Show off your 'Yard Studio'

All very interesting.. I don't have anything compared to you guys. Man made that is.

Pondrader wrote in post #18649980
All very interesting.. I don't have anything compared to you guys. Man made that is.

I seriously don't think you need one.

Forgot to reply to this!

There is some mess, but if I use shelled nuts I have a problem with starlings. Apparently starlings aren't well suited to cracking shells. Anyways, I ended up buying a handheld vacuum and every few days you just run it for a minute or so around the feeder to collect discarded shells.

It's been a while with the horrible weather this year, dreadfully hot, lots of hurricanes, bleh. But, this past week it "cooled" down a little, meaning, it's only in the mid 80's F and in the 50~60% RH range. Still hot. But it's a lot more sufferable than most of the year. My past blinds have all worked out, but ultimately I had issues with each one. My first blind was a dog house pop up blind. Worked great. But, it was easily blown around in the wind, and I wanted to leave it set up 24/7, but it was infested with all kinds of bugs after a while and there was no way to leave it out 24/7 without it turning into a spider lair. Plus it was hot in there. My second blind was a PVC pipe frame with some camo netting around it, sitting on top of some rebar hammbered into the ground. This worked well, held together well, and ultimately was great, less hot. But, the wind would tear at the twist ties and ultimately tore up the netting. Really strong gusts would send it all over the place. I finally got tired of redoing the netting and torn it down. So, for this fall, I figured I'd try another blind setup.

This one is more permanent and heavy duty since my feeders haven't moved and they do their job fine. I knew I needed to cover from overhead a little, but not completely close it off (I found the birds didn't care from using my previous PVC blind that an open blind is fine). This would help with the heat, the open nature would keep it from being a spider lair or bat house (seriously... bats). I'm sure some little webs will show up, but they will be easy to spot and easy to remove. I had some excess treated lumber laying around from another project, so I did some cuts and made a little frame. Then I grabbed some cammo blind material and got some heavy duty staples and wrapped it up and stapled every 3~4 inches or so at every contact point. A hurricane will rip it apart. But, I'm hoping it will stand up to more wind more often. If this doesn't work, I'll use a tarp next time and just cut a window!

I also limited it down to one feeder this time. Two feeders just means more perches and you will zig zag trying to keep up with a perched song bird. So I figured, I have three perches in a plane now, with one feeder. The only reason for 3 perches is to have a different perch featured in images, and not just the literal same perch over and over, for variety. Otherwise, a single perch would be more successful in terms of always having the bird in the FOV each chance. But at least they're in the same relative location and in the same plane.

I had some help on this one. My little helper showed interest, so she helped me build it and test it out and we watched some song birds take the feed we put out today to make sure everything is going to fit us. She's old enough to want to hang out in there too.

Hopefully will get some first light soon. I want to let the birds really take to the feed and frenzy as they're fattening up for the "winter."

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/29Ad​MhC

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2chk​Nsf

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2chk​Lso

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/29Ad​JQd

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2bfX​ToY

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2cn4​AWF

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/NAM5​zM

Dang... All I have is this and a pair of boots.

dang......well....you win haha

And, I hope, PANTS!

ardeekay wrote in post #18736007
And, I hope, PANTS!

Heck NO... Never wear pants while shooting landscape with an iPhone

Pants are overrated anyway

GeoffSFAs10 wrote in post #18736114
Pants are overrated anyway

So restricting...

Had some help today

Geoff, totally off the subject here but I just saw where MDC's photographer is giving a presentation tomorrow evening. 10/30/18, from 7-9 in Kirkwood at Nature Center I believe. You could look it up on MDC online. It is to be about Monarch Butterflies. Was thinking this may be near you, at least much closer than for me, I'm 3 hrs and a lot of snow away.

Grizz1 wrote in post #18761376
Geoff, totally off the subject here but I just saw where MDC's photographer is giving a presentation tomorrow evening. 10/30/18, from 7-9 in Kirkwood at Nature Center I believe. You could look it up on MDC online. It is to be about Monarch Butterflies. Was thinking this may be near you, at least much closer than for me, I'm 3 hrs and a lot of snow away.

Yeah Noppadol is going to be at Powder Valley, i was there at lunch today walking and looking for birds. Thought about going but not sure I will have the time to get there, plus i was wanting him to sign my copies of his books he just won some awards for but i wont have them til Christmas.

cbay1 wrote in post #18343920
Glad i visited this thread. I was under the impression most of the bird photographers on here were traveling long distances on walkabouts to get their bird shots. Up hill both ways in remote national parks. LOL Now i feel much better knowing i'm not alone on using perches and the ole trusty sunflower seed!

We, or I do this when I can't get out to the locations to satisfy my addiction. I'm always set up when it snows because that's when a lifer typically comes by because the snow is covering all their food and I usually have a buffet set up for them, including water. I guess they see all the birds having a good time and just stop on by.

It's still better to get out on location because you will get tired of the neighborhood birds and need variety, plus I can be one with nature. Spring time is for the migrating warblers and winter time is for waterfowls, summer is not as active, but you can still get some variety of birds.

I use the One Man Chair Blind or my screened porch facing the deck.