Tag Archives: Eastern Towhee

Tuesday – 7.31.2018

1:00 AM – Another drinking House Finch, this one female.

These are Eastern Towhees, a bird we haven’t seen for quite a while. At first I thought it was a Robin, but the markings are different. The Robins have a white ring around the eyes, among other differences.

This is the result of an experiment – we velcroed a regular camera to the deck rail and put some peanuts in front of it. Then, we turned on the camera video capture. It ran for 26 minutes, and didn’t pick up as much activity as we wanted. After editing, you’ll see a Chickadee, a Squirrel (who gets a long drink, then moseys down to the nuts) and a Titmouse. Maybe next time we’ll get more action.

Monday – 6.5.2017

3:02 AM – The Eastern Towhee was back for a second day. This is a much better video.

A few days ago we had a video of birds taking food away from the feeders. We’re seeing a lot of it – not just the birds on this video and the previous one. It will be interesting to see if we have new crops of young birds in a couple of months. Hope so.

The sparrows tend to be extras in the great bird dramas of the Foodcourt, even the relatively colorful ones like this Chipping Sparrow. Here he’s looking for intact seed after one of the squirrels has ravaged the platform feeder.

Saturday – 6.3.2017

3:21 AM – We’ve got a ravenous squirrel problem. Those rodents are in the platform feeder off and on, for about half the day. They pretty much eat everything that’s in there. It is not news, of course, that squirrels are a nuisance, but the amount of seed they’re consuming has drastically increased this summer, not to mention the amount of time they squat in the feeder, shutting out the other ravenous animals (birds). We’re not sure what to do about it, but we’re working on a few ideas. But not with optimism. Squirrels are tough. . Since about half the video we get is squirrel lately, I’ll share some here:

The juvenile bluebirds appear to be getting their adult coloring. Notice the orange patch on the flank of these two, and compare with the adult.

This short, not-too-good video is the first sight of an Eastern Towhee for several weeks. They were once all over the place, for a while anyway. We hope we see more of them.

Thursday – 6.1.2017

4:22 AM – Where are they now? These are some of the birds that visited for one day, or maybe a week, then flew off somewhere. Maybe they were migrating, and we’ll see them again in the Fall. Maybe they got a better offer at a Foodcourt down the block. Anyway, here are videos of their visits.

Indigo Bunting

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Goldfinch

Easter Towhee

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Cedar Waxwing

Dark-eyed Junco

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Redwing Blackbird

And finally, our favorite, the Brown Headed Cowbirds

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 – 5.5.2017

12:32 AM – We’ve seen the Eastern Towhee in the yard a few times, but never at the feeders, where we could get a video of them. This one spent all day, off and on, eating black oil sunflower seeds.

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The Red-bellied Woodpecker visited a couple of times. He’s not shy about joining other birds at the feeder. In this video we see him confront the new Towhee, then a Cardinal.

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Typical Blue Jay seed crushing. He can be noisy. We can hear him from inside the house.