Tag Archives: Carolina Wren

Wednesday – 4.5.2017

2:14 AM – We had a second hummingbird sighting late yesterday afternoon, this one a little longer. It’s a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, for sure.

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The Carolina Wren with no tail disappeared, and in it’s place appeared a wren with partial tail feathers. I’m assuming it’s the same bird due to the ‘coincidence’ of the no-tail disappearing just as the partial-tail arrives on the scene. The wren seems to have regenerated it’s tail feathers. A little research told us that this is not only possible, but normal. How little we know about birds. In the wrens case, it seems that only some of the tail feathers are back. The tail looks suspiciously narrow. If the follicles at the base of the tail are damaged, no tail feathers. Incidentally, it looks as if the wren, like the bluebirds, is carrying off mealworms, presumably to a mate or chicks.

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A busy day at the mealworm feeder. The first bird is the new-tailed Carolina Wren.

Wednesday – 3.22.2017

7:48 AM – Here’s what’s happening this morning at the Food Court. It’s a normal day.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal:

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Bluebird having breakfast:

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Here’s that Carolina Wren with no tail. We see him all the time, almost always at the mealworm feeder. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting around:

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A female Downy Woodpecker. They always look bigger in the videos than they are in real life:

Tuesday – 3.14.2017

11:03 AM – This unfortunate Carolina Wren lost his tail feathers, probably to one of the cats. That doesn’t seem to affect his flying/hopping/feeding ability, I’m happy to say. Now that we pay attention to these small backyard animals we’re seeing these kinds of injuries, evidence of the fact that they are wild animals and prey to other wild animals.

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We now have a flock of Purple Finches at the platform feeder. The males are the purple ones, the brown striped ones are females. In this video, we start with females, by the end we have four very purple males in the feeding pan.

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Cardinals don’t usually show up at the mealworm feeder, but I guess he felt like a change of diet. He flaps off, and is, of course, immediately replaced by a Bluebird.

Saturday – 3.4.2017

6:45 AM – Unlike a lot of birds (and the squirrels) the Bluebirds don’t linger at the feeders. They usually land, stay a few seconds selecting a mealworm, then fly off. A few seconds later, they come back for more. In this one, the bird comes and goes four times in about forty seconds. At least, I think it’s the same bird. The markings look the same to me.

6:30 AM – Nice closeup of a Carolina Wren at the mealworm feeder. These birds are not as fussy about their diet as some. They’ll eat from the suet feeder, mealworms and seeds from the platform feeder.

Tuesday – 1.31.2017

7:25 AM – The suet feeder, with a new block of nut and berry suet, is popular this morning. Here’s a pair of what we thought were Goldfinches, but are actually Pine Warblers:

And a Carolina Wren:

4:20 AM – Another visit from the raccoon, though this one was brief, and the timing unexpected. He hit the platform feeder at 4:05 AM, about fifteen minutes ago. D and the dog were in the living room, while the bandit was just outside eating the scraps of suet left over from his adventures of last night. A bold move by the bushy scavenger. Occasionally he pauses, as if listening to D on the other side of the wall. Not shown in this video is his exit from the porch, with a large piece of suet to-go in his jaws.

Friday – 1.27.2017

2:10 PM – Much more traffic at the Suet Cam than I expected. A variety of Nuthatch I haven’t seen before, the Brown Headed Nuthatch, is a frequent visitor. Two varieties of woodpecker, what we thought was a Goldfinch (actually a Pine Warbler), and the Carolina Wren. Following are some videos of these visitors.

Here’s the female version of the Downy Woodpecker. It’s slightly smaller, and has no red patch on the back of the neck.

The larger Red-Bellied Woodpecker visited several times. He really attacks the suet, don’t know if he’s really hungry, or that’s just his style.

We thought the Goldfinch didn’t come to the platform feeders at first, but later there were plenty there. This one on the suet feeder is actually a Pine Warbler.

I was a little surprised to see the Carolina Wren here, since he’s at the platform feeder so often. I guess he likes a little variety.

9:25 AM – We rearranged the cameras. Here’s the Trail Cam – no action yet, but it will be interesting to see what come up during the night.

And here’s the first video from our Suet Cam – a male Downy Woodpecker.

6:05 AM – No raccoon last night, but we did have a visit from Bruno, the dog from the house behind us. He’s an habitual fence jumper. The neighbors are constructing a Bruno-proof extension of the fence (increasing it’s height in the places he uses to launch himself). Evidently it’s not completed, or, more likely, not capable of stopping the irrepressible hound. In any case, welcome, Bruno! Pee where ever you want, and watch out for the raccoon.

Thursday – 1.19.2017

10:30 AM – D filled the platform feeder again. Minutes later the place was overrun with hungry birds. Here are female House Finches (the ones with striped breasts) and White Throated Sparrows sharing. I think those sparrows are the White Throated variety, but they don’t exactly look like the pictures on the Cornell Lab bird ID site.

A few minutes later, while the sparrows are still feeding, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker flies in. When he tries to step into the feeder, he slides down to the bottom. The feeder is really a birdbath, and not well suited for feeding, but for now it will have to do.

8:10 AM – D took down the platform feeder (previously bird bath) because the seeds were soaked through from the rain. She’s going to replace it with fresh food, but before she could, the birds discovered that their favorite feeder was gone. Here’s the Carolina Wren scavenging in the upside down feeder, then giving up:

And here’s a bewildered Tufted Titmouse. He tries a peanut, but that’s not good. One last look at the camera, and he’s gone:

5:20 AM – These White Throated Sparrows are always around the feeders, but I don’t post videos of them very often. The ‘color’ birds (Jays and Cards) get all the press. But I like the markings on these little Sparrows. Here’s a couple feeding, before getting run off by Mr. Cardinal (naturally).

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 – 1.6.2017

9:40 AM – Tonight we’re supposed to get a couple of inches of snow. The temps will be below freezing, so tomorrow morning we’ll replace the ice with water in the baths, and keep an eye on it during the day.

Some activity this morning, nothing exciting, but this site is all about bird videos. So, here’s one of a Purple Finch sitting at the bath, thinking about something. His crest is clearly visible – I hadn’t noticed it before.

Here’s a Robin getting a long drink of water:

Finally, from yesterday, a Caroline Wren bathing: