I don't do much cooking anymore, so don't buy much meat. But I do purchase and put out several bird suet blocks year round. And the birds love them, especially the little red-headed woodpeckers.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Again, good on you but... there is always a but... You might consider not doing the suit blocks year round and just do during cold weather. The stuff is bird candy that really helps them in cold weather but they will still see it as candy in warm weather and will eat instead of feed that is more healthy... Just a thought.

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Jay, funny that you mentioned that. A neighbor friend just told me the same thing last week...put suet out only in the winter. So I guess I will need to consider that. The only problem is that the little woodpeckers don't come around during the winter (do they go south?), and they are the ones who seem to enjoy the suet the most.

Maybe if I put suet out in the summer, I will attach a sign...."For Woodpeckers Only", lol.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Sorry, thought I had already replied...

The problem with putting out suet in the summer is the fat content. During the winter the birds need the fat as they burn a lot more calories staying warm. As with most things it may be a matter of moderation in the summer. Putting out some suet say every couple of weeks would probably be OK but I would not out all the time.

As to the wood peckers flying south I'd have to know the species to find out.

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Well I got my shelves for my air pumps today. Now I just need to figure out how to mount on the wall. The best that I can figure is to use cord to make a sort of horizontal plumb line. Then find the center of the tank in relation to the line and mark. Then just measure right and left to place the mounting screws. I would place the screws just a touch toward the center line to make sure the shelves fit together tightly as I surely don't want a gap.

One of the things I like about these shelves is the rubber pads in the corners. Diaphragm type air pumps do vibrate a little which would have a chance of causing harmonics making the wall act like a sound board amplifying the sound. This is why most flat screen TVs today have the speakers in the back. The wall behind the set acts like a sound board improving the sound. Anyway the pads on the shelves should damp and prevent this effect.

So you know what I'm talking about here is an image of both back and front. BTW the shelves are VERY well made. The wood is all 1/2 inch. LOL! They BETTER be well made as I paid over $80.00 for the pair. Could have gotten something a lot cheaper but the shelves will be in a moist environment just from tank evaporation. Particle board units would not last very long. Well actually these units are particle but resin based not glue. The particle part is also encased in resin which should make it water proof.

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Just to add on to my last post on the shelves I opened the wrong package first. The second package included a paper template for the mounting holes. Unfortunately it just allows for the whole spacing and is shorter than the actual shelf unit. Still I can use tape and a paper strip to widen the paper to one edge of a shelf. Then I just need the center line using the template for hole placement in the wall. Would have been nice if the template was actually the width of the shelf but will still make things easier.

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Jay, primarily I have the simple red-headed woodpecker, probably about 8-9" in size. I will also occasionally see a downy woodpecker at the suet feeder. Unfortunately, I also have the large pileated woodpeckers, which grow to be about 20" in size. They are almost too big to hang off a suet feeder; however, on two occasions they have pecked deep holes in the cedar siding of my house, looking for insects.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Red headed woodpeckers do migrate, mostly due to finding food sources such as do robins.
Downy woodpeckers do not migrate but will roam from region to region in the basic ares ad food demands.

Pileated woodpeckers do not migrate.

When a woodpecker 'drums' on a house it is not looking for food. There are two main reasons for this activity.
1) House drumming is loud and proclaims a territory
2) It is a mating thing.

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I always thought woodpeckers made holes in siding and trim to dig for bugs!

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

That is a bit of a myth Steve. While they DO use their bill to dig into dead or soft woods for food it is actually just that, digging. The digging does not produce the drumming sound.

Here is a quick read on their drumming.
Woodpecker drumming
Since it is a very long link I used the url tag to shorten.

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Thanks for the woodpecker info, Jay. But in Arkansas, a 3rd reason for the drumming is looking for bugs/insects.

After doing repair twice on my cedar-siding home, I stopped the drumming by placing a live-size, realistic-looking plastic owl on my deck railing. No more drumming. The smaller woodpeckers do come to the suet baskets, and I can hear the pileated woodpeckers drumming out in the woods. Plus, the pileated make a very loud and vocal noise.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Glad I have yet to mount my shelves. I had what I think is a great idea. I My biggest concern was getting both shelves even and without a gap between. Dawned on me that I won't need all four wall mounts. I can remove one from each shelf and rotate 90 degrees to use to join the shelves. This will make sure that they are level with each other with no gap. Since they will be solidly joined one wall mount on each will be fine and all I'll have to worry about is making the joined shelves level on the wall. Weight won't be an issue as both pumps combined are probably under 1.5 pounds, likely not even that much.

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Jay, you are so darn smart. Doesn't that get old sometimes?

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

LOL! Nope, it is just me getting old, not smart. It isn't a matter of smart, it is a matter of being lazy and looking for the easiest solution.

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Lazy and innovative works for me......

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Another new toy for my tank. I have so many plants that it is impossible to see some of the lower stuff in the back and, for maintenance, dead leaves and such need removed.

