looduskalender.ee

here's a little test of picture quality:
this i took just a while ago using VLC-player:

...and this i took yesterday using the GOM-player:

which one is better?
i noticed that VLC-player saves the pictures as *.png but it seems to be ok, too.
today i've been trying to learn how to record video. the hardest part seems to be getting an account in the Youtube and uploading the video there. that's as far as i've got today.... recording a 20 second video of swans swimming on the seal shore was just a piece of cake....

It looks almost the same now -- 6 pigs munching. No There are more they seem to be hopping in and out of the bushes in the back.

They were gone for awhile but now they are back -- sounds of quiet munching.

there's no-one in the ground and also the rain has stopped: it's quiet. just an occasional 'cling' when a drop of water drops on the camera shield. there seems to be some potapples left on the ground: the pigs haven't eaten all.

now one lonely pigs came in! it's smacking there.... no! there are two!

these could be the two piggies who keep their own company and came here a day or two ago before evening food was brought, before the usual gang was here.

there was a third animal walking in the back. it didn't look like a pig.. it's the shadow right on the left shoulder of the pig on the left.

was it a furry? it should come back so i could see better.

So far I just see the two pigs -- alone together.

More pigs now
Only 15 minutes after I got the bad capture of the two alone pigs the place was hopping.



Today I have been thinking about the way they run about and growl at each other. Sometimes they seem to be clearly cross but other times... it seems more like play. I am not sure I can tell.

When I first saw this bigger bunch they were running about -- maybe greeting the first two and they just seemed to be playing.

They have progressed on to very serious eating. No noise other than lips and teeth smacking. No hassles just eating.

It still seems dark but the birds are squeaking morning songs and I saw what must have been a black bird hopping on the feeding grounds.

Good Saturday morning!
it's raining hard here, too, but birds are singing: chaffinch, great tit, blackbird at least... a jay dropped in to eat on hte ground.
the early bird you saw, Alice, may quite well have been a blackbird: the move around and call already when it is still quite dark. i heard one when i let the cat in at 4 this morning.

I get confused about which Blackbirds or Starlings have the light beak -- usually you can tell by the speckles of the Starling.

There is so much rain noise I can hardly hear anything else. The rain must be hitting the roof over the cam or something (it sounds about the same here except the birds have gone to sleep.)

at 9.18 food was brought. and the rain is hard indeed.


i think i separate blackbirds from starlings rather easily if i only see them moving. starlings walk on the ground in an up-right posture a bit like ravens. blackbirds quite often go hopping or jumping, two to three hops holding their heads rather high. then they stop, kind of courtsey, lowering their chest a bit but raising the head and raising/bending their tail high upwards. at the same time a blackbird may say 'tok- toK!' and shake the tail up and down along with the toks. that V-shaped posture is very typical of blackbirds and starlings never do it.

(Ame have you tried different quality settings on the GOM player? I have so far been too lazy -- or too unscientific.)

quality setting? what are they? no, i haven't.

actually i'm considering of swopping to VLC, because i read somewhere that it's not possible to record video with GOM, but you can take both screencaptures and video with VLC. recording video was actually quite simple once i found the menu where i could turn more control keys visible in the front panel (or what-ever-that-is-called), and capturing pictures is hitting only one key, too, like with GOM.

the problem i've had is that i haven't been able to open a Youtube-account. maybe it just takes time before it's verified. - i'll study more VLC in the meanwhile.

BTW: it's raining hard still, but the birds don't mind it. there are tits and thrushes singing. i think i heard a redwing, and a field-fare. at the moment there could be a field-fare singing quite near the camera. i can hear the blabbering over the drumming of raindrops on the camera housing... and now some warning calls...

these pigs here have been very peaceful, at least mostly. during the last weeks there has been a rather regular group of about 8 pigs, who i think know each other well. they don't really need to quarrel. they were joined by two bigger one some weeks ago in the dusk time.

once another group of pigs came trotting from the wood when the 'normal' gang was here. the 'normals' gave way are retreated out without fighting.

in February i think there was a small family of maybe 5 or 6 pigs eating here in daylight and it was snowing heavily. they were eating as a very dense group, leaning on each others' sides. clearly they knew each other well and didn't waste time in fighting.

pigs are intelligent animals and all intelligent animals are social and play together. now that it is warmer it's playful, too, i guess.

here's a short video i recorded here yesterday as a test-video for to demonstrate how to post videos from Youtube:

hahaaa... this is the second video i've posted, the first is on the seal shore. now i can record a video with sound, so i don't need to describe bird calls verbally anymore.

evening food was brought!



birds are singing and i can't hear raindrops anymore. a blackbird landed on the ground.

the camera has been inaccessible for a while...? do i have a bad feeling about this...? i so much would like to see stripies this spring, too....

i'm getting a worse and worse feeling about this camera...
it's been inaccessible all evening since about six or seven... maybe it's taken away for this season... no stripies?