The cameras used this year are EM120 Black and white cameras (on the right in this picture), chosen for their very low light level capability (0.4lux), and EM220 colour cameras. The B/W cameras have built in microphones.

The cameras have lenses of several focal lengths (mentioned in the notes below).

All the cameras are 'hard-wired' to multiplexer units next to my computer. These units provide me with the quad images that will sometimes appear on the webcam. Both my main PC and my Toshiba laptop use WinTV devices to input from single sources, although I can select feed from any of the ten cameras individually or any combination of four of them for each computer.

This is the oldest of my nestboxes, having been constructed around 1990. It is a purpose-made tower built to allow for photography at the nest, and the nest entrance is about 8ft above ground level, and faces East.

The right hand image shows the platform that I can stand on, and in the shadows above it you can just make out the position of a bench seat.

The 'business end' of the box is shown here. The camera (labelled 1) is one of two EM220 colour cameras (both with 2.9mm lenses) being used this year for the first time, the other inside the nestbox, giving a vertical view.

In front of the camera a support holds in place a pair of crossed Polarising filters (labelled 2) which act as a 'blinker' between the camera and the bright light of the nest entrance - this is particularly important in the mornings.

Label 4 indicated a tape flap attached to the edge of a glass sheet. The glass can be removed for cleaning or access by sliding to either side.

When there is a nest present a second sheet of glass can be slid in to replace a soiled one without creating any gap at the back of the nestbox.

Above the box, a plywood baffle (labelled 5) hides a curved diffuser which protrudes into the box. This houses a small tungsten light bulb (which is on permanently). Resting on the baffle so that its light is directed through the diffuser is an old Vivitar 2500 Thyristor flashgun. I have replaced the batteries in this with a lead that goes down to a separate battery pack situated on the platform shown in the first picture. This allows me to turn the flash on/off remotely. The flashgun uses a sensor to control its light output and I'm using a length of fibre optic cable to enable the sensor to operate in this set up the end of the cable is labelled 3 in the picture.

The whole area seen in the photograph is normally hidden behind a black fabric screen which has a slit cut in it though while I can watch and take photographs.

In addition to the very dim tungsten lighting, two banks of white LEDs are used to illuminate the box during daylight hours. These are controlled by a timer/dimmer arrangement that I have assembled so that during the hours of darkness the webcam image will become dimmer.

Each of the nest chambers has a floor area of 17x27cm, and there is a camera in each, attached to the central partition, just over 20cm above floor level.

The boxes are illuminated day and night by red LEDs, their brightness greatly limited by the use of resistors. The Starlings seen to completely ignore them but next year I will be replacing them with proper infra-red LEDs.

Our three artificial House Martin nests were constructed using fibreglass as a skeleton which was then covered with a mixture of sawdust, soil  and cement. Originally put up about ten years or so ago, they were not used until 2004, when we first saw House Martins working on one of them in the middle of August. In 2005-6 they returned producing two broods each summer, and staying with us until well into September.

After that season I carried out a major reconstruction to include cameras in all three nests ready for 2007. Sadly, bad weather caused the failure of the Martins' brood just days before they were due to fledge.

The Swift boxes are situated on the same, north-facing wall of the house, but in the north-east corner, giving prospective users a clear approach pathway.

Over the previous two years there have been Swifts nesting in the loft of our neighbour's house, just 12ft away across our shared driveway, so I am optimistic that at some point the boxes will be discovered. In 2008 I hope to use a recording of Swift calls to help in this effort, the loudspeaker positioned behind the ventilation brick you can see to the left of the boxes.

The entrances comply to the BTO recommendation and measure 130mm by 30mm. Originally they had rectangular entrances, but these proved too much of a temptation to the Starlings.

Each nest has a floor space of about 27.5x20cm and the cameras are located above the slightly raised nesting areas

Both boxes are illuminated with infra-red LEDs.