Goldfinch Acro-BAT-ics

One fun thing about this Audubon BirdCam is the fact that I can study the Winter plumage of our visiting Goldfinches. They usually flit about so quickly it is sometimes difficult to judge whether one is a male or female at this time of year.

Now, I can get them side by side every now and then and compare the feather patterns. For example, here is a male and a female right next to one another. The males have the yellow shoulders and the females are more drab.



My other favorite sight is when they hang upside down to feed even though they could easily feed from the port right in front of their face.



I need to study why this is sometimes preferred. Lots of fun to watch!

More Goldfinches but COLD!

Our little Goldfinch who was unhappy with the Titmouse visitor the other day (scroll down to the post below) doesn't seem to want any of her own kind there, either!

We now have three Goldfinches, at least, and there the yelling continues. Finally starting to hear the Goldfinches up in the trees in the mornings so their numbers are growing.



Bad news is, it is an extremely cold week here in Central Florida. We usually get a day or so of a cold snap but this blast of Arctic air is still pushing in. Suppose to be in the upper 20s through coming weekend. Not looking forward to it. Our 'normal' low is 50!

Bundle up.

Thistle Feeder Fight!

Happy New Year!

During all of my backyard viewing I have NEVER seen a Titmouse at a thistle feeder. In fact, I have only seen Goldfinches while waiting for some stray Pine Siskin to show up.

Today, I noticed a Titmouse kind of following the Goldfinches from feeder to feeder but not actually landing on the feeders themselves. Before I headed to bed I got the SD card out of the BirdCam to review the images from the day. There were only 18 recorded images so I wasn't expecting much.

In one image, I noticed that never-before-seen image. A Titmouse at the thistle feeder! Cool.



It appears the the Goldfinch is none too happy about it, though.



Can't wait for the next exciting find using the cam.

New Bird Cam

Got a couple of fun Christmas presents this year. First was the Plant Cam from my wife which I will be using to record different plants as Spring gets closer. The other was the BirdCam which I am testing right now. The first test was setting it outside at the parent's house. I tried the bird bath first but that was quiet so I moved it to the ground under the other feeder.

Not a bad result with all of the activity at one point.



This is a crop of that image showing the House Sparrows.



Then I moved it back to the bird bath and captured a shot of the Blue Jay and Grackle.



Back home, I set up facing the tray feeder. Got some good shots of the Mourning Doves but often got too many shots of the raiding squirrels.



The only fun part of the squirrels is when they jump off and make the tray feeder spin. Makes for interesting images.



However, I want to get birds in these shots so I will have to change my position for the cam. More post from this cam to follow.