I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We had another fantastic Christmas here in Yakima, and yes, it was a white one. Our family, Wendy and Emily, had quite a struggle to get over here because of that white stuff, but they eventually made it on Thursday before Christmas, arriving a little after 11:00pm. We all had a good time visiting, eating, enjoying cocktails, and opening presents.
Since my last post on December 15th I have taken quite a lot of video to share with you. I never know how many people are interested in my videos, but I keep putting them on the blog in hopes that people will like them. I know that some of them tend to be a bit longer than most people’s attention span, but I do cut them back significantly from what I actually shoot. I figure people will watch what they want, and that’s okay.
We had some very cold overnight temperatures during the run-up to Christmas Day. One night (Wednesday 12/21) it actually got down to 2 degrees. Some weather apps put it at below zero, but when it gets that cold, who can tell the difference? Our birdies seem to eat a lot more the colder it gets. I suppose they are trying to keep their body temperatures up. This made for a lot of activity under the seed feeder, and I managed to get some of it on video.
The first video below shows our beloved California Quail foraging around under the feeder. We have seen a lot of Quail lately, sometimes we have had eleven at one time. This video begins with a group of Quail and one lone Magpie. The Magpie is pecking at a peanut butter bird-cake that we threw out under the feeder. It was probably mostly frozen so the birds have to really work at it to get some off. Once the Magpie leaves, the Quail immediately descend upon the same area…they are intimidated by Mr. Magpie because he is so much bigger than they are, and he has that huge beak.
A couple of Quail decide to excavate a hole. Other Quail soon join in. A few curious Sparrows approach, but decide they don’t want to get in on all that work. Pretty soon Quail are coming and going from the hole and there are quite a few of them crammed into it. I can only guess as to why they were digging the hole…apparently there were a lot of seeds underneath the snow at that spot. You can see the Quail pecking at the seed and coming up with snow-covered beaks, which is so cute! Word gets around that there is a pile of seed to be had at the excavation site, and soon we have most of the covey scrambling to get into this hole. Tempers flare and there is a lot of pecking and shoving back and forth. At one point I counted 10 Quail inside the hole! At the 2:05 mark, I have frozen the video so you can see a female Quail at the upper left-hand side who apparently has lost her tail. At least that’s all she lost.
My sweet little Anna’s Hummingbirds continued to come to the heated feeder throughout the bitter cold weather. One little fellow was perched on the wire one morning as soon as it started to get light outside. The video below starts off with the hummer, diligently guarding “his” feeder…then we see the probable cause of the Quail’s missing tail feathers! We’ve had several visits from Mr. Cooper’s Hawk recently. I love how he wags his tail in this video. He most likely has visited more times than we have seen him.
On December 18th we visited Randall Park again, and this time we took the ducks and geese some cracked corn, like we had promised them the last time we were there. They were hungry little buggers and were very appreciative of the corn. The pond was frozen over except for a small area. It was rather cold that day, with a high temperature of 22 degrees.
My last video for this week is one of our resident Spotted Towhees. We are still seeing three of them around the yard, scratching around in the snow for whatever they can find. They seemed to enjoy the bird cake, with the dominant male (he looks a bit bigger than the other male, to me) chasing off everyone whenever he gets the chance. If you watch the video, you can see the female Towhee allowing two Sparrows to share the cake with her. Not so the male, because he arrives and everyone scatters, including the female Towhee. The other birds do manage to sneak a peck at the cake from time to time when he is distracted. At the 1:00 minute mark I have frozen the frame and you can see both the male and female Towhee standing on one foot. I wonder if they do this to keep the other foot warm.
Here are some pictures I took over the past couple of weeks, showing the snow and the four of us having a good time together during the holidays.
PARTING SHOT
She will always be the sweetest little present underneath the Christmas tree!
Join me every Wednesday or Thursday (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for more from the Southerner in the Northwest.
Southerner in the Northwest 
I enjoy your videos; the ducks were sure mad about the cracked corn. I’m sure they were glad you kept your promise. 😉We have enjoyed lunch at Cowiche Canyon several times, yummy! Lovely photos of the four of you as well. Happy New Year!!
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Sorry my reply is so late, I have been remiss in visiting WordPress lately! Thank you for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments.
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No worries!
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Found some expired square cereal (not name brand) and tossed it out on the lawn. The squirrels are being very busy burying each piece!!! Loving all the critters and worlds you find to share!
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You are lucky you have squirrels, wish we had some in our yard. They are such fun to watch!
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