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I'm currently volunteering my time to help support a local food bank/church hall and a separate scouts/church hall with a CCTV system following some recent trouble in the area. (A little Welsh village).
Through the use of my adaptive CCTV knowledge, and knowing that there have been a family of barn owls in the local church bell tower for donkeys years - breeding annually without fail - when one of the local parishioners passed away, his widow donated a substantial sum towards installing cameras in the tower so that anyone and everyone could tune in at any time and see what was going on. The donation covered about half of what was needed, and I contributed a further sum to make up the difference, and of course provided my labour for free. Not the easiest of jobs fitting cameras up a bell-tower, and then getting the video and audio signal to an internet connection through stone walls that were 6ft thick, with 'church laws' that prevent anyone from drilling through walls to pass cables etc. but I digress. I did it - and that's all that matters!
We now have two cameras streaming from the tower - one that looks at the church bell, and one inside a purpose built owl box. As we aren't yet in the breeding season, there's no activity in the owl box just yet - but we are getting regular visits through our bell-cam. (Including this evening) Most activity so far centres around 7-8pm and 4-6am, and he can be there for up to two hours at a time, preening, screeching and extending his wings. What we've noticed though is that the owl spends quite some time in the upper area of the tower - and we don't have a camera there. Here's a short video extract from tonight's visit:
Tonight's visit (pre-recorded)
I'd like to share a link to one of the two existing live cameras for everyone to have a look - and those avid owl fans amongst us will soon be able to watch a breeding cycle of barn owls live. We've just set up a you-tube live stream channel - and are beginning to share the details far and wide.
I hope that those of you that have a passion for owls and our feathered friends will enjoy tuning in from time to time to see if you can spot an owl - and if you happen to feel generous - I am running a gofundme to raise a little bit more money to install the third camera - which will show the large outer ledge on the owl box. and an area above it. From what we've seen so far, the owl does seem to spend a lot of time up there - so would be great to be able to install the third camera and have all the angles covered. If you happen to be in a position where you love owls (and birds in general) and have a small contribution to spare - please click on the link in my signature that takes you to my gofundme page where there's loads of detail about the project. (Happy to answer any questions by PM - and have run it past admin before posting, you can remain anonymous in any donation) Would be great for the local schools (and beyond) to be able to tune in and watch the progress of the next breeding cycle - which we are expecting to start around February 2022. Last year there were 6 owlets - and they started life up in the owl box - and then as they grew and began to find their wings - spent a lot of time on the wooden beams that are supporting the bell. So we know our two existing cameras are well positioned - but that third one at the top of the tower would be the icing on the cake!
So as they say at the end of a boring speech, without further ado, here is the link to the current youtube livestream:
The current Youtube livestream of our Towercam - SUBSCRIBE AND SHARE (I think that's what they say)
The above link is the only one the public will get to see - and we'll be combining all the camera images into a single stream (So it'll be 3 cameras on one screen) - for those that want to see a bit more quality though - and just for the TP people - I'll also provide the direct RTSP feeds so that you can see each camera as a single stream.
To see the owl box and the inside of the tower - have a quick look at the gofundme page on the link below in my signature... down there... down a bit... that's it - next to the dancing bananas.
To see the owl box and the inside of the tower - have a quick look at the gofundme page on the link below in my signature... down there... down a bit... that's it - next to the dancing bananas.
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