1:57 PM – It’s been very windy today, so windy the platform feeder was blown out of it’s frame. Here’s a disappointed Cardinal looking for sunflower seeds. You can almost hear him call “Service! Service! Let’s have some seeds over here!”
### This Downy Woodpecker is riding the swinging suet feeder to eat. It doesn’t seem to bother him very much.
5:58 AM – Yesterday’s rain created a lake of birdseed in the platform feeder. Here’s one of our squirrels checking it out:
Red Bellied Woodpecker at the suet feeder. He’s a vigorous eater.
1:02 PM – This Cardinal is a regular. I don’t think he’s the one that had a gash on his neck/upper breast, unless it healed up really well. In this video he’s eating sunflower seeds, looking into the camera (it seems). These are beautiful birds, but up close they look kind of mean.
The birds have adjusted to the relocation of the mealworm and suet feeders. I like the way these White Breasted Nuthatches walk and feed head pointed down.
It rained this morning, make the platform feeder into a sea of birdseed. We really need to get a proper feeder, with drainage. This one is actually a birdbath. Here’s the Goldfinches – still around – doing the best they can. I like the one wader.
2:54 PM – After last nights raccoon rampage at the mealworm feeder, we rearranged the food court. The big pepper suet feeder is where the mealworms used to be – the raccoon won’t go after it. The mealworm feeder are now on the deck, where we can get to it easily to bring it at night. It didn’t take long for the Bluebirds to find it, and the suet eaters are already on the pepper suet at it’s new station. Here’s a male Downy Woodpecker:
A few days ago we dumped a lot of non-pepper suet into the platform feeder. It wasn’t popular with the regulars, just attracting a few Nuthatches and Carolina Wrens. Yesterday we tossed the suet and restocked with the regular seed mix, but the sparrows and finches that usually crowd the feeder haven’t shown up yet. Here’s one lonely sparrow snacking:
11:29 PM – One of the raccoons came by this evening. First he washes his paws, then tastes the pepper suet. He doesn’t like it, and so moves on to the mealworm feeder, which he does like. The sequence of videos shows him eating the mealworms from the feeder, then shaking the mealworms out of the feeder onto the ground. Finally we see him descending and making a meal of them. Raccoons are clever. Maybe we should stop feeding and recording the birds, and focus on raccoons. Probably not, though. We’ll have to start bringing in the mealworms at night.
Eating directly from the feeder:
And now, giving the feeder a good shake:
Grazing mealworms on the ground:
1:55 PM – We replaced the suet in the feeder on the deck with pepper suet – the raccoon got into it again. The non-pepper suet was broken into pieces and put in the platform feeder. Since then we’ve had very little traffic, and most of that are birds that prefer suet, like the Downy Woodpecker in this video. There hasn’t been much traffic from the usual sparrows and finches.
5:18 AM – No raccoon visits last night, as we brought the feeders in. We’ll probably replace the suet in the cylindrical feeder – a favorite raccoon target – with pepper suet. That will solve that problem. The raccoons really don’t like the taste.
We’ve had a lot of Eastern Bluebird action, so much that we’re not sure exactly how many different birds there are now. Here are some assorted videos of Bluebirds in action.
This is a good one, it shows one bird after another flapping up to the meal worm feeder:
One of the two bigger males:
A female:
5:04 AM – We forgot to bring in the suet feeder on the deck. Of course, the raccoon (one of them, I think the smaller) showed up and helped himself. The actual feast occurred off camera, but here he is leaving the restaurant.
— A change from all the Bluebird/mealworm videos. Here we have a Goldfinch at the worm feeder.
— We thought the Goldfinches might have moved on, presumably back up North, but here they are, with some Sparrows, at the platform feeder. A typical busy day.
1:57 AM – The meal worm feeder has been successful in attracting Bluebirds. There are at least four regulars now, two male, two female. The females are smaller, with less vivid blue feathers and a grayish head. Here’s one of them:
At about 15 seconds into the video, we see another female. The breast markings are different.
Here’s male and female at the feeder, first the male, then female, then male again:
And finally, something we don’t see too often – two Bluebirds, male and female, at the meal worm feeder at the same time. It doesn’t take long before one of them flaps away.
5:47 AM – We weren’t sure what bird this was, but after looking at the videos of the Cowbird/Blackbird invasion of a few weeks ago, it’s probably a female Brown Headed Cowbird. We usually don’t see them without a whole flock to keep them company.
### Here’s another cat attack. About 15 seconds in to the video you can see the black cat come onto the deck, then a few seconds later, make it’s (unsuccessful) run at the Sparrow. I don’t like this, but I have to admire the cats ability to stalk.