12:34 AM – We don’t see that many Robins at the feeders. More often, they’re feeding on the lawn. This one is getting a drink of water. He stares down a couple of Mourning Doves.
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Male Northern Cardinal having lunch, and looking around for someone. This looks like more than the normal alertness-for-cats-and-hawks, so I suppose he’s looking for Mrs. Cardinal, or possibly other males.
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This is a good video of a Yellow-rumped Warbler on the mealworm feeder. He moves to the other side of the feeder, out of our sight, then a bluebird flies right at him, and he disappears somewhere. I can’t actually see him flying away from the feeder, but in an instant the bluebird is sitting where there once was a warbler.
8:22 AM – The American Robins showed up on the deck this morning. We’ve seen them on the front lawn recently, but this is their first appearance at the feeders for a while. In this video, two robins approach the platform feeder, but a Mourning Dove is hogging it. In the second video, one of the robins takes a bath.
Below, robin bathing:
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1:05 AM – For about an hour yesterday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal came and went at the platform feeder. We watched – but the camera didn’t record – Mr. Cardinal feeding Mrs. C. The camera is set to record for 1 minute – the feeding took place at about 1 minute 5 seconds. We did get lots of video of them landing on the feeder, staying 5 or 10 seconds, then flying off, only to return. Here’s Mr. Cardinal waiting for Mrs.
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Just when we thought the Purple Finches were gone, this lone male shows up. Don’t know where all the flocks of them went. Maybe they got a better offer at a backyard feeding station down the block.
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That suet feeder is looking pretty gnawed up. Here’s a Brown Headed Nuthatch doing his part.
9:40 AM – Tonight we’re supposed to get a couple of inches of snow. The temps will be below freezing, so tomorrow morning we’ll replace the ice with water in the baths, and keep an eye on it during the day.
Some activity this morning, nothing exciting, but this site is all about bird videos. So, here’s one of a Purple Finch sitting at the bath, thinking about something. His crest is clearly visible – I hadn’t noticed it before.
2:20 PM – This morning it was the usual birds – see below for video of Carolina Wren and a Robin drinking:
Later in the afternoon one of the male Cardinals came by. It looks like he was injured somehow – the dark marks close to his throat. He didn’t turn directly toward the camera, so it’s hard to tell, but clearly something is going on.
1:00 PM – It’s cloudy today, so no sprinkler action. However, it was pretty busy. Here are some videos of birdbath traffic:
Here’s a good close-up of Mr. Cardinal eating a sunflower seed. Powerful beak:
This one caught a Bluebird and a Blue-gray Gnat Catcher:
Here’s a robin getting a drink. I’d mistakenly thought robins passed through Alabama on their way to…not sure where. But it turns out that Alabama is one of their destinations, particularly North and Central Alabama. So, presumably, this one is here for the winter.
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.