12:04 AM – We last saw a Brown Thrasher sometimes in late 2016. This was when we only had one camera, and hadn’t started the website, so we have no videos of that one. Today another one showed up in the platform feeder. They’re big handsome birds. Maybe he’ll become a regular.
Red-bellied Woodpecker getting some mealworms. He’s the only bird that hangs upside down to do this. No one knows why. (Actually, someone probably knows, but not me.)
4:55 AM – The Red-bellied Woodpecker doesn’t usually feed at the platform feeder, but we’ve been seeing him everywhere this last month. He’s been at the mealworm feeder, the Squirrel Buster, the suet feeder, the platform feeder and even on trees, going right to the source for some live insects. What a bird.
From yesterdays videos, these two win the prize for vivid color:
Carolina Chickadees, fast and furious session on the mealworm feeder. You’d think the food was going to disappear any second.
1:42 AM – Some days there’s just nothing exciting going on in the Foodcourt. We’ve got video of the usual Cardinals, doves, squirrels, woodpeckers, chickadees etc, and none of them are doing anything other than gorging themselves. And not in a cute or entertaining way. So, we’re going back over the last six months of video, looking for a few of the more interesting ones.
Here’s the fabulous swarm of Brown Headed Cowbirds from February. Since then we’ve seen exactly one Cowbird, by himself, on one occasion. But we’re hoping they’ll come through again in Fall.
I like this one – the squirrel get-away:
I always liked seeing the cardinals sharing food. This went on for a few month, but not lately.
And last, Goldfinches after a heavy rain. The Goldfinches come and go, like the Purples. Right now all we’ve got are House Finches, but we expect the more colorful ones to return eventually.
1:07 AM – Traffic at the platform feeder yesterday. The face off between Mrs. Cardinal and the White Breasted Nuthatch was interesting.
The black cat, one of several backyard lurkers, is thwarted by D. The natural selection process will have to happen on another day. We hope.
Last, some peaceful grazers on the platform feeder. Always glad to see the One-eared Squirrel is still alive and voraciously swilling bird seed.
12:10 AM – Bruno the neighbor dog came by twice today – this is the second time. We didn’t know about it until we reviewed the ‘tapes’. Bruno really, really wants to come in our house.
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Before we moved the mealworm feeder back in front of the camera, we found that most of the traffic at the Squirrel Buster feeder we recorded were Finches (and some Chickadees). Here’s a close up of a female House Finch cracking a seed and extracting the meat. They’re really adept with their beaks, these birds.
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Now that the camera is back on the mealworms we’re starting to see some of the old, regular customers there, like this Red-bellied Woodpecker, the Bluebird, a Cardinal and a Chickadee. We get a lot more variety with mealworms than with the Squirrel Buster and it’s Black Oil Mixture.
12:50 AM – It’s still all about the Finches. The House Finches are very busy here.
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Not sure what provoked this female House Finch, but she goes after every bird in sight, including the male.
2:51 AM – We wanted a little variety in the birds we’re recording, so we changed out the feeders in front of the cameras. The mealworm feeder was replaced with the small Squirrel Buster, and the suet feeder replaced by the Finch thistle sock. One of the first videos we got was of this Punk Red-bellied Woodpecker on the SB (Squirrel Buster) in the rain.
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Here’s some activity at the Finch thistle sock. No finches, though, in spite of the name. We don’t have pure thistle in it, so it doesn’t seem to be appealing to them. Other birds like it though, including (in order) a Carolina Chickadee, a White Breasted Nuthatch, a wet Downy Woodpecker and, of course, a squirrel.
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We finally got footage of the male House Finch. He likes the Squirrel Buster feeder, though he also shows up once on the platform.
1:47 AM – This is a video of some random birds that showed up at the Foodcourt yesterday. In order, we have a Blue Jay, female House Finch and small (possibly juvenile) Carolina Wren.
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This is a creepy picture of Mrs. Cardinal soaking wet, eating seeds in the dark and rain. I thought she might be too soaked to fly, but no, she flits off with no trouble.
12:02 AM – A new record for the number of Carolina Chickadees that can fit on a mealworm feeder. These three are wet, too.
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We’re starting to see the recent influx of House Finches at the suet feeder. At least we see the female ones. It’s still a mystery why the males are not showing up on camera, though we can look out the window and see them at the birdbath. And we verified that these are female House Finches. Those stripes on their heads are unmistakable. In this video, we see one trying to cling to the feeder.
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Here’s that one-eared squirrel again (assuming it’s the same animal). The squirrels have been all over the platform feed this week. There’s an entertaining video of D racing out to scare them away, but I promised I wouldn’t post it. Too bad. It’s really funny.
4:32 AM – Rapid turnover at the suet feeder. First the female Downy Woodpecker, then the White Breasted Nuthatch, then the Carolina Chickadee, then the Nuthatch again – and then the video runs out. It’s set to record for 60 seconds, then shut off.
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Those troublesome female House Finches are getting more plentiful. Here are four of them at once. The puzzling thing is, I see the male House Finches at the bird bath, where there’s no camera, but not at the feeder. And I wonder if these are not just females, but perhaps juveniles (though big ones) or non-breeding males. Sometimes it gets complicated. More research today.
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In this brief clip we see that the Carolina Chickadee, something like the Honey Badger, don’t care. He flaps right up to the feeder in the face of two juvenile bluebirds (not the friendliest of birds). He stays just long enough to grab a mealworm, but he gets points for doing it at all.