Happy 2024!
May you be full of wildlife surprises! (I had a nice garland for this but it got lost in the pre-Christmas party cleaning spree 😆)
Goodbye, 2023!
There were fun moments this year and I absolutely enjoyed the garden this year but I hope that next year will be a bit more exciting again when it comes to birds. The last four months of the year show a Chipmunk, a Chickadee, a Bluebird and a Junco. I hope for some snow in January, just for some fun photo opportunities, and would love a return of a Chickadee nest and of course the Blues.
I like
moving cams around when the weather isn’t muddy, it gives me insights into areas I can otherwise not watch. It’s not always exciting stuff but the different background and perspective is a nice change from the ordinary. Here are some of the visitors from yesterday, the furry ones are very happy 😆
During this still
rather boring stretch of the year, the birds that do pass through or are regulars appear to be more skittish and camera shy than in previous years. But maybe I am just overly focused after having such little diversity and activity for the last few months. I did get the White-throated to come a little closer, and also got the young Cardi (I love his color transitions) along with a beautiful House Finch and a very pleased looking Chipmunk.
I have tried
to get photos of the White-throated Sparrows that have been hanging around for about a week now and put a cam on the ground but to no avail. Squirrels and the groundhog were happy though. The first one here has also been nibbling on black walnuts, as you can tell by the darker ring around his mouth 😆
Where there's bird seed,
there will also be critters, and the Chipmunks are one of my favorite. They just make me laugh. They are tough to get good photos of with my setup because they move so fast, but I got lucky with this one 😆.
Putting a cam on the ground
can yield lots of fun photos but it also means the camera is not critter proof. Here are some from the last couple of days. A Chipmunk, a Groundhog (proudly holding a rock as if it was a potato in one pic and being expressive in the other), and another adorable squirrel. I love the Groundhog teeth 😆
The evenings are getting cooler
but the garden still thrives, and there are sill many many baby birds around. This is the time where I like to put a camera to the ground to try and capture some of the more camera-shy visitors. The Blue Jays are very entertaining and all over the yard, the Grackle youngster are getting teen feathers, the Redwinged Blackbirds are bringing their peachy-faced babies, there are still Grosbeaks around, and today, a teen Cardinal visited too. As always when a cam is on the ground, some furries have access too.
Video: The salad bar
I got a lettuce flower pot on sale this weekend, and made a little salad bar for the Groundhog family that lives under the shed. We still need to patch some parts of the veggie fence, and I hope that and the copious amounts of clover and dandelion on our lawn will keep them busy. Mom explored first, but the babies later came by themselves.
Critter cam!
I worked some more in the garden today, and when I do that, the birds are more shy because of my presence. So I used the opportunity to put a camera on the ground. These are not perfect photos but I found them hilarious. The adult Groundhog is a momma of four, and the second photo is one of them. So far they are staying in their condo under our shed away from the house but I hope they all move out and seek their own stomping grounds. They are super stinking adorable but as adults can be a destructive force. I had to reinforce the veggie garden fence because momma had found her way in.
Livestream PSA
I have several Birdsy cameras in my yard that I am livestreaming in different spots. The main bath/ pond in the summer can be watched here on my website but also on BirdsyTV. The Tree cam and the green bath cam are livestreaming on that website as well, I am going to post links below. You can give my channels and cams and also videos a like there too. The website will eventually grow but there are already several cams public there. My own livecams change throughout the year, I may move them around, activate and deactivate per my needs. But here is how you find them:
1. Ostdrossel pond channel: https://birdsy.com/l/355115274eb4873b and ostdrossel.com/livestream
2. Ostdrossel3 channel (tree cam and shed cam and sometimes a third one): https://birdsy.com/c/Ostdrossel3
Activity will ramp up in the coming weeks with migration starting, so there may be lots of fun stuff to see. Check it out if you like
Happy Groundhog Day!
Apparently, there will be at least six more weeks of winter. This is fine by me, I get to wear all my knitted stuff and make more! I do hope that there will be more sunshine than in January, it just makes the cold more bearable. The local resident is happily snoozing in his apartment under the shed but here are some glimpses from the previous years.
