4:32 AM – Our camera caught this mother Cardinal and young one early in the morning, before light. We’ve seen the adults feed each other, but this is the first time a Card brought a youngster to the feeder for a meal. Notice how at the end of the video the chick tries to feed itself.
The Mourning Doves continue to dominate the platform feeder. The little House Finch in the following clip is showing a lot of spirit, but he’s fighting out of his class.
12:50 AM – It seems like all we see at the platform feeder these days are Doves, Cardinals and Blue Jays. We used to have a wider selection of birds – maybe we’ll see that again in Fall. In the meantime, here’s a rare (for now) appearance of a female House Finch. Of course she gets run off by a scruffy looking Cardinal.
Back to the Blue Jays – here’s a typical session on the platform: Cracking open a seed, and sharing the feeder with a Blue Jay friend. That’s a dove that shows up half way through. The Jays are getting used to them, as you’ll see.
8:27 AM – Bluebirds, particularly the young ones, seem to be a quarrelsome lot. The next two videos illustrate this. In the first a couple of them are squabbling on the mealworm feeder.
Here a bluebird juvenile shares the water with a young house finch for a while, but finally he flies into the finch and drives him off. That part is in slow motion, since it happens so quickly.
And last, these three young bluebirds are just hanging out at the birdbath. They’re not drinking, or bathing. They remind me of delinquents loitering in front of a liquor store, waiting for trouble.
1:11 AM – This bird looks like a molting female Cardinal, but it might be a juvenile. Probably molting – the sparse feathers in the crest look like those of the molting male.
Just a short clip of a nice looking adult male bluebird. At one time we didn’t see many of them, but putting out the mealworms really attracts them.
We see this young House Finch frequently the last few days. This one, or one of it’s siblings.
4:44 AM – The color of these Blue Jays is really amazing.
The mealworm feeder was down to zero worms this morning. After we restocked it, the birds came from everywhere. How can they eat so much? I guess they use a lot of energy flying. Here we have a Chickadee, a Carolina Wren and a bluebird.
This young House Finch sits on our camera for a few moments. This is how they (the cameras) get knocked to the ground. That’s actually not true – it’s always the bad boys of the yard, the squirrels and raccoons who do it.
4:04 AM – This is a cardinal with a completely black head, and only a wisp of a crest. At first I thought it might be a new species, but the Internet tells me it’s just a regular cardinal who’s molting, and has temporarily lost it’s head feathers. Since the skin under the feathers is black, we get a ‘new’ species. When the feathers grow out, he’ll look like a regular cardinal again.
The vulnerable cylinder feeder got hit by the raccoon last night. That part at the end was when he knocked the camera off it’s mount, onto the ground. Tomorrow we’re getting a pepper cylinder, and it’s all over for raccoon, and squirrel too.
This young finch appears to be listening for something so intently he forgets to eat. I like the markings on these immature birds, like little drab clown suits.
2:59 AM – We put the birdbath (and camera) back up on the deck railing – the only bird hardware we’ll install until the deck is sealed. We taped an immature House Finch, and a squirrel who was curious about the camera.
Is this an immature cardinal? Or an adult female? If it’s the adult female, it’s the first time one has been on the mealworm feeder – so far it’s only been the males that use that feeder, for some reason.
Another video of the new Gen-2 bluebirds. They’re at the feeder almost constantly.
1:58 AM – The finches usually feed at one of the Squirrel Busters, but this bright male House Finch (and a couple of his female friends) are using the open/platform feeder. Toward the end of the clip one of the females snaps at him, and there’s a surprise visitor.
We replaced the remnants of the suet with a new cake a few days ago. This White Breasted Nuthatch was the first visitor.
This is a common sight, especially lately, after five days of rain. It’s hard to tell but the rain is increasing and the Mourning Doves seem to be considering their options.
4:18 AM – Slim pickings today in the bird video world. It rained most of yesterday, and the birds didn’t seem to feel like performing. Here we have an unexceptional Tufted Titmouse on the suet feeder. The only unusual thing about this is Titmice aren’t usually big suet consumers.
We also don’t see too many House Finches on the mealworm feeder. This one looks like a juvenile, as it looks smaller than usual. But it could be the camera. That’s a Titmouse at the beginning. They’re everywhere. The Finch part of this is in slow motion.
Cardinal and the new pepper seed. He seems to like it all right. If we mix in the black oil sunflower seeds he really prefers, we get squirrels, and plenty of them.
6:11 AM – There’s a new Blue Jay around, a little smaller than the others. Presumably it’s a young bird, one of the recent crop of chicks of all the bird variety. In this clip, he learns who’s in charge of the feeders (for now, anyway). Notice in the last part of the video that he’s in the background, sitting on the rail waiting his turn.
The small brown birds are either female or juvenile House Finches. Lots of them around the last few days. The female Cardinal seems pretty relaxed about the little finch sharing the feeder. That’s not always the case.
The pepper seed keeps the squirrels from hogging the feeder. However, we added some black oil sunflower seeds to the mix, for the Cardinals and Blue Jays, and of course, the squirrels arrived to take advantage. Here’s one picking through the pepper seeds to find the good stuff.
In a few of the recent videos you may have noticed that the water bowl/bird bath is empty. There’s a crack in it (caused by a raccoon visit some time ago). We repaired it with tape, but it’s finally deteriorated to the point it won’t hold water. Fortunately, there’s a much larger bowl on the other side of the deck, so no bird goes thirsty. We’ve ordered a replacement for the camera bowl.