Tag: Wildlife

Other creatures in our world

Bamboo Bee Tunnel Nests: In Use!

Just over a month after mounting bamboo bee tunnel nest bundles here & there around the house & yard, they have occupants!

One of the bundles of small (a few mm ID) stalks on the kitchen window:

Bee Tunnel Nest – small A

Another bundle of small stalks on a window a dozen feet away:

Bee Tunnel Nest – small B

A bundle of medium (five to ten mm ID) stalks lashed to a downspout:

Bee Tunnel Nest – medium

Unlike the mud dauber wasps decorating our previous house, these little bees dart in and out without announcing their presence: we’ve never seen them at work.

Assuming a single bee works on each bundle, she apparently starts with the lowest stalk and moves upward after filling & capping it.

Larger bees have yet to discover the bundles of larger stalks out on the trees, but … so far, so good!

2026-06-05
RPi Camera RTSP Setup
The rpicam.cfg file holding the parameters for the Raspberry Pi watching the Prusa MK 4 printer:
```
bitrate=2000000 
framerate=15
timeout=0 
nopreview= 
codec=libav 
libav-format=mpegts 
width=1280
height=720
rotation=180
roi=0.00,0.00,1.0,1.0
hdr=auto
```
The RPi camera for the wren nest is just taped to the window, but has a configuration providing a bigger picture:
```
bitrate=2000000 
framerate=15
timeout=0 
nopreview= 
codec=libav 
libav-format=mpegts 
width=1920 
height=1080 
roi=0.00,0.00,1.0,1.0
hdr=auto
```
The useful pieces:
- bitrate sets the average data rate, which may be too high for comfort outside your immediate LAN
- framerate need not be as high as you think
- nopreview prevents a preview picture while starting
- width and height do the obvious thing, but don’t try to be too clever
- roi picks the image from a specific part of the camera sensor, so you can adjust the image layout if you have a rigidly fixed camera
- hdr doesn’t do anything for cheap RPi cameras
Putting all the fiddly config in a file reduces the command line invocation to a mere jawbreaker:
```
rpicam-vid --config rpicam.cfg -o - | cvlc stream:///dev/stdin --sout '#rtp{sdp=rtsp://:5886/wrens}' &
```
Although you’d want to set that up to run automagically when the RPi starts up, for now I just fire it off as needed through an SSH session, with the ampersand letting it run after that terminal session closes.

The RTSP port (5886) and stream (wrens) can be anything you like, which comes in handy when squirting streams through port-forwarded firewall pinholes using a router that cannot handle different external and internal port numbers.

Useful background info:
2026-05-18

Window Mount for Bamboo Bee Tunnel Nests

Mary suggested converting wild bamboo up the hill into tunnel nests (per a xerces.org paper) for native bees buzzing around flowers in the yard, so:

Bee Tunnel Nest - downspout installation — Bee Tunnel Nest – downspout installation

I hung bundles of larger tubes in trees out back, in hopes of attracting huge carpenter bees.

3D printed mounts hold smaller bundles on the windows to let us keep an eye on the proceedings:

Bee Tunnel Nest Mount - installed-] — Bee Tunnel Nest Mount – installed

Which look better when not seen though two layers of glass in desperate need of Spring Cleaning:

The tabs provide a bit of pressure to hold the mounts in place, although I don’t know if they have enough springiness or will survive contact with the elements:

Bee Tunnel Nest Mount - tab section - solid model — Bee Tunnel Nest Mount – tab section – solid model

The key advantage of not building bigger bee motels: these little bundles don’t need annual cleaning / maintenance and will eventually fall apart.

If the bees find them suitable, more power to ’em!

And I realized the cut-off ends fit in the rotary. Witticisms engraved on bamboo could become the New Hotness:

Stipulated: I’m barely half-right about being a wit …

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// Bee Tunnel Nest Mount
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2026-04-26

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	Layout = "Show"; // [Build,Show,Window,Bundle,Tabs]

	BundleOD = 35.0;
	BundleOffset = 0.0;

	SlotDepth = 18.0;
	SlotGap = 1.2;


	/* [Hidden] */

	HoleWindage = 0.2;
	Protrusion = 0.01;
	NumSides = 324;

	Clearance = 0.3;

	//$fn=NumSides;

	WallThick = 2.0;

	MountHeight = 1.5*BundleOD;
	MountWidth = 1.5*BundleOD + BundleOffset;

	ClipOA = [SlotDepth + WallThick,SlotGap + 2*WallThick,MountHeight];

	BundleCtr = [-WallThick/2,ClipOA.y + MountWidth/2 + BundleOffset/2,MountHeight/2];

	TabOA = [0.7SlotDepth,5.0,0.7WallThick];
	TabOffset = 0.2*SlotDepth;
	TabOC = MountHeight/2;

	TabClearance = [4*Clearance,0,Clearance];

