Son-in-law and his wildlife cameras.

My daughter Toni and hubby Andy(6'5" jolly green giant) own and live on a Federally protected wildlife preserve in the form of a pond(5.5 acres) and the property surrounding it about 30' in from the water's edge. They have constant water fowl in and around the pond plus quite a collection of animals as well. Early last year Andy noticed a few Wood Ducks trying to nest in the rushes at water's edge so he decided to lend a hand. Using the little jon boat they have(water is only about 3' deep at the deepest area), he drove two posts into the bottom, putting them maybe 30 yds. apart. Then researched and built two "duck houses" and mounted them one on each pole. He made them so as to be able to open them up and clean house. Sure enough, both were occupied this past summer, very colorful birds.

In conversation one afternoon he was wishing he could watch the nests close up so Toni asked if the houses were big enough to mount a small camera in each one. A couple days ago he did just that, real small but very effective, he showed me the entire system today. You can see with great detail as though your head was inside the house. And, underneath the one directly behind their house he mounted a moveable camera that he can sweep almost 180 deg. left/right plus up/down at a wide angle as well. It's all driven by wi-fi and everything runs off rechargeable batteries which he keeps up with a small solar collector mounted on the side of the pole. The cameras allow real time viewing and all controlled from his cell phone. We stepped outside onto the deck in view of the camera, he pulled it up on his phone and I could watch myself wave at myself on his phone. We then walked from one side of the yard to the other and he showed how he could follow us. They have a short floating dock with a large tub attached on the end via a smaller square floating dock, the tub is kept full of corn which is fought over by Candadian Geese, various kinds of ducks, muskrats, squirrels...anything else that happens by. The camera allows them to watch the activity whereever they happen to be. Plus, last summer he also erected a Martin house about 25' high. Did it in such a way that he can take it down for the winter or just to clean out the Sparrows. As weather changes up here, I'll see if I can get some pictures of everything, really interesting what he's done.