4:11 AM – Downy Woodpecker, smaller than the Red-bellied or Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It still holds it’s own as a consumer of seeds on the cylinder.
Bright Cardinal on the platform, eating black oil sunflower seeds. Cardinals are one of the biggest customers on that feeder, rivaled only by Doves.
2:59 AM – Our first video of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It’s not a great clip, but it does show the red patches on the neck and top-of-head that marks the male Sapsucker. Obviously they’re related to the woodpeckers we already have in the yard. By the way – his belly isn’t yellow.
We don’t see the Cardinals on the mealworm feeder too much, but every now and then one will stop by for a snack, often when the platform feeder is empty.
We moved a camera over to the cylinder feeder, hoping to get a video of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker we saw the other day – the first one ever. (And we did – see above). We did get this one of a Downy Woodpecker.
2:20 AM – Yesterday it was birds on the suet feeder, one after another. Today, a shorter version of birds drinking. We have the Bluebirds, Pine Warbler, Purple Finch and Brown Thrasher, a colorful lot. The quality of the video is really not acceptable, but until we can find a suitable (and better) replacement camera, it will have to do.
High speed Downy Woodpecker. Just some fun with video.
3:40 AM – We get more suet feeder traffic in cold weather – it’s in the 50’s, a little chilly for Alabama in October. In order of appearance: Pine Warbler, Purple Finch, Bluebird, White Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Wren and Red-bellied Woodpecker. I’m surprised we didn’t see a Cardinal and Chickadee in the lineup.
The other morning, around 4:30 AM, we had a raccoon visit. We were sitting right inside, but didn’t hear anything. If we have to have varmints, I’d rather have the coon than the possum. I prefer the bushy ringed tail to the possum’s naked rat tail.
3:49 AM – New visitor to the Backyard Foodcourt: a possum. I’ve been waiting for one to turn up. This one makes a tour of the feeders and birdbaths, tasting the suet. But it’s pepper suet, so he moves right along. I’m glad he visited, but I hope he doesn’t come back (like that will happen).
Bluebirds at the water trough. Looks like the gang decided to go out for a drink after work, or something.
Downy Woodpecker making his mark on the suet cake, their preferred backyard feeder food. The Downy’s are small birds, not much bigger than the Nuthatches and Chickadees. They’re permanent residents (non-migratory), and can be found over most of the United States and parts of Canada.
3:49 AM – Bluebird and Finch on the birdbath:
Male and female Downy Woodpeckers on the suet feeder. They love that stuff. It doesn’t taste all that good to me, though.
12:58 AM – Every now and then D likes to set out some luxury food for the birds, in this case, some peanuts. A White Breasted Nuthatch spots them, and gets the jump on the other birds. He manages eight trips to the feeder, one after another, carrying away a peanut each time. Eventually other birds caught on, and the Great Peanut Grab was over.
The camera is back up on the cylinder feeder, just in time to catch these two varieties of woodpecker. The Downy Woodpecker is first, then the Red-bellied. The size difference is really apparent here.
4:09 AM – Nice looking Downy Woodpecker at the cylinder feeder.
Two Blue Jays sharing the platform.
1:15 AM – Downy Woodpecker going after the suet cylinder with lots of determination and energy.
Carolina Wren discovers that there the mealworm feeder is completely empty, but returns several times for a thorough search, just to be sure. He finally got hungry enough to stop by the suet feeder for dinner, but we recorded several vain attempts to find mealworms throughout the afternoon. These birds really like mealworms, even the dried (as opposed to live) ones.
We’ve had lots of posts about molting, particularly with the Cardinals. They seem to have particularly dramatic time of it, what with the naked black head and general patchy, scruffy look. It seems as if they’ve been molting for a long time. Lately we’ve seen Cardinals that looks so severely afflicted that we’re becoming concerned that it might be some disease, and not the natural process of feather replacement. We did some research, and compared images from the Cornell website and others, and have been reassured. No matter how scrofulous the red birds look, it’s almost certainly normal plumage replacement.
We were going to present videos of pathetic looking Cardinals, but decided to spare everyone. Except for this video, of a sad Card sharing with doves. The doves look kind of sorry for him.
5:24 AM – This bluebird collects a beak-full of mealworms to take back to the nest.
Cardinals don’t usually come around the suet feeder, but lately we’ve seen them a lot. Maybe they developed a taste for the pepper suet while the mealworm feeder was out of commission. Anyway, here’s one sharing the feeder with a Downy Woodpecker.
We don’t often see two Blue Jays on a feeder at the same time. Bluebirds, yes. They run in a pack (or small flock) of two or three. But not the Jays.