I had not intended to do a sequel to the post I did in December about getting a bird feeder. But here we are.

The view from the desk where I write is to the east. The morning sun, as it mounts into the sky, can be blinding as I sit here. I have become a fan of overcast mornings. As the days grow longer and the sun moves farther north, this will be less of an issue. My morning company this time of year is usually a gregarious flock of Cedar Waxwings on the flat roof just beyond the windows, sipping from the small pools of dew or leftover rain. They don’t visit the feeders; they prefer insects and berries. They do enjoy racing around the house, annoying the robins, and hanging out on the limb of the river oak that is directly above where I park my car. They insult my car’s hood every day. By midmorning, the Waxwings move on to wherever they go for the rest of the day. I frequently head to the car wash.

While watching the Olympic coverage on a Sunday morning this past February, I heard a terrible thud against the east-facing windows. Looking up, I saw a small feather stuck to the pane. I walked over to look for the victim and was startled by a Cooper’s Hawk swooping in to land on the stunned Waxwing on the roof. The hawk looked at me, almost as if to say, “Mind if I take this?”, lifted off with the Waxwing in its talons, and was gone as quickly as it arrived. I pulled out my phone, opened the eBird app, and adjusted my list of birds sighted that day to include the Cooper’s Hawk and reduce the number of Cedar Waxwings by 1.

It has been a few months since we installed the original feeder. I am becoming familiar with the behaviors of birds that come to eat, as well as a few species in the marsh that you can see from the hammock where we live. There are plenty of river oaks and live oaks, pines, sabal palmettos, cedars, and a couple of magnolia trees that offer limbs for local and migrating birds. I kidded in my last bird feeding post that I would bring raptors to the yard. In addition to the aforementioned Cooper’s Hawk, we were visited by an immature Red-shouldered Hawk who lingered long enough to make the Mourning Doves scavenging beneath the feeder nervous and allow me the time to find my camera, change the lens, and get out on the porch to catch it in one of the oak trees near the feeder. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

The original pole for the feeders has two hooks. We started with a cylinder feeder on one side and a seed bell on the other. The seed bell was eaten in about two weeks, so I went back to Wild Birds Unlimited and bought another bell. That bell also took a few weeks to be pecked into nothingness. That gave me just enough time to make another purchase online, a feeder with a camera. Someone really needs to stop me.

The new feeder has a motion-activated, solar-panel-powered camera that takes both video and stills of the birds alighting for a snack. It came with instructions on setting up your feeder in the Bird Buddy App. This app will tell you the species of the birds that land on the Bird Buddy. For just $8.24 a month or $98.99 billed annually to your credit card, you can name the birds and have the camera recognize “Betty Sue” or “Billy Bob” when they come around for a meal. This service will also let you receive sick-bird alerts should your visiting Chickadees look a little peaked. I am sure that for only $20 more a month, you will be able to secure avian medical insurance with a moderate deductible and a co-pay. I opted for the free, no-frills services, keep the birds anonymous, and not entangle me in feathered HIPAA information.

A third feeder found its way onto the pole after a trip to Wild Birds Unlimited. This one holds a solid cylindrical block of Woodpecker snacks.

A couple of mornings after we added the last feeder, I noticed it was empty and slightly damaged.

The morning after replenishing the cylinder of Woodpecker blend, I found the new feeder on the ground, empty and in a few pieces. We had a cylinder thief. Jeanne and I came up with a list of suspects. Deer, crows, and an organized group of delinquent Hairy Woodpeckers topped the list. Jeanne wanted to know. The Bird Buddy’s camera was of no help. It only recorded visitors who came to the Bird Buddy. The cylinder was below and to the left out of camera range. We needed to get a different set of lenses on the problem. Amazon offered a solution. A GardePro E6 WiFi Trail Camera was ordered. Amazon, $48.11 + tax, add an additional $30 for the solar panel-powered version.

We mounted it on a post next to the laundry room door and waited. The first night, no photos of the culprit, but half of the cylinder was gone. We moved the camera to a tree next to the feeder. And we started getting suspects. Although the first photos were only circumstantial. Somehow, the unsub was getting the two-pound cylinder out of the cage and onto the ground. This required some dexterity.

The video and stills that revealed our thief came over a couple of nights.

A marsh raccoon was gorging itself on my feeder. We headed back to Wild Birds Unlimited for some solutions. We regaled the staff with our tale of the “trash panda” scaling the pole and swinging from the cylinder feeder. She commiserated with us over our dilemma and offered some suggestions. “Those marsh raccoons are a tenacious bunch!” she announced, leading me to a group of pole accessories designed to dissuade raccoons from getting to feeders. “You need a baffle.” There were several sizes designed to prevent squirrels, raccoons, and HOA board members from climbing up the “pole system”. She pointed to the largest baffle that should do the trick. It was only $79 + tax.

I deferred in favor of a $12 cylinder of hot pepper-laced woodpecker food. If I added anything else to the pole, I would probably need a building permit from Chatham County. I think the new cylinder is keeping the raccoon at bay. I am hoping not to attract predators or scavengers to the yard in the meantime. o more feeders, and the birdhouse in the shed will stay there until we decide if that structure will go up on the other side of our hammock. The last thing I need to do is maintenance on a bird condo while keeping snakes out of the units. I need less interesting hobbies.