Tag Archives: Squirrels

Friday – 2.17.2017

3:33 PM – Not sure if the squirrels have had a chance to sample the meal worms yet. This one takes a look, and decides to pass on them.

— The cat made a couple of tries, and missed. Eventually he’ll get one, I’m sorry to say, but I’m not sure what to do about it.

2:55 AM – The raccoon has returned. Here he’s washing something in the birdbath, getting a drink. I’m not sure what he’s eating, we took in the feeders last night. Maybe the suet feeder we moved off camera. We’ll find out when it’s light outside.

— The Carolina Chickadee at the meal worm feeder.

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.

Friday – 1.20.2017

2:00 PM – The new feeder/birdbath arrangement is up. The food is now in the larger pan, closer to the water. It can accommodate at least seven White Throated Sparrows at one time. See video below:

8:00 AM – The rain last night filled the birdbath we’ve been using as a platform feeder, covering up the seeds. Here’s a Tufted Titmouse at dawn, expecting a morning snack and finding…nothing.

7:05 AM – A few weeks back I saw a male Cardinal that had be mauled by something – maybe a hawk or cat. There was an ugly gash between neck and wing. I think I saw him again, and the wound had healed. This video shows the before and after:

In this video we get a brief view of a squirrel with a bite taken out of it’s ear. It’s not the same one-eared squirrel I saw a few days ago. Evidently this kind of injury is common due to fights over territory, or dominance. It’s no picnic being a wild animal.

Sunday – 1.8.2017

10:30 AM – We had some snow, but mostly sleet that froze into solid ice on the deck. Friday night we pulled the cameras in, but this morning, I set them up again.

Over the last few days I tried to keep some liquid water in the birdbaths. The sub-freeing temperatures put a layer of ice on the water, even in the day time. At night, the water froze solid into one big slab. I carelessly left one of the birdbath pans out over night, with water in it. Of course the water froze, expanded and cracked the plastic. We’re using a kitchen container temporarily, until we can decide what to replace it with .

The birds ate a tremendous amount of food in the cold spell. I guess they need to, to keep fueled up and warm. I don’t know. Maybe cold weather just makes them hungry.

Here’s a couple of videos from this morning. A Tufted Titmouse gets a drink:

And a squirrel drinks and sits for a few moments thinking about something. He ought to be thinking about how good he has it here in the Backyard Food Court, but I doubt that he was:

Monday – 12.19.2016

10:50 PM – Not many birds in the birdbaths the last few days. Lots are feeding, but I suppose the recent rain makes the water less interesting to them. Squirrels, on the other hand, are regular visitors. Here’s a video of one that drinks, then wades out a little into the pan.

One  bird that did show up is the Blue-Gray Gnat Catcher. Here he is, checking out the floating sprinkler. We put it out today when the sun was shining, but it got cloudy again, so not much sprinkling.

Finally, here’s another video of that pathetic thirsty cat trying to get a drink from the frozen bath in the middle of the night.

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.