Chickadee and Woodpecker

Tags

carolina chickadee, downy woodpecker, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

In addition to Northern Cardinals, other regular birds at our bird feeder include Carolina Chickadees and two kinds of Woodpeckers. On the same cloudy days that brightly lit the cardinals, I was able to get several good shots of these other birds.

Male Downy Woodpecker.

Male Downy Woodpecker.

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Carolina Chickadee. The eyes are often hard to discern, but here they are clearly visible.

Carolina Chickadee.

One more photo taken on January 1st, 2019.

Female Downy Woodpecker searching for food. It looks like a sunflower seed left under the bark by another bird or a squirrel.

Advertisements

Two Woodpeckers

Tags

downy woodpecker, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Two kinds of Woodpeckers are regular visitors to our backyard feeder: the smaller bird is the Downy Woodpecker, and the much larger one is the Red-bellied Woodpecker. Here are two shots of them as they perched on nearby trees.

Male Downy Woodpecker.

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Birds, Flowers, etc.

Tags

blue jay, common grackle, cosmos, moth, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, rose-breasted grosbeak, Sa Pa

Like others on WordPress, I have been going through photos taken in 2016 to see whether some of them could be displayed here. Several are shown below, and others will probably follow in the last three days of this year. As you can tell, there is no rhyme or reason to the order of these images.

Cosmos.

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Blue Jay trying to scare away other birds.

Sa Pa hill in the clouds.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Goldfinch.

Moth on Black-eyed Susan.

Common Grackle.

Gluttony

Tags

blue jay, gluttony, peanut, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Gluttony is the third deadly sin, but that’s for humans. Blue Jays don’t care, they practice gluttony with abandon, as evidenced by the way they swoop down on the peanuts I put out for the birds.

Most birds take one then fly away. Not Blue Jays.

Blue Jay eating peanuts. We have seen some who swallow as many as seven peanuts at one time.

There was an older Blue Jay, who began by scaring away everyone else.

Elderly Blue Jay scaring away other birds.

Elderly Blue Jay surveying the scene, making sure he was the only one near the peanuts. Only then did he start eating.

In the meantime, the Red-bellied Woodpecker was the model of bird table manners.

Red-bellied Woodpecker always pick a single peanut. They may make multiple trips, but only one peanut on each trip.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

A Red-bellied Woodpecker came to partake of some roasted peanuts. While doing that, an insect flew by, and the moment was captured in the following photo.

Red-bellied Woodpecker. He dropped a peanut to snatch the insect, but missed.

Blizzard of 2016: Other Birds and Aftermath

Tags

blizzard, bluejay, cardinal, dark-eyed junco, jones, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, sparrow, tufted titmouse

The blizzard of 2016, Jonas, turned out to be one for the records. The amount of snow dumped on our region approached or even exceeded all-time records dating back to the 19th century. I did not measure it at our house, but it took us three and a half hours to clear our driveway, even with a snowblower and three of us working.

Here are a few photos of some of the birds that came to our backyard during the blizzard, with all photos taken through the patio glass door, not an optimal setting.

Blue Jay. One of its feathers was torn loose.

Cardinal. He was brilliant red!

Dark-eyed Junco.

Sparrow.

Tufted Titmouse.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, with Dark-eyed Juncos around it.

Our deck this morning, after Jonas passed through.

Finally, another shot of that cute Blue Jay.

Blue Jay.

Dive

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

High on a branch of the oak tree, a male Red-bellied Woodpecker was looking at our bird feeder.

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Then he jumped!

Red-bellied Woodpecker diving.

He got his sunflower seed. Barely a minute later, he looked happy enough, even when the wind was ruffling his feathers.

Happy Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Starling Visit

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, starling

Another cold day –so what else is new this winter?– and we got a visit from at least half a dozen starlings. They suddenly appeared and mobbed the bird feeder, sending the other birds fleeing, except for our female Red-bellied Woodpecker which usually yields to no one.

Starling checking out bird feeder.

Starling on bird feeder hanging pole.

Starlings, one landing, the other keeping watch.

Starlings are larger than our usual guests. When more than two of them perched on the bird feeder, their combined weight closed the feeding holes. They still tried to get at the seeds, but eventually most gave up and left. Only one remained to keep company with our Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker and Starling.

The last one eventually left. Total time these Starlings stuck around: 2 minutes.

Mohawk and Others

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

It warmed up to a few degrees before freezing for one day, before dipping again. For some unknown reason, the birds all went away when it got warmer, then came back yesterday.

Cardinal among icy branches.

Cardinal with wind-induced mohawk.

When they came back, the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers took turns at the the bird feeder. Only once, for less than a second, were they perched side by side, but I wasn’t fast enough to get that shot.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, rule of thirds, weekly photo challenge

Yesterday, while snow was coming down, the female Red-Bellied Woodpecker finally perched on a magnolia branch for a few minutes, looking around to see where the male was.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker on magnolia branch

I took that opportunity to shoot this entry to the rule-of-thirds challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/rule-of-thirds/

Here’s another shot that I took for the banner image of this post. This one does not follow the rule of thirds.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

Tags

photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Yesterday was a cold but sunny day, with good light for photos. A pair of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers took turns coming to the bird feeder, and I tried to photograph them flying. I was not successful because they were too fast, but I will keep trying! In the meantime, here are some of yesterday’s shots.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Note that the red cap does not fully cover her head.

Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker, head fully covered with red cap.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker flying away when male landed on bird feeder. This couple never stayed on the bird feeder together, and the female always yielded to the male.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker flying away with sunflower seed.

Favorite Birds: Cardinals

Tags

cardinal, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Cardinals, due to their colors and shapes, are arguably the favorite backyard birds of many of us. Yesterday was a cold and very windy day with a bit of snow, which may explain why we had so many of them come to our bird feeder. At one time I counted as many as seven, both males and females, and there could have been others unseen as they gleaned sunflower seeds that had fallen to the ground.

Male Cardinal

Female Cardinal

Male Cardinal approaching feeder

Normally, if a male Cardinal is at the feeder, the females keep a respectful distance, waiting until he leaves. He is only deterred by the Red-bellied Woodpecker which is slightly larger.

Male Cardinal and Red-bellied Woodpecker

On the other hand, female cardinals are not averse to fighting others of their kind for a seat.

Female Cardinals fighting

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tags

cardinal, chickadee, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, timouse

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is bigger than a Cardinal but smaller than a Blue Jay, yet it manages to bump most other birds off when it comes to our bird feeder.

It has an undulating flight, much like a roller coaster wave, which makes it hard to photograph. I’ve been trying to catch it in my viewfinder as it jumps off an oak branch and dives toward the bird feeder. However, it always comes below my line of sight before coming to a stop in the back of the feeder. After many tries, I was able to more or less capture it in flight in the following photos.

Female Cardinal fled as Red-bellied Woodpecker swept in

Two Titmice got out of the way as Red-bellied Woodpecker appeared

Downy Woodpecker and Chickadee about to escape as Red-bellied Woodpecker was coming close

Downy Woodpecker and Chickadee Scattered

Flying Seed

Tags

BIF, cardinal, downy woodpecker, nuthatch, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

A Nuthatch and Cardinal were perched on our bird feeder.

Cardinal and Nuthatch

The Nuthatch made many trips, each time flying away with a sunflower seed.

Cardinal watching Nuthatch flying away with sunflower seed

Next a Downy Woodpecker did the same thing, under the benign eyes of His Eminence.

Male Downy Woodpecker ferrying sunflower seed to be hidden on some tree trunk

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker displaced the Cardinal, but that did not seem to bother the Air Woodpecker pilot.

Air Woodpecker

Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder Rebuilt

Tags

bird feeder, nuthatch, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Two days ago, I again hung out our squirrel-proof feeder after I had rebuilt its inside. For two days no bird showed up! It could have been the result of the storm which dumped 5 inches of snow on us. Or did the birds give up on us and moved away?

Today, at about lunch time, I looked out and all the birds were back, from cardinals to woodpeckers. A squirrel also investigated, but gave up in less than a minute.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker at rebuilt bird feeder

I know the bird feeder looks “war-ravaged”, but its innards are brand new and work perfectly. After the woodpecker got her seed, she flew to a nearby oak branch to work on it.

Woodpecker on oak branch

Meanwhile, from our yellow magnolia tree, a nuthatch eyed the feeder before flying there for a quick snatch.

Nuthatch aiming for bird feeder

Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder

Tags

bird feeder, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker, squirrel

A little more than a year ago, I acquired a squirrel-proof bird feeder from a company called Brome. It worked by shutting down the feed holes every time a squirrel climbs on the cardinal ring surrounding the bottom of the feeder. The squirrels launched many attacks against it from every possible direction, in more ways than one can possibly imagine.

Here’s how the bird feeder looked at the beginning of last week. Note that shiny, silvery metal was showing in several places. That’s where the squirrels were trying to bite through metal to get at the seeds, without success.

Red-bellied Woodpecker at feeder

Last Friday, I came home to find the bird feeder lying on the ground in several pieces. Somehow the squirrels had managed to bring it down, or it could even have been the strong wind we had last week. Anyhow, they promptly ate all the seeds!

I called Brome and they immediately shipped me the internal parts needed to rebuild the feeder. It is now almost rebuilt. The cardinal ring was broken in half and had to be glued back together. I am just waiting for the glue to dry overnight before hanging the feeder outside again.

Hawk!

Tags

cardinal, chicadee, cooper's hawk, junco, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Another cold day as our bird feeder continues to be the gathering place for our feathered friends: juncos, chicadees, sparrows, tufted titmice, woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays.

Cardinal and Chicadee

Red-bellied Woodpecker and Junco

Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Suddenly all the birds flew up and scattered in every direction. A brown shape landed on our yellow magnolia tree. It was a Cooper’s Hawk. This was the first time I have been able to take photos of this bird of prey.

Cooper’s Hawk looking at bird feeder

Cooper’s Hawk, very intense

Cooper’s Hawk

The hawk stayed perched on a magnolia branch, gazing intently at the bird feeder, but all the medium and small birds had flown into hiding. After a couple of minutes, it gave up and flew back into the sky. It wasn’t until about half an hour later that our usual contingent of birds returned to our backyard.

Woodpeckers

Tags

downy woodpecker, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

The past few days were the coldest ones of this winter, with temperatures in the twenties or below (around -5 degrees C). The windchill temperatures were worse, forcing many schools to close. I filled up the bird feeder with sunflower seeds and more birds took advantage of it than usual. There must not have been too much for them to eat elsewhere because they emptied half of the large feeder in less than a day.

There was at least one Red-bellied Woodpecker that kept coming to the feeder, and yesterday I was able to finally take some pictures of it. Up until now, it had been a very shy bird and I could never get a good shot of it with my camera.

Red-bellied Woodpecker and Junco

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker with sunflower seed

Every time it snatched a seed, it flew to a nearby tree, inserted the seed in the bark and pecked at it. The following photo shows that behavior, even though I could not get any closer with my lens.

Red-bellied Woodpecker and seed

Meanwhile, the Downy Woodpecker also made its appearance. We usually see more of them than of the Red-Bellied kind.

Downy Woodpecker