3:00 PM – Some close up images of male Purple Finch. These were taken with a Nikon Coolpix L830 with 34x zoom lens, as an experiment. The videos that are regularly displayed are from the Arlo security cameras. With the Nikon it’s possible to get images and videos of the birds at the other feeders around the yard. But it’s not as easy as the automatic Arlo cams.

9:55 AM – The platform feeder on the deck doesn’t have drainage, so last night’s rain filled it up with water. Here’s a couple of birds coming to terms with that. They look disappointed, but I don’t have much sympathy with that. There are five other feeders around the yard. No one goes hungry. No bird left behind.

4:55 AM – For about 30 minutes last night, ‘Rocky’ Raccoon feasted at the platform feeder, and washed up in the bird bath. Here’s a sample of the videos we captured. He looked really hungry:

In this one he eats voraciously, then gets into the bird bath for a wash:

Finally, ‘Rocky’ overdoes it, and knocks the bath off the rail. Unlike past episodes, he didn’t fall.

As interesting as these videos are, we don’t really want ‘Rocky’ as a regular guest. We’ll probably start bringing the food in at night, and emptying the bird baths.