2:45 PM – There were more birds at the water trough today, as well as the usual high number at the feeders. Nothing rare or unusual visited, but here’s a video of a White Throated Sparrow taking a vigorous bath.
Tag Archives: White Throated Sparrows
Friday – 12.16.2016
4:30 PM – Later this day the solar sprinkler arrived. D put it in the new bath, and it started spouting water right away. As long as the sun is shining, it works. Unfortunately I didn’t save a video of the sprinkler in action, but I’m sure there will be plenty in the next few days. In the meantime, here’s Mr. Cardinal and the (non-sprinkling) solar sprinkler, when the clouds were out. It took a few hours, but the birds got used to it. It does take up quite a bit of room, but there’s enough space for baths etc, and hopefully, showers.
6:20 AM – Our new birdbath arrived yesterday. It’s a replacement for the disappointing ‘tip-bowl-to-clean’ model. That one was almost impossible to secure to the rail properly, so tipping it up to empty the water detached it. Really disappointing. This new one is a simpler, cheaper model. It’s got a deep (relatively) indentation in the center of it, which should let us use the solar sprinkler we got. See video for it’s first day in use (first hour actually). We got a couple of Purple Finches and a White Throated Sparrow trying it out.
Tuesday – 11.29.2016
The first serious rain in months last night. All the birds and squirrels were on duty this morning, so I assume they weathered the storm. The cameras caught Mr. Cardinal taking a long bath, about three minutes. That’s pretty long for a bird to stay in the water. The videos are below. WordPress (or the webhost) wouldn’t let me upload the three minute version, so the separate files are provided.
The other video was Mrs. Cardinal bathing as a White-throated Sparrow waited, perched on the bath rim. As she left, he hopped in.
There’s been a lot more bathing than usual the last few days. I wonder if it has something to do with the baths getting leaves and twigs in them, and after last night, a good dose of rain water. Maybe the tap water chemicals puts them off. That calls for some research.
Three videos of Mr. Cardinal bathing:
Mrs. Cardinal and the White-throated Sparrow bathing:
Monday – 11.28.2016
7:40 AM – No visits from the raccoon last night. He’s interesting to watch, something new, but I’d just as soon he didn’t come up on the porch. I should probably set up the dogs wading pool, down at the far end of the yard. That would give him the water he probably really needs (due to the drought), but keep him away.
6:00 PM – Two short videos from today’s bird action are below. It was a windy day, and both birdbaths got some leaves and twigs in them. This didn’t seem to bother any of the birds. In fact, the Carolina Chickadees wallowed on them when they were bathing. They are very vigorous bathers.
Purple Finch, Cardinal and White-throated Sparrow sharing a drink of water:
And more Chickadee bathing: