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My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 3:20 pm
by chrish
I know there are a few bird feeder cameras out there, but I happen to really like the one at Sabal Palm Sanctuary's bird feeders.

http://sabalpalmsanctuary.org/visit/feedercam/

Just while I've typed this I've seen
Green Jay
White-tipped Dove
Black-crested Titmouse
Cardinal

In the last few days checking in occasionally I've also seen
Buff-bellied Hummer
Orange-crowned Warbler
Anna's Hummer (a male has been wintering there)
Altamira Oriole
Northern Mockingbird
Olive Sparrow
Plain Chachalaca (heard)

Sometimes at work, I just leave it open on my second screen. It's like having an office overlooking a great bird blind.

I haven't seen any herps yet, but there is a good chance of seeing an Indigo coming to the water or even a Speckled Racer if you were lucky. I've seen there near this feeder when there in person.

Chris

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 8:10 pm
by periglenes
Well, it is dark there now so not much to see. I'll certainly check it out tomorrow!

I used to watch the Peregrine Falcon nest camera on the Kodak building in Rochester, NY. Kept a window on my desktop open just to see what they were up to. Apparently that nest camera closed down in 2008, but they have a link to this one:

http://rfalconcam.com/rfc-main/

I'm going to check it out, too.

Anyone else have a favorite nest camera?

-Frank

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 9:50 pm
by Hunter-MX
I looked a few hours ago and there was a big raccoon eating seed!

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 4th, 2012, 1:43 pm
by nightdriver
Here's one of my favorites.

http://www.wildlifefocus.org/webcam/bue ... -cam.shtml

-nightdriver

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 4th, 2012, 3:42 pm
by J-Miz
Thanks Chris! Truth be told, I'll probably never make it to Texas, so this lets me enjoy some south Texas specialties from home! Too bad it is raining there right now :( Love the sound though...I'm sure I'll be hearing kiskadees sometime.

And the Ecuador webcam is also cool. Too bad it is b&w. About a dozen hummers at one feeder as I'm typing.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 5th, 2012, 9:04 am
by chrish
Nightdriver,

Thanks for those links. The Ecuador one is cool, as are the two Brazilian cams on the same page.

Time to start a new birdlist - birds I have seen on webcams! :lol:
It's a lot cheaper than traveling!

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 5th, 2012, 1:03 pm
by millside

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 11th, 2012, 10:09 am
by J-Miz
Here's my list of birds, in chronological order today (from Sabal Palm live bird feeder cam):

Green Jay*
Altamira Oriole*
White-tipped Dove*
Olive Sparrow*
Golden-fronted Woodpecker* (male)
Long-billed Thrasher*
Northern Cardinal
Black-crested Titmouse*

*-denotes would-be lifer.

The Altamira Oriole was a little grumpy, constantly threatening the doves who came within 8" of his orange. But the woodpecker was even worse! He wanted to fight everyone! Wish the oriole and woodpecker came at the same time :lol: I think my favorite is the thrasher...love his antics.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 13th, 2012, 9:06 am
by Curtis Hart
http://www.sanparks.org/webcams/cams.php?cam=nossob

I don't check this camera, but I knew about it and it fits the theme. I saw Secretary Birds in front of it when I was there in person a couple weeks ago.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 14th, 2012, 7:50 am
by Curtis Hart
J-Miz wrote:Thanks Chris! Truth be told, I'll probably never make it to Texas
Why? As an avid birder, I would think that would be one of your top destinations in North America. It's not particularly expensive or difficult to get there. Just curious.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 14th, 2012, 7:43 pm
by pete
love this camera! watched the raccoon tonite an got three lifers on sunday!

mil gracias!

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 15th, 2012, 8:12 am
by Ames
The Sabal Palm Cam is great quality. I work on a computer all day and I enjoyed having the cam active on the smaller laptop screen. The ads can be a bit jarring if you have your audio up.

Some of what I saw:

Green Jay
White-tipped Dove
Black-crested Titmouse
Cardinal
Altamira Oriole
Olive Sparrow
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
Long-Billed Thrasher

All would be lifers, except the Cardinal. I'll have to look up the call of the Chacalaca, might have heard one.

I also observed some type of little rodents scurrying around and yesterday evening, the coons. I would flip out if one of those Speckled Racers or an Indigo came into the frame. I found myself doing double takes on the sticks laying around.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 16th, 2012, 5:44 pm
by Ames
I'd like to find other cams of this quality. I did some searching around, haven't found much.

Chachalacas
Image

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 18th, 2012, 12:08 pm
by VICtort
Chrish, thank you so much for posting this, I have sent the link to several friends and of course they have done the same...it is really bringing a lot of enjoyment to a diverse group of people from all over.

Last night I saw a fat racoon on the feeder....I wonder what if anything is done to manage the raccoons? It seems like a feeder would concentrate raccoons in the area, and that might have consequences to ground nesting birds and subterranean nesting reptiles etc.? This may not be the case, I am speculating, but sometimes I see racoons become superabundant as they exploit human produced food/garbage etc. and other species may suffer as a consequence.

Given the extreme S. Texas location, do they have coati's as well as racoons? Do racoons and coati's occur together anywhere?

Fun stuff, I really want to visit this place and see a Drymobius (a beautiful racer snake) as well as a plethora of lifer birds...What an amazing spot.

How far from this feeder is the International border and the controversial fence?

Vic

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 18th, 2012, 12:28 pm
by Andy Avram
How far from this feeder is the International border and the controversial fence?
I haven't kept up with the border fence since I was down there since 2007-8 and there was no fence. Looks like it is now built and the means the feeder isn't far, but it is on the south side of the fence. When I was there everyone was worried from tall the talk of closing the sanctuary because it would be in no-man's land. Looks like they worked away around it. But it is south of the fence, and the property the feeder is on touches the Rio Grande.

Also, about Raccoons and Coatis. They co-exist in many areas of Central America. I don't think the Coati's are common in S. Texas, but a possibility.

Andy

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 18th, 2012, 12:42 pm
by herpseeker1978
coatis and coons coexist in se az and sw nm

Josh

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 20th, 2012, 2:14 pm
by Curtis Hart
I was at Sabal Palm last fall and it is south of the fence. you just drive thru, no check or anything, as you are still in the US. From what I could pick up when I was down there, Coatis are extremely rare in Texas, and not sighted every year.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 21st, 2012, 10:21 am
by Jason B
The Sabal Palm webcam is really cool.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 21st, 2012, 3:21 pm
by pete
just noticed why the raccoon every night. it appears that in the evening they load the feeder with cat food! here i thought that a hippie raccoon was out poopin granola bars from all that seed.

Re: My favorite bird feeder cam - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 10:17 am
by chrish
Ames wrote:I'd like to find other cams of this quality. I did some searching around, haven't found much.
Yeah, the picture quality is impressive. Somewhere on their website they talked about the camera they use and I was surprised it was only a $99 web cam (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-co ... ebcam-c920).

I turned it on last night for a while for the first time. Those are some really impressive views of the Raccoons eating.
I don't like them putting cat food in the tray to feed them due to increased chances of predation for herps in that area, but there are lots of racoons around there already I guess.

I haven't ever seen a Coati in south Texas. I don't believe there are any recent records. An ocelot coming to the water would be cool though! Jaguarundi would be even better, but they are probably extirpated from Texas.

It would be interesting to watch it on a rainy night to see if you can hear frogs calling through the microphone. Should be Smilisca to hear and Rhinella marina are pretty common on that refuge.

Chris