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Topic: Kodak "Going to the Birds"

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-04-2004 01:22 PM

The Kodak "BirdCam" is about to capture several "blessed events" as the 2004 peregrine falcon chicks are nearly ready to hatch:

Kodak BirdCam

quote:
New for 2004, the Kodak Birdcam provides a fantastic opportunity for students & teachers. We are pleased to support the efforts of educators around the globe by providing a downloadable resource with information about the endangered Peregrine Falcon, and how they fit into our ecosystem. Visit For the Classroom to get started! Then, join other teachers and students on the discussion board, where Peregrine Falcon fans and experts will gladly answer your questions.

Mariah & Kaver’s five eggs should start hatching in early May. That’s when the fun really begins!

Kodak BirdCam 4 Views

Downtown Rochester - The Falcons' Home

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 05-05-2004 11:33 PM

John, I thought it was at Ford Motor Comapny where they had a dreadful accident. One of those Falcons got loose from the assembly line and crapped all over the place. [Big Grin]

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-06-2004 10:41 AM

At least I don't have the job of climbing up 19 stories to the top of the Kodak Office Tower building to clean the lenses on those BirdCams! [Big Grin]

I remember some days in the past when the cameras caught the birds eating their prey. [puke]

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=38/492/2017/2035/2044&pq-locale=en_US

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-12-2004 11:06 AM

For those who are interested:

John's birds hatched at least one baby falcon today!

I've been watching to get a good look at the baby bird but, well, it's hard to get a falcon to stay in one position long enough. [Wink]

You can see fragments of at least one egg shell. There is at least one new baby falcon. Maybe two! [Smile]

(Okay, they're not really JOHN's birds but they live in the building where John works. It's just more fun to say it that way. [Smile]

)

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-12-2004 05:42 PM

I see peregrine falcons around these parts typically in the spring or fall. Way too hot for them in the summer time.

Another cool predatory bird is the Harris Hawk. There's lots of them in the desert southwest and they can be found in Texas and Olkahoma. What makes the Harris Hawk cool? Since it is the only predatory bird species which hunts in packs, it has the most successful kill ratio of any predatory bird species. On average, Harris Hawks hunt in teams of three to five birds. They run a type of harrasment relay to tire prey, encircle them and go in for the kill. Their success rate is 50%, quite a bit better than the averages for all other birds of prey.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-12-2004 06:05 PM

Hey! It's feeding time at the falcon's nest!

It looks like 3 of the 4 eggs hatched today! The proud mother and father falcons are giving the babies a meal. Although there is no real gore in the picture, you can see bits of the rent-asunder carcass of whatever critter met its fate as the falcons' first meal.

This is cool! [Cool]

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-13-2004 02:27 PM

quote: Randy Stankey
(Okay, they're not really JOHN's birds but they live in the building where John works. It's just more fun to say it that way.

I don't work at the Kodak Office tower (KO Building 7) where the falcons are nesting, which is a 19 story building at 343 State Street near downtown Rochester. It's right next to Frontier Field, Rochester's AAA league baseball stadium, and home of the "Red Wings", which can be seen on one of the BirdCams. It's also close to the "High Falls" of the Genesee River.

I work in Building 69, which is part of the Kodak Research Laboratories, located about 4 miles north of the Kodak office tower and the falcons' nesting grounds.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-13-2004 04:46 PM

The birds live in a good part of town, dont' they?

Just think. They live in a penthouse apartment with a southern view. It's just a stone's throw from the baseball park. A few minutes' from the downtown entertainment district and a hop, skip and a jump from the brewery.

All that, and they don't pay rent!

What a country! [Wink]

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-13-2004 10:28 PM

I think they like it because there are lots of pigeons around too, and the Genesee River gorge creates some nice updrafts to allow loitering aloft looking for prey.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-14-2004 10:52 AM

I've gotten kinda' hooked on watching birdcams so I started looking around the 'net for others. Let me tell ya'! I think Kodak's falcon cam is the best one.

Only one or two of them have more than one camrea. Most of them are out of focus or have dirty lenses. From a human-eye perspective, Kodak has the nicest nest box. (Though I don't know how much a falcon cares for looks. [Wink]

) A lot of them have grainy (overcompressed) pictures or the camrea is zoomed in too far or not zoomed in enough. One or two of them are off-line, even.

So, Kodak has one cam that's off-line but I imagine it'll get fixed sometime around "Banding day". No? Wouldn't want to disturb the birds too much just to fix a silly camera, would we?

Really good work, there! Keep it up! I'm glued to my screen! A few of my students are getting hooked too! They come to my office just to check the birdcams!

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-14-2004 11:56 AM

Randy:

Thank you. [thumbsup]

The BirdCam always generates excitement around here, especially when the eggs hatch. Those chicks will grow fast, and be flying soon --- all caught on camera. [Cool]

My office is in the middle of our building, without any windows. So I sometimes check the BirdCam to see what the weather outside is like.

Today marks the start of the Rochester Lilac Festival:

http://www.lilacfestival.com/

quote:
A colorful parade, Montana Mills Lilac 10K, two arts and crafts shows, numerous concerts, and a vast array of other activities fill nearly every corner of Highland Park and its environs during the Lilac Festival. As always, this family-oriented festival emphasizes community involvement, bringing together the corporate community with several not-for-profit organizations and the public sector in a cooperative effort for the benefit of area residents and visitors. Below are brief descriptions of some of the festival's largest attractions and events.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-17-2004 02:02 AM

The Love Bug Festival has just begun in the coastal states of the southeastern USA.

Each year, these harmless dipterans (flies) emerge to form a spectacular display. Although they are flies, they are not carriers of disease, they have less of the jittery, hard, unattractive insectoid appearance expected, & are instead quiet, docile, slow-moving creatures of smooth, velvety black with striking red body sections.

Not only beautiful as specimens alone, the love bugs are beloved especially for their decorative interaction with automobiles. Millions per mile of the charming mating insects populate stretches of roadways, landing on windshields & exploding before the driver in dazzling Pollock-esque layered displays of color & juxtaposition, ever-changing, each different, arresting, inescapable.

Art changes with perspective; that of the love bugs often is pontillistic from another view:

Unlike many abstract works, which can seem cold & mechanical, those of the love bugs are always unquestionably organic in appearance. Prolific in their creativity, they can work so hard as to require stopping after as little as 45 minutes at a gas station where it will be found that the water in the squeegee bin has already been depleted by previous visitations of patrons of the love bugs' art seeking to provide them with a canvas afresh.

Art should often raise interesting questions, & this is easily the case with the love bugs. It is always engrossing to listen to the discussions which are brought about by the many overheard queries of "Mommy, why does this bug have two heads?"

Info about art in nature

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-17-2004 10:53 AM

One of the coolest pieces of "Windshield Art" that I ever made was when I was headed east on I-40, somewhere between Asheville, NC and Hickory.

It was just after nightfall (Naut. Twilight) and I drove through a swarm of fireflies at 70 M.P.H. Over a span of about 1/2 minute, the whole front end of my car lit up with 12" long streaks of glowing firefly guts! It was so thick I could hardly see to drive. I had to pull over and clean the windshield before I ran off the road. I just stood there and watched as the glowing streaks slowly faded into the night.

It was very cool! But let me give you some advice:

If you drive through a swarm of fireflies at night, **DO NOT** turn on your windshield wipers while you're driving!

[Big Grin]

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