Feathered Follies

By Eilene Lyon

For my recent birthday, The Putterer got me a bird feeder with a remote camera built in. I can manually take photos and videos of the birds with an app that I monitor. It also has a motion detector and takes pictures when I’m not watching.

About 99% of the birds coming to the feeder are:

  • Dark-eyed junco
  • House finch
  • American goldfinch
  • Mountain chickadee
  • Black-capped chickadee

But once in a while something else drops in:

A Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay
A Cassin’s Finch
Evening grosbeaks
Pygmy owl
I love it when I catch some distorted flight photos or other mid-flight pics…
Mostly, I have fun making up captions for these freeloaders…
I told you not to talk to me – I’m leaving!
Is it my turn yet?
I’ve been working on my pecs. Can you tell?
Ack! Missed the perch again, dang it!
Steady, steady, gonna nail this landing….
Who greased this perch?!!
Is the coast clear? I don’t want to run into my ex…
Feature image: Hey! How do you like my turkey impression?

66 thoughts on “Feathered Follies”

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      1. I would want one for our whole backyard. There are interesting tracks on the snow that I would love to match up with visitors

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  3. The pygmy owl is hilarious!!! Love that you tossed that one in 🙂

    Your main feeder birds are the same as mine. I get Crested Sparrows a lot as well and our Scrub Jays went into hiding last week with the really cold weather. I also get flocks of Starlings at times. They would destroy this feeder.

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  9. I love your owl photo. My son worked with Bird Buddy to bring the product to the market. I got in on the fundraising stage and bought one for myself and my dad. It arrived 18 months later. I love my Bird Buddy, but I’m only seeing mourning doves, gila woodpeckers and a curved bill thrasher.s They seem to be very aggressive and keep more exciting birds away like my cardinals.

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    1. I told my husband about your Bird Buddy, which is why he bought this. He decided on a Sharper Image product, though. It seemed churlish to tell him to exchange it. I’m having fun with it, but don’t put it out all the time.

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      1. I think Bird Buddy came out first, but there are several other products that are similar. My son lost the Bird Buddy account while he was on leave taking care of his wife. So there’s that!

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  12. I see these bird feeders and love the photos but hesitate about getting one because I have a suspicion that the squirrels around here would take it as a personal challenge to get on it then destroy the thing.

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    1. Outwitting squirrels is a tough one! We have rock squirrels here (more ground-based, though they do go into the oak trees to get acorns), so not after our feeders. We do make them challenging, anyway. And the squirrels cause other problems (burrowing all over the property).

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  15. Are you another January baby? I am. What a lovely present and I don’t think we have them here in New Zealand. Brilliant idea. Obviously you didn’t need a book about birds to identity them.

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  18. My former HVAC tech now owns a Wild Birds Unlimited store and he must have every type of birdfeeder and bird in the yard. It’s good advertising for the store. He and/or his wife are always posting pics and just got one of these, but their pictures pale in comparison to yours. You did have some fun here Eilene. I enjoyed the pictures and also the captions. You need a caption for the last bird pic before you used the captions – he/she holding up its foot – perhaps the metal bar was cold? All these made me smile.

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    1. Those parrots might go for a feeder. You’d have to put out some grape jelly for the orioles. We do have real pygmy owls here and I have taken their picture (and held one) on a couple occasions.

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