DIY wildlife camera & RFID reader

[sphexx]

I thought this site may be of interest:

My Naturewatch - My Naturewatch Project: DIY wildlife cameras and devices

My Naturewatch Camera is a DIY wildlife camera that takes pictures and videos of birds and animals automatically when it sees movement. You can make your own from household materials and a few simple electronic components — no soldering necessary! Find easy-to- follow instructions and free software

mynaturewatch.net

I doubt the definition etc is very high but since they are cheap to make and Wi-Fi connected they could have other uses such as identifying likely spots for photos and so on.

They are also working on a DIY RFID reader that could identify bird rings equipped with RFIDs (no idea how many are) when birds visit garden feeders which I imagine could have similar benefits:

My Naturewatch Camera

My Naturewatch DIY RFID bird tag tracking feeder. A freader is a bird feeder that can read a birds RFID ring. We’ve been designing a DIY freader that anybody can make at home. If enough people make the DIY freaders, we could build an infrastructure across the UK. Imagine being able to see where the

mynaturewatch.net

 

[Tori_T]

I wonder if they could build a feeder that reads a birds tag and unlocks?
Access control to keep out the squirrels.

 

[gramps]

Never heard of RFID on bird tags, do they?

 

[sphexx]

I wonder if they could build a feeder that reads a birds tag and unlocks?
Access control to keep out the squirrels.

My guess is that would be relatively simply, why not suggest it to them? I think th problem might be stopping the Squirrels destroying the equipment

 

[sphexx]

Never heard of RFID on bird tags, do they?

I only know from that site but they refer to the readers as being very expensive & it’s implied some rings may have. But I think, if you read the site, that it’s mainly intended to be ‘citizen science’ project and on the face of it would be very useful for the kinds of small birds that frequent feeders.

 

[gramps]

I only know from that site but they refer to the readers as being very expensive & it’s implied some rings may have. But I think, if you read the site, that it’s mainly intended to be ‘citizen science’ project and on the face of it would be very useful for the kinds of small birds that frequent feeders.

From a Google search it looks like they do with racing Pigeons but I've never heard of 'garden' birds having them ... who knows?

 

[Tori_T]

The pigeon tags did look a bit big for the likes of a robin or bluetit.