5:51 AM – Here’s an unscheduled ‘Retro’ session. Lately there’s been nothing but the usual characters doing the usual things – not too interesting. Instead, from February, 2017, here’s a flock of Goldfinches on the finch sock.
And from March, a flock of Purple Finches on the platform feeder.
3:15 AM – Sunday Archive videos:
Goldfinch on the ‘finch sock’, January 2017.
This looks a little like a young bluebird, but according to the Cornell Lab’s website it’s a juvenile robin. It’s bigger than the little bluebirds, and the markings/color exactly match the images on the Cornell site.
Here’s an image of the juvenile robin from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Since the robins are usually ground feeders, we don’t often get videos of them. Thats too bad.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/id
12:02 AM – A couple of Blue Jays, peacefully feeding together, get evicted from the feeder by a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I don’t blame them – I’d get out of the way too. The Red-belly doesn’t stay long, and the Jay returns, after taking a good look around.
We’ve got a cardinal, a purple finch, a bluebird and what looks like a couple of goldfinches in the background, all at the same time.
12:22 AM – The birds in our yard spend all-day every-day eating from the same feeder, drinking from the same birdbath. We’ve seen plenty of videos of bird squabbling and ‘fighting’ for territory in the platform feeder. But a lot of the time, they seem to get along all right. Like this Cardinal and dove. Of course, when a Blue Jay shows up, it’s a different matter.
In the background is a Goldfinch getting a drink of water. We haven’t seen one for a while. In the foreground a Cardinal – looks like he’s finally getting his head feathers back.
12:23 AM – It’s Sunday. That means videos from the past.
From February 2017, a flock of Brown Headed Cowbirds visited for a few days. Here they are, busy at the platform feeder, with background music (original composition called “Skip Rope”).
The Yellow Warblers are Winter visitors. These video were from January, 2017. They’re pretty birds, frequently confused (by me) with the Goldfinch. The bird in the second video is in fact a Pine Warbler.
1:26 AM – This young bluebird doesn’t mind challenging the Mourning Dove, in spite of giving away a lot of weight.
A pair of goldfinches stopping by for water.
Dove having a bath.
3:10 AM – The Sunday Nostalgia Post starts with footage of the Generation One young bluebirds on the open feeder, attacking one goldfinch after another as they try to land. The Gen-1 birds were a rowdy bunch. From April 18, 2017.
From March 22, 2017 here’s the Carolina Wren I was concerned about. It looked like a cat (or something) had bit his tail off. A little research revealed that when Wrens (and other birds) molt, they sometimes lose their tail feathers. Sure enough, a month or so later the bird had a tail. I’m pretty sure it was the same one, based on markings and behavior.
From February 27, 2017, we have this video of the aftermath of a good hard rain. The open feeder we were using then didn’t have drainage holes, resulting in some Goldfinches wading around in a small lake of birdseed slurry,
12:04 AM – We enjoyed going through the archives last Sunday, so we thought we’d make a regular thing of it. This, then, is the second Greatest Hits Sunday.
The raccoon hasn’t been around for a while, but he’s not forgotten. Here’s one of his less successful visits from last February.
This one is from January, this year. A pack of sparrows crowd the feeder. We still have sparrows, but not anything like this crowd.
From February, the Purple Finch and Goldfinches, along with the usual crowd of sparrows. We’re hoping we’ll see this kind of thing again next winter.
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
1:42 AM – Some days there’s just nothing exciting going on in the Foodcourt. We’ve got video of the usual Cardinals, doves, squirrels, woodpeckers, chickadees etc, and none of them are doing anything other than gorging themselves. And not in a cute or entertaining way. So, we’re going back over the last six months of video, looking for a few of the more interesting ones.
Here’s the fabulous swarm of Brown Headed Cowbirds from February. Since then we’ve seen exactly one Cowbird, by himself, on one occasion. But we’re hoping they’ll come through again in Fall.
I like this one – the squirrel get-away:
I always liked seeing the cardinals sharing food. This went on for a few month, but not lately.
And last, Goldfinches after a heavy rain. The Goldfinches come and go, like the Purples. Right now all we’ve got are House Finches, but we expect the more colorful ones to return eventually.