9. BirdCam
“Look at the birdie!” has never had more meaning. While roaming the exhibit hall for new gardening products at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, I found a great bird-watching gadget. The Audubon BirdCam actually lets you capture images of the birds that visit your backyard feeder. This weather-resistant outdoor camera can be strapped to a nearby tree trunk, mounted on a tripod or clamped to the pole that holds your birdfeeder. Then, as birds visit the feeder, their motion triggers the camera, and voilá, you have a gallery of photos that can be downloaded to a computer or viewed on a television screen.

The PlantCam is a similar product that clicks and stitches together pictures of your garden and its plants as they grow, providing a time-lapse view as flowers open, seedlings grow or bulbs pop out of the ground. Hmm, maybe this is just what I need in my basement to monitor the seedlings that invariably succumb to crop failure of some sort due to my neglect. The PlantCam would operate just like a baby monitor, telling me when plants are crying out for water!

Has anyone used either of these products?

Cardinal photo by audreyjm529 at Flickr