Nature

Birdfy Feeder Bamboo review – easily observe feathered friends while they feed

Birdfy Feeder Bamboo 08

REVIEW – I haven’t been much of a bird watcher so far in my life, but I have always enjoyed related activities like hiking and visiting zoos and aviaries. We’ve also has a cheap bird feeder in our back yard intermittently for years, and I always like, seeing the different birds visit, so when the […]

Birdfy Feeder Bamboo review – easily observe feathered friends while they feed Read More

Birdkiss Smart Bird Feeder with Solar Panel review – AI tells you what kind of birds are visiting

BSBF 31

REVIEW – This is a smart bird feeder from Birdkiss. My plan was to document assembly and setup and then take it to the other side of the country and install it at my mom’s since she loves birds. That plan went out the window when I started using it. The birds showed up and

Birdkiss Smart Bird Feeder with Solar Panel review – AI tells you what kind of birds are visiting Read More

Netvue Birdfy Feeder Cam review – a smart bird feeder that doubles as a security camera

birdfy 54

REVIEW – When we were kids, my sister and I enjoyed watching birds from our bedroom windows. We each kept notebooks where we recorded the birds that we would see. Dorky? Yeah, but we loved it and it was before I even knew that bird watching was a thing. When I was offered the Netvue

Netvue Birdfy Feeder Cam review – a smart bird feeder that doubles as a security camera Read More

Help entomologists track the range of Brood X cicadas using the Cicada Safari app

cicada safari 01

ARTICLE – If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, you know that this spring is all abuzz (ha!) with the emergence of Brood X (pronounced Brood “10”) cicadas. A brood is a mass emergence of cicadas which are the deafeningly loud insects (males trying to attract females) that you hear in the trees.

Help entomologists track the range of Brood X cicadas using the Cicada Safari app Read More

BEEcosystem is a modular honey bee hive for your home

beecosystem 2

NEWS – If you care about the planet, you’ve probably heard that honey bees are having a very rough time and are dying by the millions due to pesticides and other factors. Bees not only pollinate pretty flowers, but they are a critical pollinator of the world’s fruit and vegetable crops. Fewer bees mean less food

BEEcosystem is a modular honey bee hive for your home Read More

A recording microphone and a shouting caterpillar – two great things that go great together!

audiotechnica at2020 01

I know nothing about recording microphones and I have often wondered, “What would I use a microphone for?”, until I read about a screaming caterpillar on Curiosity. The above video was obtained from Science News. Okay, so it’s not really shouting or screaming as we know it, but apparently, the Nessus sphinx hawkmoth caterpillar makes a

A recording microphone and a shouting caterpillar – two great things that go great together! Read More

The Dark Side’s new weapon: Ricinus vaderi

ricinus vaderi

“You don’t know the power of the Dark Side.” Apparently, a new species of chewing louse didn’t know either and thus succumbed to the temptation. Scientists Miroslav Valan, Oldrich Sychra and Ivan Literak, while revising “a collection of chewing lice deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia” (from

The Dark Side’s new weapon: Ricinus vaderi Read More

This Parrot can tell you when your plants need water

parrot flower power sensor

There’s been a bit of interest in plant monitors here at The Gadgeteer.  (Apparently many of you have better luck with plants than I do – even my artificial plants look unhealthy!)  The Parrot Flower Power sensor is a new entry into the wireless plant monitoring field.  The Flower Power was developed in collaboration with

This Parrot can tell you when your plants need water Read More

Click & Grow Smartpot flowerpot review

click and grow 12

Gadget loving gardeners now have another way to keep their thumbs a nice shade of Green. Remember the Koubachi WiFi Plant Sensor that I reviewed a few months ago (see link below in Related Posts section)? That device sent notifications to your email and smartphone alerting you when your plant required watering. The Click & Grow Smartpot

Click & Grow Smartpot flowerpot review Read More

LeafSnap App: Poison Ivy or Just Ivy

LeafSnap App

Leafsnap is a new iOS application that  is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution.  This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves. Leafsnap contains beautiful high-resolution images of leaves,

LeafSnap App: Poison Ivy or Just Ivy Read More

Your Computer Has a Green Thumb Even When You Don’t

clickandgrow

I live with someone that loves growing house plants. We have a bazillion of them in our family room. Jeanne likes buying and growing plants, but (and don’t tell her I told you…), she doesn’t have the Greenest of thumbs. At any one time, there will be several plants that look like they are just

Your Computer Has a Green Thumb Even When You Don’t Read More

Wearable Hummingbird Feeder

If you have ever wanted to get up close and personal with a hummingbird, you now have your chance with the Wearable Hummingbird Feeder from Heatstick.com. It’s a head mounted face shield with a feeding tube built into the forehead of the mask. The mask and helmet are painted Red to attract the hummingbirds, while

Wearable Hummingbird Feeder Read More