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by joseph motto on Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:48 am
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This thread has been extremely useful and I thank all of the contributors. Many of the responses took a considerable amount of time and effort and I am certain everyone who has read them are most appreciative. One question: Many perches with leaves and/or flowers immediately wilt or sag and often the branches rotate in the holder. Do you simply choose more durable perches and avoid those that wilt and do you secure them in some special way?
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by photoman4343 on Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:55 am
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I have experimented with using a water bottle to try and keep a vine alive when wrapped arpound a perch or when I have used a perch that is in bloom or has green leaves on it. I tape the bottle to the stake right below the pvc pipe and just push the perch thru the pvc into the bottle. I am not sure it adds much life to the perch howevert, but it makes me feel better. Joe Smith
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by Alan Murphy on Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:06 pm
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Many perches with leaves and/or flowers immediately wilt or sag and often the branches rotate in the holder. Do you simply choose more durable perches and avoid those that wilt and do you secure them in some special way?
If you notice in the above image of the tripod handle with the hole in it, I sometimes will fill the handle with water before placing the perch in there.

Also, you can get these vials from a florist that will hold more delicate perches and keep them alive for some time.
Image
For bigger branches, I use a simple drinking water bottle and just place the perch in that.
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by bobbyz on Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:29 pm
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Very informative. Thanks again.
 

by Cliff Beittel on Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:40 pm
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Alan Murphy wrote: . . . You can get these for under $20 at Walmart or target. . . .
Image
Who says Kodak equipment is longer used by top nature photographers? :wink:
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by Ed Erkes on Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:55 pm
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Alan Murphy is the master of this technique! Thanks for so freely sharing your expertise with the rest of us!
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by Byron H on Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:06 am
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A couple quick questions about water drips. I'm curious......are birds drawn in by the sound of the water drip or just from the moving water? Also, how long does the setup need to be in place before birds find a use for it? Are we talking minutes/hours/days/weeks ????????
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by Alan Murphy on Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:58 am
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Byron H wrote:A couple quick questions about water drips. I'm curious......are birds drawn in by the sound of the water drip or just from the moving water? Also, how long does the setup need to be in place before birds find a use for it? Are we talking minutes/hours/days/weeks ????????
Byron, the sound of the dripping water and the movement will draw them in. They can tell the water is fresh if it's moving.

If you are in a migration path or a migrant trap where birds stop during migration, then it will works right away. I have had birds come down before I could even get in my blind. It can work fast in desert areas too, but the rest of the country, it might take a day or two for the resident birds to take to it.
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Last edited by Alan Murphy on Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
 

by Byron H on Wed Aug 01, 2007 9:34 am
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Alan Murphy wrote:
Byron H wrote:A couple quick questions about water drips. I'm curious......are birds drawn in by the sound of the water drip or just from the moving water? Also, how long does the setup need to be in place before birds find a use for it? Are we talking minutes/hours/days/weeks ????????
Byron, the sound of the dripping water and the movement will draw them in. They can tell the water is fresh if it's moving.

If you are in a migration path or a migrant trap where birds stop during migration, then it will works right away. I have had birds come down before could even get in my blind. It can work fast in desert areas too, but the rest of the country, it might take a day or two for the resident birds to take to it.
Thanks Alan! Just what I needed to know!
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by Ofer Levy on Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:38 pm
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Alan, thank you so much for your generosity in sharing all this! I have never used a drip but will definitely give it a go thanks to your kind advice! At the end of the day we are all here to make better bird photography in order to promote conservation and you are helping us in doing so.
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by Tim Zurowski on Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:04 pm
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Alan, I think it is awesome that you are sharing your wealth of knowledge in this area with everyone here. I have been using running water for many years to attract the birds in my yard. Unfortunately, it only works well here in the summer to early fall period. I hadn't thought of using tripods for holding perches before. What a great idea. So I tried it the past week, and didn't have great success with it. Almost every species of bird that came and landed on the perch, landed on the tripod adjustment arm that the perch was stuck into. I lost a ton of photo ops because of that. Do they not do that in your setup, and how might you avoid that?

