Tag Archives: Sparrows

Tuesday – 2.7.2017

1:46 PM – It’s been raining a good part of the day. The platform feeder looks like a vat of birdseed soup. The birds seem to like it just fine. Here’s a few bedraggled Goldfinches snacking.

5:11 AM – The main camera on the deck was inside, getting it’s battery charged, but the other one caught this brief image of a ghostly raccoon checking to make sure the meal worm feeder wasn’t there. He (or she) is still not convinced the food court is closed at night. I’m pleased with the effectiveness of the pepper suet. All our suet from now on will be pepper suet.

### A few days ago the Redwing Blackbirds (along with the Cowbirds) flooded the back yard. Yesterday we had on Blackbird squatting in the platform feeder. He was there, continuously, for about a half hour – a long time in bird minutes. I don’t know where the rest of the crowd was. If the Blackbird becomes a permanent resident, I’d prefer just one or two, instead of the whole overwhelming flock.

### In this one, we’ve got a Purple Finch, Goldfinches and Sparrows, all feeding at the same time. They mostly get along, except for a few pecks back and forth.

Monday – 2.6.2017

2:06 PM – I didn’t think we had three of the full color Purple Finches around, but seems that we do.

7:37 AM – Two Purple Finches feeding with sparrows and Goldfinches, in the rain. We usually don’t see two Purples at the same time.

4:42 AM – No raccoon sightings last night. My guess is the first time we leave the feeders out at night they’ll be back.

There hasn’t been much squirrel activity lately. Here’s one feeding at the platform feeder. It was raining off and on yesterday, creating a kind of bird seed slurry. The squirrel really likes it. He’s got a lot of brown in his coat, more than we usually see.

After the invasion of Brown Headed Cowbirds and Redwing Blackbirds a few days ago, they seem to have disappeared. Looking at the videos I saw one bird I didn’t recognize – it’s the big one with brown/black striped feathers. It turns out to be a female Redwing, hanging out with the Cowbirds. Noisy feeders, aren’t they.

Sunday – 2.5.2017

6:37 AM – We’re pleased to see that the meal worm feeder is attracting Bluebirds. Here’s a good video of one:

Although the Goldfinches are most numerous right now, we still have the Purple Finch and House Finch. The first video shows the Purple Finch sharing with the Goldfinches and some sparrows:

The second shows what I believe is a House Finch, also with Goldfinches. The color on this one looks more red than purple to me, but it’s easy to confuse the two. Easy for me, anyway.

4:14 AM – Raccoon was back last night, but thwarted by lack of feeders, and pepper suet. We took in all the ones on the deck, and it’s clear that the pepper suet worked. He didn’t even try for it. Instead he scavenged on the ground under the feeders. That’s fine, he’s welcome to that, as long as he’s gone when we let the dog out.

Saturday – 2.4.2017

1:10 PM – Here’s the Red-Bellied Woodpecker at the pepper suet feeder. He attacks for a few seconds, leaves, returns and so on. His peak is really strong looking, which is to be expected from a creature that gouges holes in trees for a living.

6:30 AM – The Goldfinch flock is still around, in spite of the invasion of Brown Headed Cowbirds. Here they are swarming the platform feeder. Note the solitary sparrow in the middle of them, unperturbed.

6:20 AM – It looks like we have two raccoons. In the video below you’ll see one shadowy figure cross the screen, followed a few seconds later by another. I thought the first one might be a cat, but the shape is more raccoon than feline. Last night I brought in the vulnerable feeders, so they got nothing. Maybe a week or so of that will permanently discourage them, but that’s optimistic.

Sunday – 1.29.2017

8:10 AM – The Goldfinch is back at the suet feeder. He’s a very enthusiastic eater.

8:00 AM – Another visit from Bruno, the fence jumper, this time in daylight. This is two videos stitched together. In the first part, though you can’t see his face as the suet feeder is in the way, it looks like his owners are calling him. He takes his time responding.

6:40 AM – What bird is this? The back markings start half way down, unlike the sparrows and wrens. It’s closest to a nuthatch, but the color is wrong for the White Breasted variety we have. There’s a sort of brown cap, and some yellow around the throat, but none of this is distinct enough for me to identify him.

6:05 AM – This is the first Sparrow I’ve seen at the suet feeder. He just perched on top of it for a moment, then few away. I think he’d have a hard time eating through the grate with his short beak. The woodpecker next to him never stops eating.

Wednesday – 1.25.2017

10:50 AM – The usual overload of Sparrows this morning, with some Chickadees and a few Nuthatches. Here’s video of a Nuthatch in the feeder, joined by a Sparrow. A few moments later the Sparrow gets evicted by a Bluebird. Life goes on in the platform feeder.

1:25 AM – Harlan J. ‘Rocky’ Raccoon was back on the deck and surrounding areas three times last night – at least. Although we took in the deck platform feeder, we left some nuts on the rail. That must have attracted him. In the first video he leaves the deck then stops by the feeder we set up on the path (you can see his shiny eyes). There’s a lot of seeds on the ground, spillage by the birds. He didn’t stay long. In the second, we see a better shot of him, for a few seconds, foraging for more ground seed.

Sunday – 12.11.2016

2:15 PM – Another cold night. We took the water out of the birdbaths over night. D added some to one of the feeders about 4:00 AM. It froze pretty quick. We had a thirsty cat come around last night, and then this morning. Here’s a video of him checking the bath for water, finding only ice. I don’t really want to attract cats, for obvious reasons, but don’t want to see them do without.

After we replaced the ice with liquid water this morning, the birds came around. The water wasn’t frozen, but it was cold. That didn’t stop them from bathing. I saw Mrs. Cardinal and a Carolina Chickadee, and this sparrow:

Saturday – 12.10.2016

7:20 AM – There wasn’t much new bird action this week. It was mostly the same backyard residents drinking and bathing etc. The big news is the failure of our new birdbath, the fancy one that’s supposed to let us tip out the water without detaching from the rail. It’s bigger and deeper than the other, but the attachment hardware doesn’t really work. We decided to replace it with a low-tech version. But we’re also adding one of those solar powered sprinklers. Hope it works the way it’s supposed to. If it does, the birds should like it.

The temperature dropped below freezing, so we had ice on the bird baths. Here’s a couple of videos of the birds coping with it. This morning I went out and broke through to the water for them.

Bluebird, finch and sparrows on ice:

Cardinal on ice: