Tag Archives: Blue jays

Wednesday – 4.12.2017

12:15 AM – The Blue Jays are back. Here’s one at the platform feeder. We really like these birds. By the way, look in the lower left background of the video for a Cardinal getting a drink of water from a very small water container.

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Here’s something new: a Purple Finch feeding what looks like an immature finch.

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The Eastern Bluebirds continue to feed young ones:

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This video of a Red-bellied Woodpecker clinging to the mealworm feeder is cool, but kind of creepy. He’s so big that we only see his head and claws, like a close-up shot of King Kong clinging to the Empire State building.

Saturday – 3.11.2017

12:02: AM – Where did they go? We haven’t seen the Bluejays for several weeks. We now have the Yellow-rumped Warblers. The dense clusters of sparrows and Goldfinches turned into a few solitary birds feeding, like divorced men in an all-night diner. There have been other species of birds that have come and gone, like the Brown Headed Cowbirds and Red Wing Blackbird, but I knew they were transient. This is our first year as backyard bird watchers, so I guess it could just be a seasonal change, and I’m not recognizing it. Anyway, as a tribute to those missing birds, here are a few videos from the golden age of Bluejays, Yellow Warblers and Goldfinches.

Thursday – 1.26.2017

2:50 PM – This is the cat that’s been visiting at night. He’s one of several feral cats in the neighborhood.

12:05 AM – This is just a clip of standard platform feeder activity – a Blue Jay having a snack. The chopped nuts are very popular with all the species.

There’s some camera-shake in the video. I noticed it before, but so far haven’t figured out what’s causing it. The mount seems secure. This is one of the problems/changes that we’re going to address in the next few days. We have a camera pointed at the ground near a couple of the feeders on the path, but it doesn’t pick up the bird action – they blend into the leaves and ground cover. That needs to be relocated. The other is aimed at a birdbath that sits too high to pick up any good shots of birds (or squirrels or raccoons). That’s also going to be moved.

Wednesday – 1.18.2017

5:35 AM – One of the ‘wild’ cats spent about 10 minutes at the feeder this morning – actually about a half hour ago. He seems to be picking out the chopped nuts D added to the mix yesterday.

Lots of Blue Jay activity. In this clip two Jays appear. One is slightly smaller than the other, and the chest marking is a little different. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website (the best), male and female Blue Jays look about the same.

We saw a couple of videos on YouTube showing birds (and squirrels) enthusiastically carrying off peanuts in the shell. Here, a Blue Jay picks up a peanut (in between sessions at the feeder) and flies off. Less than 10 seconds later (before he had time to eat the nut) he’s back at the water trough, so I assume he didn’t care for it.

We post Cardinal videos all the time, but here’s one that has a good view of Mr. Cardinal breaking open and eating Black Oil Sunflower seeds. He’s really good (naturally) at cracking the seed, discarding the chaff and keeping the meat.

Monday – 1.16.2017

9:50 AM – The chopped nuts D puts out are certainly the most popular item, at least with some species. Here’s a one clip (of many) of a Blue Jay wolfing down one.

Mr. Cardinal clears the feeder of White Throated Sparrows. He seems to prefer the Black Oil Sunflower seeds to the chopped nuts.

I’m not sure what species is most numerous in the yard, but it’s probably between the Finches and the Sparrows. Here’s some White Throated Sparrows hogging the feeder:

The camera only caught the head of a woodpecker – probably a Red-Bellied Woodpecker – but you can see a good shot of the very impressive beak. He looks like he could give you a good stabbing.

Sunday – 1.15.201

8:05 AM – Busy morning at the troughs. A Blue jay has breakfast. We’re seeing these guys more and more.

I’m not sure exactly what bird this is, other than some kind of finch. It’s got that yellow patch at the base of the tail, which makes me think it might be a non-reproducing Goldfinch. Not really sure though.

Saturday – 1.14.2017

9:00 AM – Small crowd of White Throated Sparrows gorge on seeds while ignoring the fresh orange specially procured and prepared for them by D. Birds are ingrates.

4:30 AM – The peanuts D puts out for the birds are very popular. Squirrels like them too, of course. Here’s a Blue jay and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker have a sample. The woodpecker is only on the video for a few seconds at the start, he grabs and flies away.

We read that some birds like fruit, so we put a couple of orange halves out for them. One we put on the spike we used for the squirrels corn cob – which turned out to be uninteresting to them. The other we put in the new deck platform feeder. So far, no takers. Here’s a Carolina Wren taking  a look at it.

 

 

Friday – 12.30.2016

9:00 AM – Lot more birds today. We’ve had the Purple Finches, White Throated Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse and Cardinals, in other words, the usual crowd. The Cardinal is the male that was injured. You can see the gash on his neck. He’s joined in this video by one of the Bluebirds.

8:15 AM – Activity at the birdbaths so far this morning:

Two Bluejays:

Bluebird and Bluegray Gnatcatchers:

Bluebird: