woodpecker

After eating from my homemade peanut butter cake (see my previous photo), he hitched down the tree and then started hitching up again, still with peanut butter on his bill. Sorry, I tried to post this immediately after my first photo, but my computer got clogged up, and I had to start over.

He's still a little shy, likes to hide behind the suet feeder while I'm watching him. I ran out of commercial suet cakes and had to make some peanut butter cakes from scratch yesterday: natural chunky peanut butter, corn meal, chopped peanuts, and crushed sunflower kernels.

Seeing This Bird quite regular.

Didn't observe any fighting between them, but both the Red-Bellied Woodpecker on the left and the Blue Jay on the right seem to be laying claims to their respective feeders. Or perhaps the Blue Jay wants to feed from the Red-Bellied's feeder. At any rate, I am SO relieved that there was not a...

Second shot of the female Pileated Woodpecker, who returned to the feeder this morning. It was the first time I'd seen her in 3 weeks. A few days ago I hung up a Royal Wing "Woodpecker suet" cake from Tractor Supply, and it finally did the trick!

I had been wishing for 3 weeks to see her again, and this morning my wish came true! She was on the feeder around 9 am, but I was roaming around the yard, so she saw me and flew away. I returned inside, and then stepped out on my porch a little after 10 am, and was delightfully surprised to...

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker wants his suet back! Fight is on with the Common Grackle! The woodpecker won :)

Female Pileated Woodpecker feeding on fruit from ornamental pear tree.

Male and female Pileated Woodpeckers feeding on ornamental pear tree fruit.

From our snowfall this morning. Surprising that the Red-Bellied Woodpecker hiding behind the feeder was allowing the Blue Jay to perch so close. And the Blue Jay was giving me this funny face, as if to say, "Mind your own business!"

taken on Vernon park 19/03/15

We have a birdfeeder at work and we have many different types of birds that visit. This downy woodpecker was trying to get just the right seed from the feeder.

He waited politely while the Carolina Wren ate at the feeder, and then they switched places! Such a different scenario from most that I have witnessed this past winter.

After seeing so many birds fighting at the feeders this winter, it was heartening to observe this Downy Woodpecker and Carolina Wren actually taking turns this morning! We had 5 inches of snow yesterday, but today was clear and sunny, melting some of the snow, despite the temperature remaining...

Was very difficult to capture her actually eating. Now that the weather's getting slightly warmer, maybe I'll have more opportunities!

She returned on schedule this morning, a little before 8 a.m., with the temp a little above freezing. Most mornings have been too dark, so this morning I deliberately set my ISO to 200. Leaned against the side of the building and got a number of shots, but in 95% of them, she was hiding her...

Another of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker from yesterday morning, the 22nd. I've always been fascinated by the way birds can turn their heads around 180 degrees!

Saw this guy while hiking at Punderson State Park, Ohio.

The snow stopped falling yesterday evening, but this morning everything was still frozen. I was out early hoping to get a shot of our resident female Pileated Woodpecker. No such luck, but I did see her flying across my yard. Instead, I got this Red-Bellied as a consolation prize.

Contemplating a higher Picoideity.

A frequent visitor to my yard, and always welcome.

This is one of a series of shots I got of this male Red-Bellied Woodpecker on January 13th. After I uploaded it and studied the eye, I thought something was wrong. But I subsequently read that woodpeckers have a special membrane that closes over their eyes when they are pecking. This is to...