On March 26 I set up a Canon GL2 video camera in my garage so that I could film the birds' activities. I reviewed the tape and saw that no people went near the nest during the initial hour of filming. During this initial hour, the birds spent 36 minutes and 28 seconds on the nest, and they spent 21 minutes and 33 seconds away from the nest. They made nine trips to the nest.
Hungry mockingbird chicks
On March 27, I placed a second video camera (a small Canon ZRl) inside the bush near the nest. I watched from inside my garage to make sure that the birds would not abandon the nest with the camera in the bush. The adult birds returned to the nest and did not appear to be affected by the camera. I videotaped the birds for one hour. The tape showed that the birds made a total of nine trips to the nest, bringing food and removing fecal sacks. At one point during this video session, an adult bird spent 4 minutes and 54 seconds sitting on the nest. The nestlings are very young and are covered in down. Later that afternoon, I set up a camera in our garage so I could view the bush and see how the birds were affected by the people and animals in their environment. I noticed that the birds flew away when a UPS delivery person walked up to our neighbor's house and when a garbage truck went by.
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An adult mockingbird in nest with nestlings
On March 28 it was raining very hard, so I filmed from the garage. I noticed that during the rain the birds attempted to have a parent sitting on the nest at all times. When one parent was out hunting, the other was sitting on the nest, and they would periodically change duties. However, I noticed that when people went near the nest, the adults left the nestlings unattended, thus leaving them vulnerable to drowning. My research indicated that during torrential rains, nests can flood, drowning the nestlings (Doughty, 1998).
On March 29 I filmed from the garage again. I observed that the attending adult bird would fly away from the nest when people approached. During that one-hour period, the birds made six trips to the nest.
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