Now three (3) Live Video Nestcams on the Internet

[Guest]

Here is the current lineup of my Nestcams.

http://ustream.tv/channel/purplemartin01 This is the latest camera to be on the air. It is a nestcam I bought from PMCA a couple years ago. It is Black & White only, but does have night vision and audio. There are newborn babies in this gourd but I'm not sure how many. On my last nestcheck there were 6 eggs in this gourd. I think there ARE 6 babies here, but maybe some of you can verify that.

http://ustream.tv/channel/purplemartin02 This is another gourd that has four (4) babies, somewhat older than the above. I just witnessed the female parent bring in a HUGE dragonfly, as big or bigger than the Martin babies. She tried for a LONG time to stuff it down one of the babies but it just would not go. Finally, she just gave up and ate the dragonfly herself! Some real interesting behaviors to see on these cameras.

http://ustream.tv/channel/purplemartin03 This camera is inside one of the housing compartments on my Martin house complex. The camera is aimed at the nest tray and you will see the female Martin laying on her 4 eggs in the back of the nest tray. The male comes in at night to sleep. She has been incubating these eggs now for a LONG time, so they should surely hatch any day now.

I have sad news to report on my Barn Swallow brood. The four (4) eggs hatched on May 1st with 4 good-looking, healthy babies. But as they got around two weeks old, they got sick and died, one by one. I just happened to be watching the camera one morning and I saw the female parent push one of the nestlings out of the nest. It fell to the concrete patio below and died. I found 2 of the other 3 on the ground about 20 to 30 feet away from the nest. I presume the female parent physically picked them up from the nest, then flew a short distance and dropped them.

I spoke with a senior rehabber about this (with more information than I want to say here) and she said they most likely had a bacterial intestinal infection, which may have spread from one to the others. A sad ending, but that's nature.

These barn swallows will very likely start another brood. They always do a 2nd brood even when all the young ones in the first brood fledge. But they will take about a 2 week break before they start again.

I hope you can view the nestcams ok. There may be times when they go off the air for several reasons. But I will try to keep them going as well as I can. Enjoy!

[Connie Roman ~ NJ]

Thank you so much for arranging this. I really enjoy watching the Purple Martins and I’m so sorry about the barn swallows. I too, purchased a camera so I could watch inside one of my Martin gourds. My gourd rack is 150’ from the house and my husband said setting it up is going to be a MAJOR project. He is looking into different ways to protect the cable going from the camera to our house. Not to thrilled to bury 150’ of PVC pipe. Thank you again,
Connie

[Guest]

Thanks photoman, These webcams are amazing!
Johnny

[V & B's Michigan PM's]

This is awesome to watch thanks for posting the cams...