Tag Archives: Red-Bellied Woodpecker

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.

Thursday – 1.19.2017

10:30 AM – D filled the platform feeder again. Minutes later the place was overrun with hungry birds. Here are female House Finches (the ones with striped breasts) and White Throated Sparrows sharing. I think those sparrows are the White Throated variety, but they don’t exactly look like the pictures on the Cornell Lab bird ID site.

A few minutes later, while the sparrows are still feeding, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker flies in. When he tries to step into the feeder, he slides down to the bottom. The feeder is really a birdbath, and not well suited for feeding, but for now it will have to do.

8:10 AM – D took down the platform feeder (previously bird bath) because the seeds were soaked through from the rain. She’s going to replace it with fresh food, but before she could, the birds discovered that their favorite feeder was gone. Here’s the Carolina Wren scavenging in the upside down feeder, then giving up:

And here’s a bewildered Tufted Titmouse. He tries a peanut, but that’s not good. One last look at the camera, and he’s gone:

5:20 AM – These White Throated Sparrows are always around the feeders, but I don’t post videos of them very often. The ‘color’ birds (Jays and Cards) get all the press. But I like the markings on these little Sparrows. Here’s a couple feeding, before getting run off by Mr. Cardinal (naturally).

Tuesday – 1.17.2017

4:15 AM – I spotted a squirrel with his left ear missing (most of it, anyway). I supposed he got mauled by a cat. I don’t think squirrels fight that viciously, though maybe they do during mating season. Anyway, it doesn’t see to keep him from eating and drinking.

Don’t see Woodpeckers sitting in the platform feeder very often, but this Red-Bellied Woodpecker is right there. Not for long though. Once he gets a few nuts, he flaps away.

Monday – 1.16.2017

9:50 AM – The chopped nuts D puts out are certainly the most popular item, at least with some species. Here’s a one clip (of many) of a Blue Jay wolfing down one.

Mr. Cardinal clears the feeder of White Throated Sparrows. He seems to prefer the Black Oil Sunflower seeds to the chopped nuts.

I’m not sure what species is most numerous in the yard, but it’s probably between the Finches and the Sparrows. Here’s some White Throated Sparrows hogging the feeder:

The camera only caught the head of a woodpecker – probably a Red-Bellied Woodpecker – but you can see a good shot of the very impressive beak. He looks like he could give you a good stabbing.

Saturday – 1.14.2017

9:00 AM – Small crowd of White Throated Sparrows gorge on seeds while ignoring the fresh orange specially procured and prepared for them by D. Birds are ingrates.

4:30 AM – The peanuts D puts out for the birds are very popular. Squirrels like them too, of course. Here’s a Blue jay and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker have a sample. The woodpecker is only on the video for a few seconds at the start, he grabs and flies away.

We read that some birds like fruit, so we put a couple of orange halves out for them. One we put on the spike we used for the squirrels corn cob – which turned out to be uninteresting to them. The other we put in the new deck platform feeder. So far, no takers. Here’s a Carolina Wren taking  a look at it.

 

 

Bird Videos – Lots of Them – BUT NOT REALLY

A number of videos we took at the beginning of this project will not display due to the uncertainty of the Word Press storage system. We did some research but couldn’t find a solution, so we are reposting them, one and two at a time, starting in November 2017. They will be the bonus ‘Retro’ videos displayed after the current bird and critter activity.