	//—–
	// Define things

	module BundleMount() {

	difference() {
	cuboid([WallThick,MountWidth + ClipOA.y,MountHeight],
	rounding=3.0,edges=[TOP+BACK,BOTTOM+BACK],anchor=FRONT+RIGHT);
	back(BundleCtr.y)
	xcyl(3*WallThick,d=BundleOD);
	for (j=[-1,1],k=[-1,1])
	translate([BundleCtr.x,jBundleOD/2 + BundleCtr.y,kBundleOD/2])
	xcyl(3*WallThick,d=3.0,$fn=6);
	}

	}

	module WindowMount() {

	difference() {
	cuboid(ClipOA,rounding=3.0,edges=[TOP+LEFT,BOTTOM+LEFT],
	anchor=FRONT+RIGHT);
	left(WallThick) back(WallThick)
	cuboid([2SlotDepth,SlotGap,2MountHeight],anchor=FRONT+RIGHT);
	for (k=[-1,1])
	translate([-(ClipOA.x – TabOffset),-Protrusion,k*TabOC/2])
	cuboid([TabOA.x + TabClearance.x,WallThick + 2Protrusion,TabOA.y + 2TabClearance.z],anchor=FRONT+LEFT);
	}

	}

	module Tabs() {

	for (j=[-1,1])
	fwd(j*TabOC/2)
	cuboid(TabOA,anchor=BOTTOM+LEFT) position(LEFT+TOP)
	prismoid(size1=[3*SlotGap,TabOA.y],size2=[0,TabOA.y/2],
	h=(WallThick – TabOA.z) + SlotGap/3,anchor=BOTTOM+LEFT);

	}

	module Assembly() {

	union() {
	BundleMount();
	WindowMount();
	left(ClipOA.x – TabOffset – TabClearance.x)
	xrot(-90)
	Tabs();
	}
	}


	//—–
	// Build things

	if (Layout == "Bundle") {
	BundleMount();
	}

	if (Layout == "Window") {
	WindowMount();
	}

	if (Layout == "Tabs") {
	Tabs();
	}


	if (Layout == "Show") {
	Assembly();
	}

	if (Layout == "Build") {
	yrot(90)
	Assembly();
	}

view raw Bee Tunnel Nest Mount.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

2026-04-30

Sickly Skunk

Skunks are generally crespecular animals, so seeing this critter in broad daylight was unusual:

Sickly Skunk

That’s taken through two layers of half-century old glass, for obvious reasons.

What may not be obvious: that skunk was not behaving at all like the ones in our previous sightings. It had unkempt fur, staggered around the house twice while twitching uncontrollably, slumping face-down, and falling on its side. I am not qualified to diagnose animal diseases, but rabies seems likely.

It eventually staggered off and, we hope, died quietly in a very secluded spot.

The Town of Poughkeepsie’s Animal Control officer now specializes in dog problems across several towns, with “all other animals” handled by the county’s Department of Health.

2026-04-01
Deer at the Bird Feeder

This was not included in my threat model for the bird feeder seed trays:

Deer at bird feeder tray

The deer managed to unfurl enough tongue to reach over the edge, but the birds leave very few intact seeds and I suspect the result was just a mouthful of dry hulls.

The woods beyond that large tree is Vassar College territory, with its conspicuous lack of undergrowth due to the overly large deer population eating essentially everything. Vassar has an annual deer cull in the Preserve, but plenty of deer remain in the surrounding area and it’s not unusual to see six deer browsing in our yard.

2026-02-12
Most Disappointed Squirrel Ever

A motivated squirrel can climb eight feet up a galvanized steel pipe:

Squirrel atop WS-5000 Weather Station

The anemometer on the right has a ring of sharp wires intended to deter birds:

Weather station with additional spikes

Chickadees can perch between the wires and squirrels apparently just ignore the sharp ends:

Squirrel on WS-5000 Anemometer spikes

No matter how hard that squirrel looked, there were no nuts to be found anywhere in that tree. Moments later it ran down the pole and loped across the yard to forage under the seed feeder.

The terrible picture quality comes from a Pixel 6a phone camera zoomed all the way tight. I want an optical telephoto lens built into the phone, but those phones seem intended to reduce the risks of having severe wallet overpressure.

2026-01-14
Hawk With Snake

Do you see the Cooper’s Hawk?

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 082

Neither did I!

(The last three digits in the caption tick along at 60 frame/s. Opening each iamge in a new tab will let you embiggen the details, although the images aren’t all that great.)

The second wingbeat, over on the left, is more visible as the hawk lifts off:

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 112

This was about when I figured out what was going on:

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 151

A hawk can easily outfly me!

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 207

The snake dangling from the hawk’s talons didn’t see it coming, either:

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 213

Up and away!

Hawk with snake 2025-11-04 – 225

About 2.3 s of elapsed time: plenty for a hawk and not nearly enough for me. Or the snake, for that matter.

2025-11-05