Tag Archives: Downy Woodpecker

Sunday – 2.26.2017

2:54 PM – After last nights raccoon rampage at the mealworm feeder, we rearranged the food court. The big pepper suet feeder is where the mealworms used to be – the raccoon won’t go after it. The mealworm feeder are now on the deck, where we can get to it easily to bring it at night. It didn’t take long for the Bluebirds to find it, and the suet eaters are already on the pepper suet at it’s new station. Here’s a male Downy Woodpecker:

A few days ago we dumped a lot of non-pepper suet into the platform feeder. It wasn’t popular with the regulars, just attracting a few Nuthatches and Carolina Wrens. Yesterday we tossed the suet and restocked with the regular seed mix, but the sparrows and finches that usually crowd the feeder haven’t shown up yet. Here’s one lonely sparrow snacking:

Friday – 2.24.2017

1:55 PM – We replaced the suet in the feeder on the deck with pepper suet – the raccoon got into it again. The non-pepper suet was broken into pieces and put in the platform feeder. Since then we’ve had very little traffic, and most of that are birds that prefer suet, like the Downy Woodpecker in this video. There hasn’t been much traffic from the usual sparrows and finches.

Thursday – 2.2.2017

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.

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.

Tuesday – 1.24.2017

2:40 PM – We saw a Goldfinch at the finch feeder. He spent a pretty good long time eating, so I got some pictures. Unfortunately, they’re really bad. I’ll post them below, anyway. Also managed to take a video, which came out better.

Here’s the Downy Woodpecker. I think. It’s possibly a Hairy Woodpecker, but those are supposed to be bigger with longer beaks. Either way, it’s the first time I’ve seen one. The camera battery died just after I started filming.

5:05 AM – These two videos show White Throated Sparrows (our most numerous visitors recently) squabbling for space at the feeder. In the first one a sparrow appears to ‘sucker punch’ another bird, flying in and pecking his head. After looking at it in slow motion, he’s actually swatting him with his wing. In the second, two of them have a kind of sparrow duel, with beaks, for position in the center of the feeder. This kind of thing goes on all the time, of course. I guess that’s why they call it ‘pecking order’.

Now the same video, slowed down to 40% of real time speed.

The duel:

In this video, you can see Mr. Raccoon in the background leaving the porch and walking along the path. We took the food in again, so there was nothing to attract him.

Finally, here’s the vivid Purple Finch from the still photos below. I haven’t seen him at the deck feeder before. He’s much more colorful than the usual Purple Finch, though unfortunately the camera doesn’t pick that up as much as I’d like.