7:55 AM – Last night we took the deck platform feeder in, to discourage the raccoon from visiting. This morning at 7:29 AM I put it back out. By 7:31 there were half dozen White Throated Sparrows in the feeder, having breakfast. By 7:34 there were at least eight of them. That’s a new record.

Here’s a very interesting video that demonstrates how alert (and quick) the sparrows are. Four of them are sitting in the feeder. Suddenly they all fly away. Within a second a hickory nut falls from the branches above and lands in the feeder. It seems no matter how intently the birds are hogging down, they’re still paying attention to their surroundings. If you’re potential hawk-food, I guess that’s a good idea.

We got a new Arlo camera, this one with sound. It works pretty well so far, though we haven’t captured any dramatic bird calls since we put it out yesterday. We are picking up wind noise, so I’ll have to learn to adjust the sensitivity of the pick-up.