12:23 AM – A few days ago we posted a video about the backyard birds getting along in the feeders (most of the time). We’ll follow up with a clip of a Cardinal standing up to a dove – but not fighting back. The dove isn’t really going for the throat. It seems to be more of a series of warning pecks. The Cardinal show considerable restraint. At the end of the video, both got back to peaceful grazing.
I think the Mourning Dove must be mellowing (this one, anway). Here’s a Blue Jay eating with a dove watching – and no fireworks. Maybe they’ve figured out there’s plenty for everyone.
2:57 AM – Another agitated Blue Jay. Sometimes they’re so hysterical. And loud.
And sometimes they seem to get along alright. Watch this small gang of Jays go for a pile of fresh seed. Then watch them get dispersed by one Mourning Dove. The Jays keep coming back – but the camera battery ran out of juice before the matter was settled. I suspect it never gets settled, this kind of thing just goes on all day.
12:58 AM – Every now and then D likes to set out some luxury food for the birds, in this case, some peanuts. A White Breasted Nuthatch spots them, and gets the jump on the other birds. He manages eight trips to the feeder, one after another, carrying away a peanut each time. Eventually other birds caught on, and the Great Peanut Grab was over.
The camera is back up on the cylinder feeder, just in time to catch these two varieties of woodpecker. The Downy Woodpecker is first, then the Red-bellied. The size difference is really apparent here.
12:22 AM – The birds in our yard spend all-day every-day eating from the same feeder, drinking from the same birdbath. We’ve seen plenty of videos of bird squabbling and ‘fighting’ for territory in the platform feeder. But a lot of the time, they seem to get along all right. Like this Cardinal and dove. Of course, when a Blue Jay shows up, it’s a different matter.
In the background is a Goldfinch getting a drink of water. We haven’t seen one for a while. In the foreground a Cardinal – looks like he’s finally getting his head feathers back.
12:47 AM – This encounter between a Cardinal and Blue Jay is intense. The Cardinal seems to be saying: “Hey! I’m molting! I’m not in the mood for this foolishness.”
The Cardinals seem to feed their young more than the other species – at least, in front of the cameras.
12:23 AM – It’s Sunday. That means videos from the past.
From February 2017, a flock of Brown Headed Cowbirds visited for a few days. Here they are, busy at the platform feeder, with background music (original composition called “Skip Rope”).
The Yellow Warblers are Winter visitors. These video were from January, 2017. They’re pretty birds, frequently confused (by me) with the Goldfinch. The bird in the second video is in fact a Pine Warbler.
2:58 AM – There’s usually only one, sometimes two doves in the feeder. Today we had at least four. Maybe the dove population is growing. We hope not – they already get more than their share of feed.
Make sure the volume is turned down before you watch this clip. The Blue Jays are fighting again.
2:32 AM – This is very strange. It starts with a Red-bellied Woodpecker bullying a Mourning Dove on the platform feeder. Nothing unusual about that – the Red-belly is big and aggressive with a really strong, sharp beak. What happens after that is weird. The woodpecker is sitting on the feeder when something comes out of the sky and attacks him. It happened so fast that I can’t be sure what it is, but I suspect it was a hawk. The video is frozen at the moment the woodpecker gets away.
A few minutes later I saw the Red-belly back on the feeder, so I guess he’s alright. But he was very very vigilant.
The videos on this website are edited with Apple iMovie software. We usually keep it pretty simple, just cutting the raw material down to the high points, and adding some transition ‘cross dissolves’. In this video we’re experimenting with adding a sound track. The birds in the video are the horde of Grackles that invaded a few months back. The music is John Coltrane’s “Blue Train”.
12:10 AM – One Blue Jay sneaks a peck on the tail of another, and gets run off. He’s back after a bit, though, and a little more careful when he’s feeding.
More Blue Jay antics. This pair looks like they’re doing some kind of dance around the platform. Some kind of ‘modern’ dance.
5:06 AM – That young Red-bellied Woodpecker has head feathers coming in. It’s not a particularly attractive stage of growing up, like human adolescence.
For a while we didn’t see purple finches around here. Now a few of them are showing up. This one is taking his time with a sunflower seed. I expect in a few months we’ll have crowds of them, as we did in Spring.