Beauty Shows Up For New "Mega" Main Cam Install

The Rochester Falconcam got a high-resolution boost with the installation of a new Main camera at the Times Square building today. Falconcam team members Fal-Kenn Martinez and I actually had decent weather for today's upgrade, a pleasant change from years past.

Our previous Main camera was a tried and true Kodak DC4300, a second-generation digital camera that provided yeoman service for the better part of a decade and allowed us to hosting the best images of a Peregrine nest to be found anywhere on the Internet.

Alas, nine years of Rochester weather took its toll, not so much on the camera as its housing and motor. And the custom hardware and software from Erdmann Video Systems that made the whole thing hum was getting a little long in the tooth too (it ran on Windows 98!). Here's a look at the setup. The biscuit is sitting on the table behind the chair, with related computing gear all around.


So last summer we began planning its replacement. We did some research to see what other solutions were out there, but in the end we found that Erdmann still provided the best solution for high-resolution webcams. Thanks to contributions from the Rochester Falconcam fans and some funding from Kodak, we placed an order for an updated unit.

Erdmann calls it a "Nano-biscuit". Why it's called a biscuit is beyond me; "breadbox" is more appropriate given its size, but there's no denying that the thing produces good pictures. Kodak stopped making their camera control firmware available to companies like Erdmann some years ago, so the new biscuit controls a Canon Powershot G10. The contoller hardware and software runs on Windows XP and it's much faster and easier to control remotely. The system came complete with a brand-spanking new Pelco all-weather housing and a fast, quiet Vistar pan/tilt motor. Altogether the system should see us many years into the future.

Anyway, our challenge today was to remove the old Main camera, mounting arm and cabling, and install the new one. There's always an element of trepidation when doing this stuff, not just because we're working hundreds of feet up in the air, but because there are falcons around, and they can be MEAN. Mariah's place as Rochester's Queen of the Sky has been taken by Beauty, but we didn't know just what to expect out of her today. Would she mount a feirce territory defense like her predecessor, or would she be a no-show entirely?

It turned out to be a bit of both, and neither. We stepped outside and looked up to see...
          

There she was, casually de-feathering a pigeon far above our heads and taking absolutely no notice of us, as far as we could see. She made no sound and appeared content to eat her breakfast in the bright morning sun. Nevertheless, we started with some interior work to minimize the chance of spooking her. After a little work with wire cutters we removed the old control cables and installed the new ones through the small hole in the concrete and brick wall that I'd drilled last year. Kenn took care of connecting the various cables to the biscuit's control module while I assembled the new mounting platform and pedestal.


While we were at it, we replaced one of the interior nest box cameras with a new infrared-enabled unit that should give us a boost in image quality. Removing the old Main camera proved problematic. We'd used a long piece of 2x6 lumber to extend the camera away from the nest box. That had to be hauled in before we could remove the 40 pounds of camera, housing and motor. A few rusted bolts and a pulled shoulder muscle later, the plank yielded to our determined efforts and down it came. The new camera has a wider-angle lens as well as a 5x zoom, better than the 3x magnification factor we enjoyed from the DC4800. The result is that we were able to mount the new camera closer to the nest box. That was a lot safer for us (no leaning over the edge of the building to bolt things down and run cables) and it allowed us to create a more stable platform for the camera which should be much less likely to sway in the wind.
          

While we were getting the new camera mounted, Beauty made her second appearance of the day. Flying in from the west, she settled on the statue of Mercury that is one of Rochester's hallmarks. I climbed down from where I'd been helping Kenn and grabbed my camera for some shots.
          

I snagged a shot of the Kodak tower too, mantled in its metal exoskeleton:


The work took just a little less than five hours. Not too bad, all things considered. And the fact that we didn't have to deal with howling wind and sub-zero wind chills was icing on the cake. After some camera alignment and test images we packed up.

