{"id":932,"date":"2013-06-22T19:42:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T00:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/gazette\/2013\/06\/22\/more_nest_peeping_barn_swallows\/"},"modified":"2023-10-06T12:35:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T17:35:04","slug":"more_nest_peeping_barn_swallows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2013\/06\/22\/more_nest_peeping_barn_swallows\/","title":{"rendered":"More Nest Peeping: Barn Swallows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I mentioned<\/a> a couple of months ago, we decided to let the barn swallows finish building a nest on our front porch, mainly because they picked an innocuous spot and I figured if I ran them off, they’d just find a worse place while we were out of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clutch of eggs in the nest hatched recently and we’ve seen some tiny bird heads leaning over the edge, waiting to be fed. I figured this was a good time to snoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put an adhesive-backed GoPro mount near the nest (it’s about eight feet above the floor), and attached the camera to it, set to take a picture every 30 seconds. The setup didn’t go unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also wasn’t completely successful on the first try. I was sitting in the living room when I heard a loud thump. I went outside to find the camera laying on the concrete. I had combined several mounts into an articulating arm in order to get the right angle for the shots, and the leveraged was too much for the adhesive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the GoPro housings are very sturdy and the camera was unscathed. I redesigned the setup to reduce the strain on the mount, and tried it again. Following is a sample of the results from about a two hour period. Click any photo to see a larger uncropped version, or start with the first one and use the controls on the pop-up to step through all the images.<\/p>\n\n\n