.
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