Tag Archives: Cardinals

Sunday – 7.9.2017

1:04 AM – This is the first video we posted, back in early November, 2016.  All of the early posts, from the first month, were consolidated into one called Bird Videos – Lots of Them, then deleted. The Bird Videos etc post is the now the earliest one, dated 11/15/2016. This video was labelled Song Sparrow Bathing.

Another early video, from the first month, is this one of a Dark Eyed Junco. We haven’t seen one of these for a while.

And this early one, a Cardinal skating on ice to get a drink. Last winter we came out frequently and broke up the ice on freezing days.

 

Saturday – 7.8.2017

1:11 AM – This bird looks like a molting female Cardinal, but it might be a juvenile. Probably molting – the sparse feathers in the crest look like those of the molting male.

Just a short clip of a nice looking adult male bluebird. At one time we didn’t see many of them, but putting out the mealworms really attracts them.

We see this young House Finch frequently the last few days. This one, or one of it’s siblings.

Wednesday – 7.5.2017

3:47 AM – Our wireless router failed, which means no transmissions from the bird-cams. We still have a few ready to go, however.

Blue Jay drinking, and calling.

The squirrel looks like he’s savoring his cylinder seed lunch, munching with his eyes closed. But I’m afraid there’s something wrong with him, since it’s only one eye. We really hate to see these animals get injured, if that’s what this is. Maybe not, though.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, both looking a little scruffy from molting, dining out at the mealworm feeder.

 

Tuesday – 7.4.2017

4:04 AM – This is a cardinal with a completely black head, and only a wisp of a crest.  At first I thought it might be a new species, but the Internet tells me it’s just a regular cardinal who’s molting, and has temporarily lost it’s head feathers. Since the skin under the feathers is black, we get a ‘new’ species. When the feathers grow out, he’ll look like a regular cardinal again.

The vulnerable cylinder feeder got hit by the raccoon last night. That part at the end was when he knocked the camera off it’s mount, onto the ground. Tomorrow we’re getting a pepper cylinder, and it’s all over for raccoon, and squirrel too.

This young finch appears to be listening for something so intently he forgets to eat. I like the markings on these immature birds, like little drab clown suits.

Saturday – 7.1.2017

2:59 AM – We put the birdbath (and camera) back up on the deck railing – the only bird hardware we’ll install until the deck is sealed. We taped an immature House Finch, and a squirrel who was curious about the camera.

Is this an immature cardinal? Or an adult female? If it’s the adult female, it’s the first time one has been on the mealworm feeder – so far it’s only been the males that use that feeder, for some reason.

Another video of the new Gen-2 bluebirds. They’re at the feeder almost constantly.

Thursday – 6.29.2017

12:43 AM – [We’re having the deck cleaned and sealed, so all the bird feeding hardware has been removed temporarily. There are still plenty of other feeders in the yard, so no bird is going hungry, but the open feeder camera is out of action. ]

We wondered if these bluebirds, so clearly adults, are this springs’ juveniles, all grown up. Nope. The spotted speckled juvenile bluebirds are still around, not yet transformed into the beautiful blue/orange adults. In spite of some research we’re still not exactly sure how long it takes for them to mature completely.

While looking at the bluebirds we ran across this video of busy traffic at the mealworm feeder, and decided to have some high speed fun.

For a change, here’s a video without bluebirds in it. Enjoy the Cardinal and Carolina Wren.

Tuesday – 6.27.2017

3:29  AM – Red-bellied Woodpecker having an uneventful meal. All as usual except for the part where he flies off with a beak full of suet.

Downy Woodpecker at the mealworm feeder. The Red-belly is a regular visiter here, but the Downy usually sticks to the suet cage.

The Cardinal having an ordinary meal. At this time of day the sun really shows how vividly colored those birds are.

Saturday – 6.24.2017

1:18 AM – It’s been raining for five days now. This cardinal has certainly gotten used to it.

We replenished the suet cage yesterday, and threw the leftovers into the platform feeder. It turns out the Blue Jays really like suet, even though they never come to the suet cage. Evidently they don’t like to hang from the vertical surface. Notice that he’s carrying off pieces of suet for some other Jay.

Thursday – 6.22.2017

4:18 AM – Slim pickings today in the bird video world. It rained most of yesterday, and the birds didn’t seem to feel like performing. Here we have an unexceptional Tufted Titmouse on the suet feeder. The only unusual thing about this is Titmice aren’t usually big suet consumers.

We also don’t see too many House Finches on the mealworm feeder. This one looks like a juvenile, as it looks smaller than usual. But it could be the camera. That’s a Titmouse at the beginning. They’re everywhere. The Finch part of this is in slow motion.

Cardinal and the new pepper seed. He seems to like it all right. If we mix in the black oil sunflower seeds he really prefers, we get squirrels, and plenty of them.

 

Monday – 6.19.2017

3:53 AM – We were concerned that we might lose the Cardinals and Blue Jays when we retired the open feeders – that’s their favorite venue. So we bought some ‘squirrel repellent’ seed for the platform feeder. It seems to work pretty well. Here are a Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, House Finch (female) and Titmouse sampling the new menu.

And here’s a  customers that isn’t so happy. The pepper repellent doesn’t always work – we had some pepper powder we sprinkled on the black oil sunflower seeds that the squirrels seemed to find delicious – but these seeds are doing their job.