Happy National Bird Day
A new visitor this morning... The Birdsy AI identified and recorded the clip. I was in a meeting and only saw it later in my Birdsy account. What a magnificent bird! Apparently it is a she, a Sharp-shinned. And she left hungry.
A word about Birdsy... I have been using their cameras since 2019, and I love the convenience of using a camera that is AI driven rather than unsing motion detection. My photo setup is motion activated, and it takes me a lot of time and computer storage to handle and edit the photos. I have used security cams to get close to wildlife before too, but I found it very time-consuming to sift through the footage to see if they captured anything fun. The cool thing with Birdsy is that the AI is trained on wildlife and captures exactly that so you do not end up with tons of “empty” videos. You also don’t have to install emulators or wonky software in order to watch your clips or livestream. With Birdsy, you get an app as well as an online account in which all your videos are saved and sorted by ID and date. And you can share your clips and livestream with others or embed it on your website, like I am doing here as well. In my opinion, nothing beats the convenience of this system as opposed to trail cams or security cams. No SD cards needed, and you are not tied to a setup like the gadgety smart feeders that seem to be all the rage now. You can build your own setup. Check it out on their website birdsy.com. I am streaming there too 😊
In recent days,
a Cooper’s Hawk has been hanging around, trying to find some prey in the yard. The lack of foliage on the trees makes it easier for him to spot birds that are trying to hide, but most of the time, the hawk is out of luck and the birds disperse in time. Yesterday, he took a seat on the camera, and then this fun photo came about. It is a good example to learn one of the features of the Cooper’s Hawk - its rounded tail feathers and the broad white tail tip.
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!
But there are of course
also still birds around. Apart from the large, lazy MoDo family, there are Blue Jays, Downy, Hairy and Redbellied Woodpeckers, Nuthatches (Red- and white-breasted), Finches, the occasional Grackle and Robin, Chickadees and Cardinals. I wish the youngsters of the latter would love the camera as much as their mother. But there is always a nice group of them visiting the bird bath in the evenings. So I am not really complaining but I hope that there will be some fun new visitors here soon. The video is a hawk attack that happened earlier. I still have two hummingbird feeders up because I have seen a couple every other day this week. The stragglers will be happy for some noms on their way south. Come good into the weekend!
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.
A longtime lurker
finally got lucky last night and had Starling for dinner. It took him a good two hours to get it done and finished. This is the Cooper’s hawk that has been hanging around. I let him finish it, and by the end, also birds and squirrels had come back. I always find it fascinating to see a bird of prey come down here. They are such majestic creatures, and while it might be cruel to watch, I am in the camp of “they gotta eat too”. There are enough Starlings around, and we got about half a foot of snow over night, so at least the hawk had a good meal before that. Photos are not superb, it was getting dark and I used my Canon, looking out my office window.
Things are a bit quiet here
at the moment, and I wonder if this guy has anything to do with it. This is a Cooper’s Hawk, and he is way too big for the house he chose. Now that the trees have lost many of their leaves, they have an easier time to watch the feeding stations. Have a wonderful Friday!