Soooo I bought an endoscope, think colonoscopy but smaller. It is USB powered with a 16 foot cable and does 720p full color video at 30 frames per second and stills. It has six LED lights surrounding the lens that are adjustable and came with software for recording videos and taking snapshots. The cable is semi rigid so can be easily aimed and also came with a mounting hook to hold in place, a magnet attachment attachment and a mirror. The hook I get for holding it in place and the mirror could be useful for viewing areas that the solid camera unit is too long to get in. I really don't get the magnet but who knows? All three attachments are held in place near the lens with a rubber sleeve.

I am really impressed with the image and video quality and get this... I paid a grand total of $20.00USD + shipping.

The following are a still image of really nothing but an area that I can't see from outside the tank. The YouTube is a VERY short video of one of my fish checking out the camera.

Still shot:


Short video, 14 seconds. The quality is impressive in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpYTJd83D2g

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That's cool! I think the magnet is meant for retrieving items that fall into the drain trap.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Unbenounced to me, they sell a lot of those endoscopes on Amazon. Another advertised use is to inspect around car engines.
In my case, since I have trouble getting down and up from the floor, I often use a little mirror to inspect the back of my desktop computer. So a $20 endoscope would be ideal for me to use.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Here is the one I got. Keep in mind that it does not view a large area and the mirror is very small.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PBF6DX5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

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Yea, I thought that might be the one. Ad says you can use this Endoscope in many hard-to-reach, narrow, and confined places at home or outdoors, such as HVAC, vent pipe, engines, air conditioners, sofa corners, bathtub pipes, toilets, etc.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

While not related to my aquarium it is still about a pet so I figured I'd keep this here...

I think I've made a major breakthrough with my cockatiel. As I've said before he is a rescue bird and has been very cage bound. It looks like we MAY be done with being cage bound. For the last bit of time, probably close to two weeks, he has been spending more time outside of his cage than he spends inside when the cage is open. Before this he spent time out of the cage but I had to pretty much force him out of the cage. Now he is coming out on his own a LOT. I consider this an important breakthrough with him.

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That's certainly a big breakthrough. I imagine that it means he's more comfortable now.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Ya, I don't know exactly what happened but one day I opened his cage and went to fill his feed bowl and he was out before I got the food back.

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Well after just ~1.75 years the built in lights for my tank are failing. Some of the LEDs went dead and the rest are starting to flicker a bit. The dead LEDs were not a big deal as most were still fine. The flickering, even though slight, is a big deal as it would cause stress for the fish. Fish don't have eye lids so a consistent light source is important.

Actually it is not all a bad thing as I was never totally happy with the built in lights as they are just a rectangle in the middle of the hood so leave a lot of shadows and dim areas toward the sides of the tank. The new light strip is 15 inches long so will better cover the entire tank, which is 16 inches wide, and only cost me $18.39 USD through Amazon. New light is supposed to be here Monday.

I was going to totally remove the integrated hood and replace with pre-cut plexiglass but the prices are totally off the wall. To have a piece 3/8 inch thick cut to 15.75X17.75 inches Home Depot wanted close to $90.00 USD. The tank is actually 16X18 inches but the cover needs to be slightly less to avoid condensation from running down the outside of the tank. So I'm going to leave the current hood alone and mount the new light strip on the bottom of the hood.

The new lights DO have some negative reviews but they are not much about the quality of the light but rather the suction cup mounting failing and the control being too complicated. As to the suction cups not holding that is normal these days as it seems that outfits have forgotten how to make a suction cup. As to the control being too complicated I don't see, from an image, how it can be. But then, for some people, figuring out which side of their to get up from is complicated even though one side of the bed is against a wall. As to the suction cups a bit of aquatic silicone (which I already have) or super glue will solve. Ya, super glue is actually aquarium safe and often used to mount plants that can't be planted in the substrate to wood or rocks.

Another advantage of the new light is that the old had red, white and blue LEDs. The new lights have those three but also includes green which will be good for my plants. If you know lighting the new unit is 6500k which MAY be a bit high for my small 20 gallon tank but it has 10 intensity levels at 10% increments so not a problem.

Here is what I got...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKSY2H92?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

As to the negative reviews on the control being too complicated how complicated can this really be? (image to follow) I mean there is a button to select between white, red and green that you just hit until you have the combo you want. Blue, at the bottom, is separate which I really don't understand but it may be an option to imitate evening or pre dawn moon type lighting. Other than the light combo buttons there are only two others. One is for the light intensity with ten settings and a timer. The timer is not a total time control but more duration with options for the light being on 6, 10 or 12 hours. Currently I run my lights 10 hours so the options fit. The light control does have a basic 'memory' so, if I turn it on at 10:00 AM, which is my norm, and select 10 hours, it will remember this and then turn on and off at the same time every day with the same lighting settings as to colors and intensity. The 'memory' must be something like a flash drive chip as it will survive a power failure.

Here is the control that is 'supposed' to be so complicated.

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LOL! The light control is fairly common for LED lights. I purchased some plant lights last year that have the same type of set-up for the control. Yes, plexi is insanely expensive. I was looking for a thinner piece about 10 to 12 inches square a while back and was appalled at the price! I didn't need clear, but rather white. I ended up buying a heavy piece of plastic similar to the typical For Sale sign, just a tad thicker and blank. I don't recall what type it was, but it wasn't plexi.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"