Tag Archives: Tufted Titmice

Friday – 7.21.2017

11:07 AM – The new pepper suet is a success. The birds like it, and we’ve seen no squirrels on it yet. Here’s a Tufted Titmouse, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

This bluebird checks out the new pepper suet cylinder, and decides it’s not for him. I wonder if it were compressed seeds if he would like it.

This video shows a squirrel sampling the next pepper seed/feed. He stops eating right away, gets a drink of water, and scampers off. That’s what’s supposed to happen. I’m disappointed to report that later in the day another squirrel spent five minutes hogging down the hot seeds. It didn’t seem to bother him at all. I guess the effectiveness depends on the squirrel, but we have had very few lengthy squirrel visits since we put out the hot stuff.

 

 

 

Friday – 7.14.2017

5:38 AM – Now that we have two generations of young bluebirds, plus the adults, we get plenty of videos of bluebirds eating, drinking, squabbling and so on. I don’t know if these three are the same young toughs we saw at the waterhole yesterday. But they could be.

The Cardinal who had molted away his head feathers seems to be making progress in recovering. As can be seen here, he’s got most of his head feathers back, but still has some bare areas around the neck. I think one online source said it takes about 6 weeks to go through the entire process.

This Tufted Titmouse doesn’t have much of a crest, if any at all. I presume it’s also molting, since this seems to  be the season for it.

Monday – 7.3.2017

1:47 AM – Tufted Titmouse on the mealworm feeder reaches out and pecks the camera, right in the eye. Slow motion instant replay after the action.

This Carolina Wren is repeated taking mealworms away, presumably back to the nest, for mate and young birds. He aways flies slightly to the right of the feeder, toward the corner of the fence. .There’s a lot of dense shrubbery on the other side.

On our last trip to Wild Birds Unlimited they were out of the pepper impregnated version of these bird seed cylinders, so we got the regular kind. The birds like them, but also, of course, the squirrels. We moved the cylinder cage to in front of the camera yesterday, and caught these images (among many others) of a squirrel going to town on the compressed bird food. He might as well enjoy himself now – we’re making a run back to Birds Unlimited in a few days, and we expect they’ll have the good, squirrel-proof stuff in stock.

Thursday – 6.22.2017

4:18 AM – Slim pickings today in the bird video world. It rained most of yesterday, and the birds didn’t seem to feel like performing. Here we have an unexceptional Tufted Titmouse on the suet feeder. The only unusual thing about this is Titmice aren’t usually big suet consumers.

We also don’t see too many House Finches on the mealworm feeder. This one looks like a juvenile, as it looks smaller than usual. But it could be the camera. That’s a Titmouse at the beginning. They’re everywhere. The Finch part of this is in slow motion.

Cardinal and the new pepper seed. He seems to like it all right. If we mix in the black oil sunflower seeds he really prefers, we get squirrels, and plenty of them.

 

Wednesday – 6.21.2017

1:03 AM – Lately we’re sticking to the ‘pepper’ seed to discourage squirrels, but most of the regulars really like the black oil sunflower seeds and other delicacies. D has been adding peanuts to the plain pepper seed mix, to make things more interesting to the Cardinals and Blue Jays. Here’s one of the latter picking up one nut after another, evidently tasting each until he finds the one he likes.

I don’t know if it’s the time of year, but the Tufted Titmice (one of them, at least) appear much darker in color than usual. So much so that at first I though they were a new kind of bird at the feeders. But no, a closer look confirms: they’re Titmice.

White Breasted Huthatch, acrobatic as always, at the suet feeder.

Monday – 6.19.2017

3:53 AM – We were concerned that we might lose the Cardinals and Blue Jays when we retired the open feeders – that’s their favorite venue. So we bought some ‘squirrel repellent’ seed for the platform feeder. It seems to work pretty well. Here are a Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, House Finch (female) and Titmouse sampling the new menu.

And here’s a  customers that isn’t so happy. The pepper repellent doesn’t always work – we had some pepper powder we sprinkled on the black oil sunflower seeds that the squirrels seemed to find delicious – but these seeds are doing their job.

 

Thursday – 6.15.2017

2:29 PM – Here’s a bonus clip. We swapped out the open platform feeder for the Squirrel Buster to discourage the squirrels. They were sitting in the feeder for several hours a day, continually eating the birds seed. Watch what happens with this one realized the game has changed.

3:43 AM – A typical day at the mealworm feeder, birds coming and going. In this case, the Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee and Bluebird.

We haven’t see these House Finches at the platform feeder for several weeks, though they do show up at the Squirrel Busters.

And here’s the One-eared Squirrel, still alive and foraging.

Monday – 6.12.2017

3:43 AM – Male Cardinal ‘displays’ his crest, and chases off another male. What with the aggressions, and all the food being carried away from feeders – and not just by Cardinals – it must be the time of year for mating, guarding eggs or raising chicks.

The Tufted Titmice are always around, so much so they’re often overlooked. This pair are getting their fair share of mealworms – and note the male (with prominent crest) flying off with a worm in his beak.

The Downy Woodpeckers usually stick to the suet feeder, but sometimes they like a change. There are two different females here, one somewhat smaller than the other. We’re not sure if it’s a juvenile or not, but maybe.

Saturday – 5.27.2017

1:07 AM – Traffic at the platform feeder yesterday. The face off between Mrs. Cardinal and the White Breasted Nuthatch was interesting.

The black cat, one of several backyard lurkers, is thwarted by D. The natural selection process will have to happen on another day. We hope.

Last,  some peaceful grazers on the platform feeder. Always glad to see the One-eared Squirrel is still alive and voraciously swilling bird seed.