The bracket is made!
I think this year's lineup is an improvement over last year. Based on what I've seen, all the opening matches look very competitive. My goal was to fix some of the lop-sided wins we had, and I'm feeling good about how this schedule looks.
There's going to be some tough choices for you guys. Much like last year, I'm glad I don't need to decide, but I'm still going to have to accept some painful loses at some point. I try to keep impartial during the tournament, but I definitely have some personal favorites. Sooty vs GHO is one where I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye to either one.
You guys didn't nominate my beloved Spotted Wood Owl. Buff Fronted got in, which I was happy for, but its first opponent is last year's winner.
I'm excited to see the Battle of the Southern Hemisphere between Australia's Barking Owl and NZ's Morepork.
We've got Eurasia's biggest owls going head-to-head.
Snowy, Burrowing, and Buffy are all up against some flashy newcomers where we could have a surprise victory like the unexpected triumphs the Flammulated Owl had last year,
I think I will start the games Wed, 4 DEC after I get back from some travel. Then we've got a little over 2 weeks of excitement to crown this year's winner. I'll put the final 4 owls in the banner again and the winner gets the icon.
Got a personal favorite you're ready to cheer on to victory?
Let me know which matches you are most looking forward to or dreading the most!
Are there people selling ready to go units or did someone you know make it?
I haven't remembered to read about it in a bit, but I feel it touted a pretty high accuracy rating. Do they update software frequently and/or have you noticed anything that was obviously inaccurate like it claiming a bird that isn't in your country or something?
My husband made it. I’m not sure how often it updates, I’m sorry. As to weatherproofing that was asked about, we keep it in the garage. I think the microphone is outside or right by the window, I’m not sure.
It’s generally pretty good. It picks up a bunch of warblers during spring migration that I can hear, but never can find in the trees. You can listen to the clips and check against audio from allaboutbirds.org or somewhere online.
It's not perfect, though. I know that it used to say there was an Eastern Screech Owl and we would listen to the audio clip and it was a siren. 😂 But that’s fixed now. Sometimes it will identify a Dunlin, which is a shorebird, which maybe is passing through during migration, but I doubt it. I haven’t looked into that one too much. There’s also some kind of goose that comes up now and then that could be passing overhead, but I think it unlikely. It said there was a Ring-necked Pheasant in the yard the other day, but again, I’m skeptical. This is the suburbs.
It’s pretty fun to “see” what birds are in the area that aren’t your standard feeder birds.
Thanks for the info!
I didnt even think about just having the mic outside. I was picturing it onboard, but I guess that's the great thing about DIY is you can do what you want!
I did find this one, where someone looks to have put it in outdoor rated enclosure. They said they were having issues with just their mic outdoors.
They said you can also use a Pi Zero or a "Le Potato" which are both much cheaper than a Pi 4 from the look of it.
I forgot you could hear the clips. I thought it just gave a chart of what birds it found with timestamps and things like that. It's cool you can double check it to verify things.