Gourd-Cam Research

For the second year in a row, the PMCA has installed a video surveillance camera INSIDE an active Purple Martin nest cavity outside our headquarters in Edinboro, PA. Our camera is in the upper neck of a natural gourd, aimed straight down. The camera is miniaturized and is only 2-inches long, by 1-inch square. It is state-of-the-art professional equipment designed for rugged field use. It is monochrome, but illuminates the interior (night and day) with 6 infrared diodes, which are invisible to the martins. The idea for doing this came from 1992 PMCA Landlord of the Year, Charles McEwen of Moncton, New Brunswick, who did it with consumer-grade video equipment clear back in 1991. [article] The PMCA has been wanting to put a camera in a martin cavity ever since seeing Charles McEwen's set-up in 1991. The final motivation to do it came in 1999, when James R. Hill, III, Executive Director of the PMCA, went to the American Ornithologists' Union annual meeting at Cornell University. Hill visited the vendor table of Richard Fuhrman of Fuhrman Diversified, Inc., (http://www.fieldcam.com/) and saw his state-of-the-art miniaturized fieldcams. So, in 2000, the PMCA bought a system from Dick Fuhrman and set it up. 2001 is the second season of observation and recording.
We ran the video and audio cables underground, into the office, to a monochrome monitor, and a Sony time-lapse recorder. We are documenting the entire nesting season, every second of it, night and day, for the next 50-65 days, from nest-building through fledging. A single 8-hour VHS tape will last 24 hours because the time-lapse recorder is only recording 20 frames per second instead of 60. We opted not to have a web cam at this stage for financial reasons. The vocalizations they make in the nest, and as they enter the nest, are quite fascinating. We hope to learn a great deal that is currently unknown about martin behavior this summer.

Other Research



For the second year in a row, the PMCA has installed a video surveillance camera INSIDE an active Purple Martin nest cavity outside our headquarters in Edinboro, PA. Our camera is in the upper neck of a natural gourd, aimed straight down. The camera is miniaturized and is only 2-inches long, by 1-inch square. It is state-of-the-art professional equipment designed for rugged field use. It is monochrome, but illuminates the interior (night and day) with 6 infrared diodes, which are invisible to the martins. The idea for doing this came from 1992 PMCA Landlord of the Year, Charles McEwen of Moncton, New Brunswick, who did it with consumer-grade video equipment clear back in 1991. [article] The PMCA has been wanting to put a camera in a martin cavity ever since seeing Charles McEwen's set-up in 1991. The final motivation to do it came in 1999, when James R. Hill, III, Executive Director of the PMCA, went to the American Ornithologists' Union annual meeting at Cornell University. Hill visited the vendor table of Richard Fuhrman of Fuhrman Diversified, Inc., (http://www.fieldcam.com/) and saw his state-of-the-art miniaturized fieldcams. So, in 2000, the PMCA bought a system from Dick Fuhrman and set it up. 2001 is the second season of observation and recording. We ran the video and audio cables underground, into the office, to a monochrome monitor, and a Sony time-lapse recorder. We are documenting the entire nesting season, every second of it, night and day, for the next 50-65 days, from nest-building through fledging. A single 8-hour VHS tape will last 24 hours because the time-lapse recorder is only recording 20 frames per second instead of 60. We opted not to have a web cam at this stage for financial reasons. The vocalizations they make in the nest, and as they enter the nest, are quite fascinating. We hope to learn a great deal that is currently unknown about martin behavior this summer.
Other Research