Backyard Birds- Rain or Shine or Snow!

 

Snow in coastal South Carolina? It's rare, but we've now had the white stuff in consecutive years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s.

We woke up to snow on the ground (and our bird feeders) on Feb. 1. It’s such a novelty here! Seeing birds in a snow setting was neat to capture on my feeder camera. 

The Baltimore Orioles really crave the grape jelly, even it it's icy. Check out a Northern Cardinal enjoying a winter mix of seed and jelly. 

A surprise visitor this winter has been the Orange-crowned Warbler. They too like the grape jelly. 

The Hermit Thrush is another unique bird with a great name. All species are welcome to my year-round, all-weather buffet! 

New Bird Feeder Camera is Busy This Fall!

This weekend Baltimore Orioles have been frequenting my feeder that has a small dish of grape jelly just for them.

See the little pop of orange in the feeder? That’s an Oriole. 

Here’s a better look at the vibrant, beautiful male Baltimore Oriole and a better look also at the camera feeder I purchased in October. 

My first camera feeder was a gift last Christmas from my son Joseph. What a great surprise that was and I quickly got into seeing the daily short video clips it recorded of a wide variety of birds we have in the Charleston, S.C. Area. 

But that device stopped charging last summer. I finally bought a new one last month and I’m glad I did. Here is what I acquired. I’ve shared this link with a few folks who have asked after some bird video posts I’ve made on our neighborhood’s Facebook site. 

Here’s a fun screenshot I made today from an Oriole video. 

And below is a 15-second video recorded today. I like the picture and sound quality. 

Recent Camera Captures

 The Christmas gift camera feeder continues to be a hit attracting a variety of birds but also an unwelcome squirrel (keep reading). This post features some of the recent activity with 20-second video clips.

Yellow-rumped Warbler 
(aka butter Butt for the splash of yellow it shows from behind on its behind lol)

Tufted Titmouse
(easily recognizable for its "jaunty crest of gray feathers, big black eyes and rust-colored flanks" per the above website)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet
(one of North America's smallest songbirds)

Camera Bird Feeder Fun!

 

A surprise Christmas gift (thank you Joseph and Tamy!) has added a new dimension to my birding hobby. 

It’s a bird feeder with a built-in camera that takes video or still shots. It is designed to be mounted on a tree but my immediate thought was how easy it would be for squirrels to get into it and eat all of the seed. 

I'm really liking the features and quality of this camera feeder, my first. Here's a link to it on Amazon. 

Instead of affixing it to a tree, I found a way to firmly attach it to this hanging basket stand that has long been in our backyard. Fits in nicely don’t you think?