1:00 AM – One of my favorites, the White Breasted Nuthatch. This one is really going after the new compressed seed cylinder. Right side up, and upside down.
Here’s a few short videos. In the first, look for the cat sitting on the path grooming itself. Very nonchalant. Nothing to see here, birds, nothing to see. When the birds in the platform fly off, he strolls across the deck.
Since Robins are ground feeders, we don’t usually see them in the feeders. Here’s a very brief video of one sitting on the deck railing.
3:36 AM – We put a kind of jury-rigged bird bath at the far end of the yard, hoping to capture videos of wild creatures at night. That’s a plastic gallon water jug cut down, with rocks to weigh it. Instead of exotic wild animals, our first customer was a standard variety Robin. We’ll see what we get at night.
This is about four minutes of various birds coming and going on the platform feeder. We have these birds coming and going and coming back again: Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, female Purple Finch, Purple Finch and a Sparrow.
1:39 AM – Birds drinking – a Bluebird, Yellow Warbler and Robin.
Typical traffic on the Squirrel Buster. The Purple Finch is pushing everyone around, though he gets some kickback from a Sparrow or two.
First in a series of Bluebirds Behaving Badly. We have a number of these clips of juvenile Bluebirds terrorizing the other birds. In this one, a young Bluebird takes on a Dove twice his size, runs him off, then looks around for more victims.
3:07 AM – Robin getting a drink. Since they usually feed on the ground, and not our feeders, we don’t get many videos of them.
From November, 2016, the adventures of our local raccoon. At that time we had a large birdbath attached to the porch. It was supposed to be hinged, for easy emptying. It never worked the way it was supposed to, but it did provide this exciting episode of the Raccoon in the Water. (No raccoons were injured in the making of this video).
4:38 AM – It’s ‘Retro-Robins’, a review of past videos featuring the American Robin.
We’ll start with some juvenile Bluebirds being approached by a juvenile Robin. I’m pretty sure the Robin wants to be friends, but the Bluebirds aren’t having any of that.
From last summer, a Robin bathing”
From more than a year ago, a Robin drinking:
Finally, a Robin and a pathetic looking molting Cardinal. The Robin waits for the Cardinal to leave before bathing. Robins are notoriously modest.
2:55 AM – We spotted a Robin at the birdbath (along with an ever-present Cardinal). We don’t see too many Robin, for most of the year. They should be passing through pretty soon I think. It was such a brief clip, I added a ‘freeze’ to get a better look at the bird.
Here are a Cardinal and Purple Finch sharing the feeder. The finch starts moving around, and the Cardinal pops around the corner like a crank neighbor, telling those kids to get off his lawn. Cardinals are notoriously irritable.
Three juvenile bluebirds are hanging around the birdbath, until a juvenile American Robin shows up. I wasn’t sure what that bird was, so I confirmed with Cornell Lab’s website – yes, it’s a young robin.
Next, a robin having a good, splashy bath, water flying everywhere.
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.
4:03 PM – There was a lot of action and the newly restored platform feeder and bird bath on the deck. First, we see a Mourning Dove wallowing in the bath. The water got so dirty from all the bathing I had to change it early in the day. That’s a robin trying to run him off.
Here’s that robin with a really roughed-up looking Cardinal. That Cardinal is kind of a mystery. He was around earlier in the day, but didn’t look so bedraggled. Maybe he had a bout of accelerated molting. Maybe he got mobbed by a flock of delinquent bluebirds. He seems to fly away all right.
Finally, the robin by himself aggressively bathing and grooming himself.