Short and violent - a Red Squirrel challenges another for dominance over a feeder by launching a sneak attack high in the forest of the Great Smoky Mountains. Only in slow motion can we appreciate these amazing animal athletes of the tree tops - they jump through the air with abandon - and they're not even flying squirrels.
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A Mourning Dove is having quite the time deciding what little piece of root it wants - Its the end of August so I don't know what it wants to do with it - nest building is a little late. The Doves have been attracted to this digging site around a deck I'm fixing for some reason I thought maybe the clay or loose dirt. Doves tend to have an indecisive look about them anyway. It likes the real long root, but its still connected so the quest continues until it slowly walks away with just the perfect little piece of root.
A bull Elk or Wapiti relaxing and enjoying a tasty breakfast of some sort of tree branch he has brought out into the open near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Happened upon this fellow while hiking - I have never seen a bull elk so mellow before although most are habituated to some degree to humans this is a little unusual. Of course I did not approach any nearer than my initial encounter - talked softly and then moved on. Although large this fellow is not big enough to seriously compete in the upcoming fall rut for the right to a harem maybe in a year or two.
This young female Eastern Towhee was captured in high resolution time lapse - sort of like stop motion by accident. There is a special guest appearance at the end of the video. This young bird has one of the cutest butts in the bird world and loves to hold its tail up high and that is what you see the most of in this video!
A young bear searching for bird food on the deck can't resist an Amazing Spider Man bounce ball - after all it says suitable for ages 3 and Up! This young male bear is facing his first full summer on his own and is probably around 3 years old. He is still really a kid at heart after first ignoring the bounce ball he decides to take it after all. I found it later deflated with numerous tooth holes in it. Such a sweet bear I hope he stays out of trouble.
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OH My - The Noise - 14 Blue Jays for Breakfast Peanuts! A bumper crop of babies means a record number of Backyard Blue Jays in Florida. You will notice a variety of adults and youngsters and some in various stages of molting their head feathers. You will also notice a wide variety of calls as they noisily congregate in the big oak tree next to the feeder. One is practicing its Red Shouldered Hawk call for future use. Blue Jays spread out into couples to mate and raise their young in spring then come together in extended family groups in late summer into winter. I have a feeling its going to be a wild winter in Backyard South this season - if I can afford to feed them!
The Black Bellied Whistling Duck making a full ear-splitting whistle call in extreme close-up. These are common ducks in Florida and their flock calls are a common sound at dusk in the Backyard, but these two beauties are in captivity and get along with humans just fine.
The black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis), formerly also called black-bellied tree duck, is a whistling duck that breeds from the southernmost United States and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas, and seasonally in southeast Arizona, and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. It is a rare breeder in such disparate locations as Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, though it is now a common breeder in parts of central Florida. There is a large population of several hundred that winter each year in Audubon Park in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. Since it is one of only two whistling-duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" in the southern USA.
Juvenile Hooded Merganser Ducks diving for food give just a hint of the wildly colorful head dress and crests that come with adulthood. They are usually just winter visitors to Florida. These ducks are in captivity, but totally oblivious to humans and having a grand time.
Hooded Mergansers are fairly common on small ponds and rivers, where they dive for fish, crayfish, and other food, seizing it in their thin, serrated bills. They nest in tree cavities; the ducklings depart with a bold leap to the forest floor when only one day old.
Hooded Mergansers dive to catch aquatic insects, crayfish, and small fish. Males court females by expanding their white, sail-like crests and making very low, gravelly, groaning calls. Hooded Mergansers fly distinctively, with shallow, very rapid wingbeats.
Young male Black Bear now on his own makes a very rare daylight morning stop on the deck looking for food. Also a rare morning when the two trail cams are still running so we see the bear from three different cameras. Note the Eastern Towhees sounding the alarm calls - Blue Jays are not a big presence here so the Towhees are sort of the Backyard Watchouts. I always put the bird food away at night and put it back up in morning - perhaps this bear is starting to figure that out. The fact that more bears have been showing up recently may mean that food is scarcer than usual up in the mountain forests. This should be berry-time!
