Outdoors - The selfie stick

   For those who do not know, a selfie stick is an extension for a camera that puts it farther away from the person taking a picture of themselves. I had a need for one when I was trying to get a picture of a particular bird I was having trouble identifying. It was feeding on the grape jelly at the oriole feeder. I needed to put the motion detector camera farther away from the bird than on the feeder so he could take a picture of himself and be in focus. I went to the shop and within a few minutes, emerged with a bird selfie stick for a trail camera. Attaching it to the feeder, all I had to do was wait.

   Since we have not been raided by raccoons, I left the camera up all day and overnight. The next morning, I pulled the memory card to see if I had been successful. Of the 129 photos taken in twenty-four hours, most were of both male and female Baltimore orioles. Several pictures were of the mystery bird, which I thought was just an extremely dark oriole turned out to be an orchard oriole rather than the more common Baltimore orioles. The most interesting pictures were the ones taken at night.

   I did not expect any overnight photos and was surprised by quite a number of them. At first, it was difficult to determine what had triggered the camera. Looking at several pictures into the nighttime series, I could tell it was a flying squirrel. His big eyes reflected the light as he cautiously ate grape jelly. Flying squirrels, though quite common, are rarely seen. They are nocturnal, gliding from tree to tree in the darkness foraging for fruits, nuts, bird eggs, and apparently, grape jelly. According to the time stamp on the camera, he would stop in around midnight for a light snack. About 3:00 AM, either he or another one would stop by to eat again.

               Since the selfie stick was working, I decided to leave it up for several days, just to see what was going on at the grape jelly feeder. Both types of orioles stopped by throughout the day. Every night, the flying squirrel or squirrels returned. My wife and I both enjoyed reviewing the pictures each morning.

   One morning, coffee in hand, I headed to the porch. I glanced toward the oriole feeder and saw half the feeder, the camera, and selfie stick on the ground. Some disaster had befallen the setup during the night. I retrieved the camera, scrolled down to the nighttime photos, and soon solved the mystery. There were several pictures of the flying squirrel. About an hour later, a raccoon came into the picture. Several photos showed him on the feeder, happily eating jelly. Another picture showed him walking down the selfie stick toward the camera. The last picture was a blur of raccoon fur going by the lens as the feeder broke in two and the whole works and raccoon plunged to the ground.

   It might be time to go back to live trapping raccoons before I put the selfie stick back on the remodeled oriole feeder.