Down in the parking lot I spied a bird circling overhead. It turned out to be a Cooper's Hawk:


I thought nothing of it until Beauty flew in with prey clutched in her talons, and landed on the same "butcher's block" dining area she'd occupied when we saw her eating breakfast. As she came in she was kacking furiously. I had to move around a little to find out why, but it turned out that the Cooper's Hawk had landed close by and apparently challenged Beauty for her lunch.
     

     

There was a bit of tussling, mostly out of my sight, but it looked like Beauty prevailed because prey feathers started flying. Carol P. called me a few minutes later and confirmed that Beauty and the Coop had been chasing each other earlier, and Carol thinks Beauty may have actually stolen the prey from the Accipiter. I didn't see that part of the avian drama so I can't comment, but it's an intriguing idea. It was, however, good to see that Beauty wasted no time getting back to what is clearly her nest box. With new falcons in a territory it's always hard to judge how much human activity is "too much". I think she might have been waiting for us to finish our work when she landed on the Mercury statue earlier, so it was gratifying to see her return so soon after we vacated the premises.

Down in the parking lot we packed the old Main cam in the trunk of Kenn's car:


He's going to take it home and play around with it to see if he can get it functioning better. It'll make a good backup unit, or perhaps we can install it at a second nest site if the opportunity presents itself. Best of all, we can look forward to a whole new level of detail from our Mega Main Cam.

Cornell Ornithology Lab Hosts Urban Bird Survival Challenge

Ever wonder how birds survive the frigid winters in Western New York? Well, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is inviting the public to participate in a citizen-science project to help answer that question through their Celebrate Urban Birds program.

Submit your stories, photos, videos and artwork that describe or demonstrate how urban birds survive the winter. Prizes will be awarded for the best entries, but hurry, the Urban Bird Survival Challenge ends on February 15. You can find all the details at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Falcons at Kodak Kick Off 2010

Now that 2009 is in the history books, I hope to be more active with the blog. While I was leaving work this afternoon I was surprised, albeit pleasantly so, to glimpse the familiar silhouette of a Peregrine perched on the southeast corner of the Kodak Tower's launch pad. Though the building is still clad in its burnished metal exoskeleton the repair crews have been hard to find. Doubtless the recent arctic blast has something to do with their scarcity.

In any event it was great to see a falcon on the tower. I grabbed my binoculars for a closer look. The bird was a female by size and based on her rather dark breast coloration I'm pretty confident that I was looking at Beauty.

A bigger surprise came after only a few moments when a second Peregrine appeared in the north, flew around the west side of the Kodak Office complex nearly over my head, and continued past Frontier field. It circled around the clear gray sky in clear view of Beauty, and the second Peregrine was definitely a tiercel, seeminglin in adult plumage. Its spiraling course led southward and out of sight. I swung my glasses back toward the tower where Beauty still sat, apparently unruffled. The entire episode lasted less than a minute. Alas, the dead of winter is not prime camera-carrying time for me, so I have no pictures to share.

Archer hasn't been seen since his apparent migration a couple of months ago, while Beauty has been an occasional visitor to the buildings downtown throughout the cold seasons. There wasn't enough light, time or distance to see if the circling Peregrine wore leg bands, so the identity of this tiercel is a mystery.

Since this is the rookie year for both Archer and Beauty in Rochester, we have no idea what Archer's migration schedule might be. Kaver usually returned at the end of February or the first week of March. The first week of January seems pretty early for a migrating Peregrine to return, but we have no track record for Archer, nor any idea where he might have gone. So was this circling male Archer? Or perhaps it was a passage bird hoping to catch the eye of a female who seemed to have claimed a territory. If it was the latter, it looked like Beauty was unimpressed.

Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to the new year. 2009 was the year that Archer and Beauty cemented their pair bond (hopefully) and established their territory. I'm hopeful that the break-in period is over, and that we'll welcome a new clutch of Peregrine eggs in a few short months.