Big male Black Bear aka "Papa Bear" comes a little earlier this time and scores a small piece of suet. Captured with Bushnell Trophy Camera. I only put out 1/4 of a block for the woodpeckers etc during the day so that its mostly gone by nightfall and then take it in. Smart bear figured out to come before dark right near sunset :-) so now I have to bring it in earlier. A small price to pay to try and live in harmony with the bears and try and keep them out of trouble.
A Garter Snake is out looking for a meal among the rocks. By flicking its sensitive tongue close to the ground and moving its head side to side to get air moving into its nostrils it hopes to find something tasty to eat. In this case, perhaps a mouse or more likely a salamander or other small reptile or amphibian.
A male Northern Cardinal makes a brief visit to the suet feeder, the low sun of late afternoon brings on an unusually lustrous red, but he doesn't find the suet particularly to his liking and faces the age old problem of how to get the grease off its beak!
American Robin Weaning Fledgling - Tough Love. The fledgling Robin is now as big as its mother who has introduced it to the joys of suet. But now the fledgling is still following mom around and eating suet like a champ. The expression in the eyes of the mother Robin says it all - its time to be on your own. This video captures the moments when the Mother Robin chases off the fledgling and lets it know its on its own. The suet feeder is not big enough for both of us!
Female Downy Woodpecker and Gray Catbird - can they live in peace and harmony sharing a small suet feeder? Inquiring minds want to know - and will someone get the little Downy Woodpecker a napkin!
A big Black Bear standing just over 6 feet tall captured with a Bushnell Trophy Cam pays a visit to the bird feeder at 217 AM in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. The suet feeders, hummingbird feeders and finch feeders had been put away for the night. The remaining wood feeder was essentially empty, but the bear found a small amount of seed in the corners. Bear could have easily ripped the feeder down as it's only hanging from a tree by some twine, but chose instead to stand and gently lick out any seeds and move quickly on. It is important to bring in bird feeders at night especially nectar and suet so that bears, as in this case, are not rewarded with a free meal. This bear has a large territory and stops by about every week to ten days and as long as it doesn't find anything good to eat it makes a quick survey of the area and moves on. If it were to find suet or such treats replaced every night and left out it would likely begin to hang around more often and then bad things could happen. The feeder is six feet off the ground which was nose level on tip toes so this is a pretty good size bear. Couldn't tell for sure, but this is probably Papa Bear - Moma Bear and the three cubs which keep apart from him are at:
Downy Woodpecker Father is feeding a very noisy fledgling at the suet feeder the day before Fathers' Day. Newly fledged Downy's often have red feathers on the top of their head which gradually go away as they reach maturity. Adult male Downy's have just a small patch of red. The dark band across the back of the fledglings head probably indicates it is a female. The continuous chattering will draw ones attention to the feeder. The quality of this video is a little disappointing as I filmed it through a screen, but the interactions are enjoyable nevertheless. And the calls of a young Downy are priceless!
Crop Duster flies by close and low out on the Florida Birding Trail. You just never know what your going to see and it is good practice for tracking shots - which you will note on the video near the end - I could use the practice. Looks like a type of "Air Tractor" crop duster and looks like a lot of fun!
Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly in Florida. Gets its name due its voracious appetite for other insects caught on the wing after launching from hunting perches.
Strictly nocturnal, this hyperactive mouse lives in the deep forest and has found food left for the Flying Squirrels and makes fast dashes for food when the squirrels aren't there - rarely lingering in the open as it is on the low end of the food chain. The exact species of mouse is unclear as even generic house mice live in forests. The nighttime sounds of the forest echo in the background.
Wild Strawberry growing wild in the "yard". A result of an experiment of not cutting the grass on a portion of a hillside in the Great Smoky Mountains from October to early June. Partly out of frugality and partly the desire for a wild natural yard - manicured perfect yards just seem out of place in some settings. The result - wild strawberries, dense stabilizing ground cover and lots of insects for the birds and small mammals to eat. You can see a few crawling in the video. Might not work everywhere, but simply just not cutting a portion of the yard for a lengthy amount of time is a worthy experiment.
An American Robin hovers like a hummingbird? OK - maybe not "hummingbird-like", but this rather rotund Robin has developed a taste for suet and is determined to defy gravity to get it. First trying to hover its not-so-aerodynamic bird frame at great expense of energy and then gradually learning it is to better imitate a woodpecker by using its tail for a brace and flapping wings while holding on and then ultimately learning to properly grasp the suet feeder and consume massive amounts of greasy food almost like a professional woodpecker - which by the way - it has a habit of scaring off now! Rare for Robins to display such personality and pluck among the other birds that rule the trees!
You wont believe the moves this American Robin comes up with to get a free suet meal. Highly original and clever, but a little lacking in grace, it finds just the right way to "shake it" to reach a meal. But soon that meal will be out of reach and it will need a new "move". In the next video it learns to hover "sort of like a hummingbird" !
Night-vision trail camera catches a very small scale Mayfly Hatch over a small mountain stream in the Great Smoky Mountains. What looks like snow flurries flying into the camera lights are newly hatched Mayflies.
A Blue Jay catches an Anole Lizard and stuffs it in the crevice of a tree branch to eat later as is their custom. Blue Jays may be common, but they are fascinating and intelligent birds and among the best hunters of the Backyard. No sound as I took this video through a window.
A Demonstration of Bears Amazing Sense of Smell! This beautiful mother Black Bear with three cubs visited the exact same location three different times which provides an excellent example of a bears sense of smell - 7 times better than a bloodhounds and perhaps the best in the world. On the first visit there is birdseed inside a sealed plastic "coffee can" inside the deck box. She readily smells it and deftly flips open the lid with her nose like a pro. After I saw this the deck box was cleaned and kept empty. The next two visits she sniffs the box and can instantly tell there is nothing to eat in there and quickly moves on - even though she could easily flip it open as before to verify - based on scent alone she knows its empty and moves on. Note that the cubs were fascinated by the smell of my sandals as well :-)
Mini- Documentary about a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers inspecting two owl nest boxes and a woodpecker nest box before deciding where to build their nest and raise their family. Watch as this fascinating Great Crested Flycatcher couple go house hunting in a buyers market - its all about location, location, location! Also note the importance of placing a post for perching in the open near the nest box - birds really like this feature for ease of access, hunting and security.
Note: The nest box camera failed due to a lightning strike, but four of the five eggs hatched and four baby flycatchers successfully fledged during the fourth week of May!
Listen to 18 minutes of thunder, rain and bird songs as a Cottontail Rabbit rides out a storm in its favorite spot under a small arborvitae tree where it has made a dirt patch. Just listen to the thunder, rain and bird songs or concentrate on the Rabbits rhythmic breathing - it's a nose breather as one might imagine. As the storm passes the birds begin to sing again and the rabbit shakes off the water and is hungry. The ebb and flow of Nature!
