Early morning foraging

Mockingbird and robin observed foraging for food one summer morning. Watch closely and you will see the mockingbird find one of the meal worms I put out frequently :-)

Grackles Preparing To Roost

Video of grackles preparing to roost along University Drive in Denton, TX.  Listen to the wonderful grackle songs as they prepare to settle down

Starling Hides From House Sparrows

Young starling appears to be playing hide and seek from house sparrows. After the young starling finally flies off we get to see a mother sparrow feed its fledgeling with some suet cake.

Mother Grackle Teaching Young Grackle To Drink

You don't see this everyday. A mother grackle has brought her fledgeling to the water bath for the first time to show it how to drink. Notice how the fledgeling keeps demanding food/drink from it's mother and how the mother will demonstrate how to drink then give some drink directly to the fledgeling's mouth.

The next day I noticed the same fledgeling again.  Notice his mother isn't so willing to feed him this time. 

Laura's Birding Blog: Chickadees

Laura's Birding Blog: Chickadees: "(Transcript of For the Birds for July 8 ) I love watching chickadees every day of the year, through every season, and it seems especially..."

Young starlings and bluejays 7-15-11

One young starling explores the hollow of the stump holding our elevated bird bath and bird feeder, the second is content to drink deeply.  Next is a visit from a couple young bluejays, most likely siblings.  One of the bluejays looks like it would like to eat some of the suet cake but then joins his/her sibing at the water.  Their visit is ended abrubtly, probably by me coming out to check on the camera (doh)

The Early Bluejay gets the freshest suet

I replaced the suet cake in our backyard yesterday and left the bloggie recorder monitoring it from the tripod under the peach tree.  It wasn't long before one of our bluejays discovered it and allowed himself to be filmed on two seperate trips to the cake.  In the clip below I play it at normal speed then again at half speed.  Let me know what you think :-)

Susan Gets Native: Duck nuggets and pellets

Susan Gets Native: Duck nuggets and pellets: "her predators come and eat the prey that is attracted to the insects, etc, that are attracted to the native plants. And the balance is achieved. Easy."

Bluejay and woodpecker birds at bird feeder 7-11-11

Observation of morning activities at the elevated bird feeder in our back yard. Visitors include bluejays and woodpecker. 

Then we had some adolescent starling, grackles and dove come join us

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Hummingbird enjoying fresh food

Hummingbird enjoys the new sugar water so much that he sits on the perch and takes 5 long drinks.  On his third trip back he is disrupted from visiting by the intrusion of a hairy woodpecker who has a sweet tooth.

First Humming Bird

Actually this is the first humming bird I have been able to catch on film.  We started seeing the humming bird on our flowers around the first of June.  According to Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher only the ruby throated humming bird comes through Texas.  Looking at the video it looks like an annas humming bird, which is on the northwest coast.  What do you think?

The hummingbird feeder above is hanging from a limb of a peach tree in our back yard.  The clear plast bowl above the hummingbird feeder acts as an ant moat, keeping ants away from the sugar water.

Robin drinking at birdbath

Robin stopped by for a drink but never cooled off with a bath. 

Bluejay Taking Bath 7-3-11

Finally caught a bluejay on camera while taking a bath.

Cardinal Male Feeding Young

Compared to other birds, male cardinals are very paternal.  In addition to feeding the young, as you see about half way through this video, they also take turns sitting on the eggs.  I guess you might say that is the human equivelent of changing diapers :-)

Mr Blue Jay

Video of Blue Jays eating seed that has fallen on to the lawn from the feeder

Click Here to Learn More about Blue Jays from Cornell Labs

Bird Bath Rumble

More activity at the bird bath. Watch near the end when a starling starts playing "King of the Birdbath" chasing the other birds off :-)

First Bird Bath Recording