Inside-Out

This weekend for Father’s day my son gave me a birdhouse kit. He has been watching birds and other outdoor life at our home in the back roads of suburbia and I told him we should get a bird house a month ago. So for Fathers day I get a kit… not a birdhouse, but a birdhouse kit. I’m staring at a box full of wood, nails, screws, and other doohickeys (very technical term). Yikes! My wife offered to help me put it together but I decided why not try and put it together. I took shop in 7th grade! I can do this! So my son and I ran off to workshop (an air hockey table in the garage) to put together the best bird house ever.

After looking at these pieces of wood for fifteen minutes or so I decided to hammer in some nails to the wood and get’er done. To my surprise it started to look like a bird house! Even my four year old thought so! After nailing the final nails we finished the birdhouse and hung it up on a tree in the front yard.

“Now what Daddy?” my son said… I wasn’t really sure. Do birds just fly to it? Do we have to get a bird caller? I don’t know, but I don’t want to stand outside all day watching a wooden box. It was time to break out my X10 skills. Over the years I’ve had lots of customers talk about buying cameras for bird watching. Hey I’ve got a bird house to watch! So back to the air hockey table we went….I mean workshop.

I grabbed a camera, motion sensor and my handy screw driver and we setup our bird house cam. We mounted it on the house facing the birdhouse. Now while watching TV we can check out the front door cam, or the bird house. I also setup the computer to take snap shots of the bird house. Once I see some activity I’ll move that to video.

So for Father’s day I was able to show that I can hammer and nail in a pinch and If I ever need to make a bigger dog house I’ll be able to do so. Any tips or suggestions on other bird house accessories I should grab? Anyone have any birdhouse web cams?