For those interested, here are a few images of the portable water drip I am using - I've built a few over the years and this is the lightest and best yet.
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Here is our little friend at the watering hole.
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Here is the setup (different day). No, the van doesn't go everywhere - that's why you get a doghouse blind.
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Here is the drip pond. A 7 watt aquarium pump circulates the fountain. A couple of nano clamps with a mini ball head to position the brass discharge. An 18 inch (2 inch depth) pot saucer for the pool. Various rocks and lichen covered bark to make for a natural setting - also to allow for various depths in the water. Silicone sealed at the bolt hole (uncovered for the photo).
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A tripod is a key element for this pond. It does two things. It's a stable platform that allows simple adjustment on uneven terrain for leveling the pond. Also, it allows you to set a sufficient height of the pond to control the background making it possible to shoot clean images of birds on the water. I chose a Sirui T-1005X for it's 22 pound load capacity, it's height adjustment from about 5 inches to 44 inches, and it's light 2.2 pound weight.
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And this is the flux capacitor, it's what makes time travel......
Nope, wrong script.
This is the Buff Vagabond Mini, it's what makes this water drip portable. I've played with
solar panels but the cheap ones either don't work well or do not work in the early morning / end of day hours during the sweet light. They also aren't so hot under heavy canopy - in other words, you need lots of bright light in places or times that you don't have it or don't want it. The Vagabond will run that 7 watt pump for 8 hours + and still have a 1/4 tank of juice on one of it's lithium batteries. You can run all kinds of things off of it, even a laptop. It's relatively small for it's power and only weighs 3 1/2 pounds.
The pond holds just a little more than a gallon of water which isn't too bad for mobility. Because it recirculates in the basin, the only water loss occurs from evaporation and splash (which can be controlled depending on how you set the discharge).
Is it perfect? I hope not - I enjoy fabricating this stuff almost as much as making the images.
Hope you learned a thing or two or that it gives you a spark.
