Video: Ruby-Throated Hummingbird enjoying the rain
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird in the rain
This male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is having too much fun in the rain! The more I observe hummingbirds away from the feeder the more I appreciate their personalities and natural behavior. The nectar feeder is just a very small part of their daily activities and food.
Relax to the sounds and sights of a passing July thunderstorm in the Great Smoky Mountains. Rain...Thunder...Wind and bird calls as the weather begins to clear and the mountains reappear from behind the clouds. As the rain tapers off to a drizzle the dominant sound will be a rain-swollen fresh mountain stream below. Not the call of the Eastern Towhee and Carolina Chickadee.
Western Screech Owlets saved from fire. (Photo: US Forest Service)
The U.S. Forest Service reports on two Western Screech Owlets rescued from a nest in a dead tree in the Sierra National Forest fire. It's a great story of quick action by dedicated people to get the owls to a rehab center. They are doing fine and will be released back to the wild in an un-burned area near their original home.
Dove's may be peaceful but they hold their ground!
Mirror - Mirror : Mourning Dove versus Red Bellied Woodpecker
A Mourning Dove holds its ground against a female Red-Bellied Woodpecker by facing-off with it wherever she turns. The Dove puffs itself up to look bigger and scarier and stays puffed-up until the woodpecker leaves and then returns to normal. Doves can be tough - this is a rematch of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4pvHSNVWIk and again the Dove wins. So the Dove wins best out of 3 - how about best of 7? You can be sure the woodpecker will get a rematch. More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Video: Pair of Mourning Doves Getting Ready to Start Their Busy Day!
Pair of Mourning Doves - Your Cat Just May Be Fascinated
A beautiful pair of Florida Mourning Doves in early spring warming up and preening before they start their busy day. I have had feedback that such videos are enjoyed by Cats, especially indoor cats may find this fascinating stuff. - Meditation for you and your cat. Play on big screen in HD. More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Female Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl About to use her razor sharp talons as an Amazing
Scratching Tool!
Your not likely to have seen anything like this before. This female Red Morph Screech Owl has an itchy Beak / Nose area - it's driving her nuts - we all know how that feels - but she is equipped with some serious scratching tools - the razor sharp and long talons look dangerous, but they must feel really good to her to scratch that itch! More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Cute Ruby Throat-ed Hummingbird in western North Carolina
It's rare to see a Ruby Throated Hummingbird relaxing and looking cute. But Hummers can be cute - if they sit still long enough to see them! This female is relaxing and having a bit of fun in her favorite Hemlock Tree. More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
A Huge Groundhog aka Woodchuck near Great Smoky Mountain National Park taking advantage of a trimmed apple tree by eating one apple after another off the ground. Believe it or not this giant fellow can climb fruit trees and climb out on branches to grab apples and peaches. At the very large end of the spectrum of Groundhog sizes this fellow stands two feet tall and looks a lot like a miniature bear. More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
A pair of Great Crested Flycatchers spent some time in our backyard during the late winter and spring. This is the first year they came to our yard. They were difficult to capture - mostly staying in thick brush. Love their odd calls and will have to make a ringtone of it in the future. More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
And now for a little fun! The little Red Squirrel is back and this time he's doing nothing! But even when he does nothing he has a certain animal magnetism - a born "over-actor" this time not eating a large Brazil Nut. Just holding it and staring for several minutes. A squirrel eating a nut is to be expected, a squirrel not eating a nut is unusual :-). More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Raccoon fight caught on night-vision! - short but violent turf battle near the typically tranquil birdbath. This is a game trail and it looks like some young raccoon's away from Mom cross paths with a lone male. Surprising hyena like sounds as they run away. Like a lot of fights in nature - not much damage was done - but lessons were learned. Love how the little one on the far left totally stays out of it :-) More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Video: Amazing Owl Eyes You Won't Be Able to Resist!
The evocative eyes of this lovely female Red Morph Eastern Screech Owlet will captivate you - You will feel as if she is looking right at you - resistance is futile! More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Amazing Insect Camouflage - This Moth - probably one of the 100's of varieties of "fungus moths" has adapted to live around wood decks near artificial nighttime light sources in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. It clearly "chooses" the best spot over a dark knot where there is an overhang to blend in and avoid predators and the daytime sun. Their camouflage efforts would be more effective on a tree, but since these moths have adapted to life on or near wood decks they choose the best "spots". Amazing!
Heintooga Road and Balsam Mountain Areas among others remains closed For 2013
Magnificent Bull Elk in closed area of GSMNP (2012).
Young Wild Turkeys along Heintooga Road (2012)
The Heintooga Ridge Road, Balsam Mountain area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will remain closed for the 2013 season due to the 5% budget cut imposed on the National Park Service as a result of the ongoing sequestration. A recent news story covers the other areas of the park that are closed as well. There is plenty of blame to go all around, but its a shame that one of the areas of the GSMNP where visitors can go to view wildlife especially elk, wild turkey and bears in a natural setting and have a real nature experience is closed! This is my favorite area of the park because, sorry, I don't want to go to a park and see crowds of people. Over 3 million people visit the park each year, the most visited in the Nation, and probably about 90% of them never stray more than a few hundred yards from the main road through the park - so if the Park Service were going to make cuts that impact the fewest people it follows that the remote, less-used areas would be closed first. Whether such closures are really necessary at all is another story. Let's just hope that this budget situation gets straightened out for Fiscal Year 2014!
Video of Red Squirrel that doesn't like to be watched while eating!
Red Squirrel aka "Bigfoot"
This cute Red Squirrel is our resident curmudgeon - he'll eat our food but that doesn't mean we're friends! Squirrels in general and Reds in particularly are very emotional and have evocative expressions. The Reds also have huge feet for a creature this size. I call this one "Bigfoot" I'm pretty sure this is the same Red Squirrel that threw a major tantrum last fall:
and the YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6p6RhPg9nY from earlier this year.While it's true owls cannot rotate their heads 36o degrees - they can see 360 degrees and more around them without ever moving their talons or feet especially when under distress as in this demonstration. A combination of neck rotation plus leg and torso rotation results in the 360+ effective rotation of the head and resultant vision. Still a very amazing feat. Also, the last 90 degrees of head turn to the owl's right in this video is incredibly fast and violent as the owl is being mobbed by Mockingbirds. This head twist will give you a neck ache just watching it!