Video: So bouncy!
A mouse has made a home under the ground feeder, feeding from everything that falls to the ground. Last night, a fox visited and then this happened. I have seen this in videos before but did not think it would happen here. I love the markings on this beautiful creature, and I hope he was able to find some food at some point (I don’t think he got the mouse).
Video: The tree cam setup
has proven to be the most entertaining during this rather drab time. I have gone through the videos from the last couple of weeks and made a little montage. I use peanut butter and bark butter on the tree. It is fun to see how many different birds came tocheck it out. Yesterday, there was also a hawk visitng, I was thinking a Sharp-shinned but it could just as well be a Cooper’s. The bird right after it is the banded American Tree Creeper that has been coming for a bit. Have a great Wednesday!
Happy 2023!
The new year is here, and while bird activity continues to be mega low, an Opossum has found its way back to the yard at night. I dearly love these creatures, so I am very happy about this. May 2023 provide us with lots of fun wildlife footage!
The light has been changing,
and in the evenings, can create a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere. The MoDos are natural born posers, and this one played the cam like a pro. The Blue Jay one I loved because it is so opposite of their usual rather noisy character. As a bonus, another one of Forrest, the groundhog. I love the details in his coat, he even has hair on his fingers. Happy October! I hope you have a pleasant Saturday.
I feel a little bad
for not posting a lot of photos recently but I swear things have really slowed down here and gotten a bit boring. I am still chasing pics of the baby Cardis, there are several, but so far I have been unlucky. For that quest, I am putting a camera on the ground. The squirrels and the Groundhog are loving this 😆 I found it interesting to see how muddied the black ones look - you can really see that they are simply a grey squirrel morph. And one of them has an adorably flopsy ear.
It is always fun
to see young birds learn and explore, and the size does really not matter with that. I have a big desk, and there is a kitty bed on there because she likes to nap while I work hard to earn bird seed money. At some point I noticed that she was watching something outside, and it was the funniest little scene. A young hawk (I am guessing Cooper’s) was sitting right there, on a gutter pipe that the chipmunks and squirrels love. Turns out, there was a Red Squirrel in there, waiting to leave. The hawk kept a watchful eye and tried to figure the situation out. At one point, the squirrel made a run for a big tree. The hawk went after it, so the squirrel ran back to the pipe and the cat and mouse game continued. I do love the squirrels too, so at some point I just knocked on the window and he took off, as well as the squirrel. Light is a bit murky in that corner and I had to use the Canon, so it’s not all perfect.
Videos: Babies, babies, babies!
Apart from the Blue Jays and Grackles, there are also young Robins, Woodpeckers and Cardinals. They are still curious and will visit all the feeders to see what is offered. Sometimes, this results in little dominance fights, like with the Robin and Canado here. The Robin has particularly pretty markings too.
The last video is not a bird, but an Opossum mommy that regularly shows up at night. And it looks like her belly pouch is full of little ones! She has quite the waddle going on, and I hope the babies will soon climb out there to get on her back. Well, and that she comes for a visit then too.
As you know, I am using Birdsy cameras around my yard to record feeders and the bird bath. Their website birdsy.com is the headquarters of BirdsyTV, a platform where Birdsy users can share their videos and live cams from their accounts. I have several channels there too and you can also find these videos there. I love visiting the site to check out other people’s setups, get entertained and inspired. And it is fun to see birds from Europe too! Check it out if you have the time.
I have been
on a much needed little break from the everyday and my computer and spent the weekend with family in the beautiful north of Michigan. There is an abundance of wildlife there, and lots of birds. I brought my cameras along but the birds there are not used to them and declined to check them out. So I decided to relax and listen. The Merlin app is a great little tool to explore your surroundings in regards to bird song. Here is my list from six minutes yesterday morning, my attempt to take a photo of the Chestnut-sided Warbler, one of the many Cedar Waxwings, and some of the unfeathered creatures. Here’s to a great Monday and week!
