Tag Archives: Downy Woodpecker

Sunday – 5.21.2017

4:32 AM – Rapid turnover at the suet feeder. First the female Downy Woodpecker, then the White Breasted Nuthatch, then the Carolina Chickadee, then the Nuthatch again – and then the video runs out. It’s set to record for 60 seconds, then shut off.

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Those troublesome female House Finches are getting more plentiful. Here are four of them at once. The puzzling thing is, I see the male House Finches at the bird bath, where there’s no camera, but not at the feeder. And I wonder if these are not just females, but perhaps juveniles (though big ones) or non-breeding males. Sometimes it gets complicated. More research today.

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In this brief clip we see that the Carolina Chickadee, something like the Honey Badger, don’t care. He flaps right up to the feeder in the face of two juvenile bluebirds (not the friendliest of birds). He stays just long enough to grab a mealworm, but he gets points for doing it at all.

Sunday – 5.14.2017

2:48 PM – Unexpected visit from our neighbor Bruno. Like all dogs, Bruno is infatuated with D.

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3:43 AM – Typical day at the Suet Feeder: White Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, in that order. I don’t know where the Mockingbird went.

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The immature House Finches are still around. Here’s one at the platform feeder. I like the drab harlequin look. It takes longer for these birds to mature (like the bluebirds), than I thought it would.

Wednesday – 5.10.2017

5:21 AM – More scenes from the Suet Feeder. The usual woodpeckers show up, also an unexpected Blue Jay.

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The bluebirds stick to the mealworm feeder these days. The immature ones have learned to feed themselves, and are big as the adults, but they still don’t have standard bluebird markings and colors. We’d thought it might be a case of delayed development (due no doubt to an excess of mealworms) but the experts online at the Cornell Lab say it’s not unusual length of time for birds to be at this stage. The markings are normal for the juvenile birds. The adult male shown here is probably delighted he doesn’t have to feed the kids anymore.

Monday – 5.8.2017

12:47 AM – Typical action at the platform feeder, with two of our most frequent visitors these days. First a little Blue Jay versus Blue Jay, then the Eastern Towhee. He’s also run off by a Blue Jay, though it happens so quickly it’s hard to see. He comes back, though. It’s been several days since we first spotted him, maybe he’s going to be a permanent resident.

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We replaced the hummingbird feeder with one of the suet cages, making the change from HummerCam to SuetCam. There isn’t much hummingbird activity right now. Later this summer we expect clouds of hummers fighting each other like the Battle of Britain; we’ll move the feeder back in front of the camera then. In the meantime, here are a couple of woodpeckers tearing into the suet – first the Red-bellied, then a male Downy Woodpecker.

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The Eastern Towhee has joined the Blue Jays, Cardinals and Sparrows as all-day, every-day visitors. I like the way he hops around when he feeds. Here, a Mourning Dove (another regular) watches him. Having an audience doesn’t seem to bother him.

Friday – 4.21.2017

4:05 AM – For a little variety, we swapped the finch sock for the suet feeder, so we could get some video of the different finches. Evidently it takes a little time for them to get used to the change, as we haven’t seen the first finch. We have, however, seen this Downy Woodpecker. I didn’t know they used the finch sock, but, okay.

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We have more conflict at the platform feeder. This Titmouse goes for the Purple Finch. I guess it’s all natural. I like the way the finch pops right back after the Titmouse leaves, though I see him looking around, to be sure the coast is clear.

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And now for some bluebirds. Here are four of the young ones, hanging out.

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And here are two of them, bathing together.

Monday – 4.17.2017

3:08 AM – We made some changes to the camera set up – since we weren’t getting many hummingbird videos yet, we swapped that feeder with the cylindrical ‘suet’ feeder. There’s always something going on there, usually woodpeckers, but plenty of other kinds as well.

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The big Red-bellied Woodpecker is now a regular at the mealworm feeder. Usually we only capture his head and shoulders, but the placement of the camera today shows him hanging upside down to get to the worms.

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The Carolina Wren is such a frequent visitor that we don’t usually post videos of them. We usually see them at the mealworm feeder, though they show up often at the suet feeder, as well as the platform. In this case, we had some mealworms in the platform feeder that attracted him. Wrens, like so many others, really like mealworms.

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:

Monday – 3.13.2017

5:15 AM – Last night’s midnight visitor: one of our neighborhood cats at the birdbath.

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A female Downy Woodpecker having a run at the suet feeder. These guys feed all day long, though one bird website says wild birds only get 25% of their food from backyard feeders. Hard to believe with some of these constant feeders, but it’s true we do see the woodpeckers looking for insect on the trees.

Wednesday – 3.1.2017

1:57 PM – It’s been very windy today, so windy the platform feeder was blown out of it’s frame. Here’s a disappointed Cardinal looking for sunflower seeds. You can almost hear him call “Service! Service! Let’s have some seeds over here!”

### This Downy Woodpecker is riding the swinging suet feeder to eat. It doesn’t seem to bother him very much.