I have been using the same perch holding method as Justin. I recently made a 3.5 foot stand using a 4x4 with many holes drilled on all sides. I also use short 1' 2x4 on a plywood base. I also drill holes in the top as well so I can have some perches going straight up.

Even though my creek works very well, when I built it, I didn't build it with photography fully in mind. We built it more to just have a couple of water garden ponds with a running creek in between. It was a few years later that I realized it would be great to photograph the birds coming to it. What doesn't work well with it, is that there is only one small location to setup the blind, and only a couple of BG choices. Also, the lighting is only good from around 8 AM to noon. So I am going to try your water drip idea up in my back forest where I can move it around and get lots of BG choices and morning and evening lighting.

Thanks again Alan for being so open with your setups. They certainly do yield outstanding results. :)
 

by Alan Murphy on Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:32 pm
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Almost every species of bird that came and landed on the perch, landed on the tripod adjustment arm that the perch was stuck into. I lost a ton of photo ops because of that. Do they not do that in your setup, and how might you avoid that?
That's funny Tim. I have a portfolio of birds that land on my tripod handle like this :D
Image
Here's what I do. I attach some soft plants to the tripod head and handle. Make sure they are soft enough that a bird would not want to land there. Some thing like this.
Image
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by ebkw on Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:49 pm
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I know someone who attaches a fluffed up white plastic shopping bag. Does about the same thing as the soft plants.
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by Doron-Hoffman on Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:20 am
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Awesome thread!

Thanks you all!
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by Tim Zurowski on Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:21 pm
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Alan Murphy wrote: This next image (below) shows a simple set up where I raised the pond off the ground, using a piece of plywood and a bucket.
This gives some great out-of-focus backgrounds.
For this set-up, you can see a small black hose, which is attached to a larger garden hose.
The small diameter hose gives a great drip and does not need to be suspended above the water very much.
You can also see an assortment of perches placed around the pond.
If you look carefully, you can see a perch with Pine cones coming out of the left tripod. I'm also including an image of an Orchard Oriole on that very perch to show you the result.
Image
Alan, would you mind elaborating on how you made the dip in the pond in this rasied version? Did you cut a hole on the plywood and allow the pond liner to sink into the bucket? I would think that the liner would just sit flat on the plywood. I want to try this setup in my upper forested area. :)
 

by Alan Murphy on Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:53 pm
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Sure Tim.

All my drip set-ups are very primitive and can be set up very quickly. If you wish to shoot birds actually bathing in the water, then I would do a more elaborat and attractive set up that looked good in the viewfinder when the birds were in the water. That's another thread in itself :wink:

For this set-up, all I did was spread some dirt around the edges of the plywood and created a slight bowl shape to lay the liner in. Simple and quick. As for the drip itself. Instead of suspending the hose above the pond, I pushed a Tomato rod (cheap, light, come in many sizes, and can be cut to size, and found at any nursery) and zip-tied the small hose to it. This way it still drips but you have less splashing. (splashing can sometimes show up in some of the images) Below is a close up of the drip.
Image
Here is a close up of the small diameter hose can can be attached to a regular garden hose. The small hose can be easier to use, takes up less space and has a nice size drip.
Image
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by OntPhoto on Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:06 pm
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I missed this the first time around. Very interesting info.
 

by LouBuonomo on Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:38 pm
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Saw this got bumped.. If you guys belong to a club or something you may want to ping Alan to see if he is able to do a talk, I know our members loved it. I ordered his e-book as I want it for refresher to the workshop

Lou
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by OntPhoto on Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:57 pm
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I really have to get me a set up perch :-) I had been photographing redpolls at a feeder area for some time now during the winter months. Mostly you get some unattractive bare branches for the subject to land on. Then one day someone brought along a small tripod with a setup perch. And this was the result. Much more interesting than a bare horizontal branch. And a redpoll in a position I'd normally not see if it were perched on a horizontal perch.


Image
 

by DarrenMcKenna on Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:15 pm
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Thanks for the set up information Alan, also this one. Looking forward to your book.
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