4:22 AM – Where are they now? These are some of the birds that visited for one day, or maybe a week, then flew off somewhere. Maybe they were migrating, and we’ll see them again in the Fall. Maybe they got a better offer at a Foodcourt down the block. Anyway, here are videos of their visits.
Indigo Bunting
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Goldfinch
Easter Towhee
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Cedar Waxwing
Dark-eyed Junco
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Redwing Blackbird
And finally, our favorite, the Brown Headed Cowbirds
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.
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.
1:10 PM – Here’s the Red-Bellied Woodpecker at the pepper suet feeder. He attacks for a few seconds, leaves, returns and so on. His peak is really strong looking, which is to be expected from a creature that gouges holes in trees for a living.
6:30 AM – The Goldfinch flock is still around, in spite of the invasion of Brown Headed Cowbirds. Here they are swarming the platform feeder. Note the solitary sparrow in the middle of them, unperturbed.
6:20 AM – It looks like we have two raccoons. In the video below you’ll see one shadowy figure cross the screen, followed a few seconds later by another. I thought the first one might be a cat, but the shape is more raccoon than feline. Last night I brought in the vulnerable feeders, so they got nothing. Maybe a week or so of that will permanently discourage them, but that’s optimistic.
11:40 AM – It’s been a busy day for birds, what with the Cowbird and Blackbird invasion. Here’s the Redwing Blackbird with some Cowbirds in the platform feeder.
Another Redwing tries some meal worms. These birds are much bigger than our usual customers.
9:10 AM – There are a number of Redwing Blackbirds flocking with the Cowbirds. They usually go to the tube feeders, the Squirrel Busters, or on the ground, not the platform feeder. Here’s the Cowbirds feeding, when a Redwing joins them for a few moments.
8:45 AM – From out of nowhere a flock of these birds hit the deck platform feeder. I think they’re Brown Headed Cowbirds. I’ve never seen one around here before. They moved in a took over for about a minute, then flew off together. They remind me of a flash mob looting a convenience store.
8:35 AM – Here’s the first sighting of a Bluebird at the worm feeder:
4:05 AM – We learned one thing for sure last night: Mr. Raccoon really likes meal worms. See video below of him shoveling worms into his jaws with his little hands. We also learned that the pepper suet works, and in fact does repel mammals. The video shows his preliminary suet stealing routine, then he’s gone. We can verify this at first light by looking at the pepper suet for gnawing.
Finally, we don’t have good clear video of the deck suet feeder, but I can see commotion in the background of the worm feeder video. I assume that was him getting into the suet, but we’ll look for raccoon gnaw marks to confirm.
All this means we’ll have to rearrange the feeders – probably the Squirrel Buster will replace the deck suet feeder, which will go, where? We may not be able to protect it, so we’ll hang it in a tree a good distance from the deck and call it a Raccoon Feeder.
Here’s ‘Rocky’ and the worms:
And ‘Rocky’ with the pepper suet:
7:10 PM – Here’s a good close up video of a male Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder. He’s very enthusiastic, bobbing and weaving and stabbing the suet.
2:25 PM – The mealworm feeder is new to us. We always provided some kind of seed, or suet. The mealworms are supposed to attract Bluebirds – actually, a number of different birds, but we have our eye on increasing the Bluebird population. After we put the feeder up, not much happened. But the next day we had light, but steady, traffic. Here’s a couple of the visitors. Not Bluebirds, but Carolina Wren, and what I thought was a non-breeding Goldfinch (which don’t have the bright colors). However, the beak is wrong – it seems to be too small and thin. That makes it look like some variety of warbler, but I can’t tell which one. Bottom line is, it might be a Goldfinch, might not. (NOTE: It’s a Pine Warbler. We got better images and can see the stripe on the chest/belly.)
Unidentified bird that might be a Goldfinch or warbler of some kind. It turned out to be a Pine Warbler:
12:30 AM – In an effort to discourage the raccoon, we bought hot pepper flavored suet at Wild Birds Unlimited. Birds can’t taste the hot pepper, but mammals (raccoons) can. We put it in the suet feeder yesterday. So far tonight, ‘Rocky’ hasn’t been around, but raccoon rampage prime time (from 1:00 to 5:00 AM) is approaching. With any luck, we’ll get videos of ‘Rocky’ tasting and spitting out the spiced up suet. The birds have sampled it, and seem to like it just fine. Here are videos of a Goldfinch, Brown Headed Nuthatch and male Downy Woodpecker at the feeder.