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Yes, I’m still bird nerding out that a female pileated woodpecker has found our backyard .
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Two sightings in twenty years and now twice in one week.
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Woot!
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Needless to say I’m making sure that particular feeder is always full in case she drops by.
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A bag fills the cylinder once with 1/4 left over, and I have to fill it every other day.
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Pricey, but worth it.
(Photo includes another of my coffee table metal sculptures since you seemed to like the hermit crab.)
🙂
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If you care nothing for the feeding and rare sightings of our fine feathered friends please feel free to skip this post because I’m about to gush like a horny ornithologist.
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Yesterday evening at 7:41pm I walked by one of the windows that looks out over our backyard and saw this.
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We’ve lived in this home for over 20 years and I’ve only spied this elusive creature twice.
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They’re big, usually 20 inches long.
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They like deeply wooded areas and though we hear their jackhammer like drilling occasionally it’s rare to see them out in the open no less hanging on our suet nugget feeder having a nosh .
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To say I was thrilled is an understatement.
There was a female pileated woodpecker in our backyard!!!!
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The sexes can be distinguished by the amount of red feathers on their heads. Red halfway down the face to the eyes? Female. Red all the way down to the beak? Male.
River the bird nerd at your service.
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Not exactly a riveting video, I know.
But I had to share.
❤️
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We’ve had a beautiful bird of prey hunting around our property lately and I’m damned if I can identify him.
He’s a good size, pale feathered with black wing tips, and has been hard as hell to photograph because he flies very quickly.
I thought it might be an Osprey but there’s not enough brown.
I thought it was a juvenile red tail hawk, but it’s still too light in color.
These are the best shots I’ve managed so far, taken across the road on our neighbors farm.
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He skims the ground quite low.
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I’m sure it’s good mousing over there.
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Anyone have an idea who he is?
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My town’s Facebook page was critter-centric with this week starting with this awesome visitor.
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We had one on our roof a while back but I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo. They’re such glorious fellows.
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I hear that on the zucchini. Everyone is trying to foist them on us lately.
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Outhouse shed combo. When you’re working on something and just don’t want to waste the energy it takes to walk back to the house.
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Our neighbors have lost a few birds to foxes. But I think we need to examine how #20 survived. Could have been an inside job.
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Alright, so it’s not a dog waiting at the door with your slippers. You still have to admit it’s sweet…
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When your human puts an air conditioner in your favorite bird watching window….
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You have to jump up there and perch to make your displeasure known.
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You howl, you mewl, you bat at the offending object… but when your pesky human doesn’t remove the noisy vibrating box?
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You give up and settle in to watch the birds.
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And while up wasn’t a problem, down proves to be a bit more troublesome. Your human is no help whatsoever, laughing at your maneuvers for at least 5 minutes before she thought to film you….
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And for this infraction…. I’m sure there will be appropriate and commensurate revenge.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten takes his bird watching seriously.
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Especially when our fine feathered friends land on the porch railing and taunt his Royal highness.
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He twitches, he cackles, he swishes his tail.
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He patiently observes…
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And hopes that someday one of those pesky birds will come inside and play.
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While downloading photos from my big camera the other day, I came across these that were taken at the end of autumn.
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Evening grosbeaks are a bird we rarely have visit our backyard.
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But that day a large batch of them dropped by.
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They’re pretty little things…
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And made short work of the sunflower seed buffet.
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Now is it me….
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Or do they look like the original angry bird?
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This little female Baltimore Oriole for example.
She sat there for 15 minutes or so…..
Waiting in vane for dinner to be served.
Then there’s my sworn enemy little rat bastard red squirrel.
We may have evicted them from their corner post home…..
But it hasn’t stopped their daily visits.
And raids on the deer bound apple slices.
Turn your back if you want you pesky varmint…. we both know what you’re up to.
What’s a baby woodchuck to do?
All he wants to do is peacefully munch the bounty thoughtfully provided by that crazy woman in the house.
It’s bad enough his pesky brother shows up….
But then that pesky bird tries to steal his blueberries.
And before you know it…..
The bird calls in reinforcements.
And things go downhill fast.
What’s a woodchuck to do?
First let’s deal with the peckers.
Because we all know not paying attention to peckers makes them crazy.
This is a hairy woodpecker.
Why hairy?
Your guess is as good as mine.
He loves the peanut nugget feeder and is an expert at extracting them.
There.
Now you can say you’ve had a hairy pecker wink at you.
This is a downy woodpecker.
Why downy?
Your guess is as good as mine.
To be honest, he looks more like a Storm Trooper from Star Wars to me.
Then we have a pair of Mallard ducks who visit daily.
The female strolls around under the bird feeder collecting scraps….
While the drake plops down and takes a load off.
That’s one chill duck.
Big Tom turkey?
Yes, we have one of those too.
And finally, a Baltimore Oriole getting his junk food Jones satisfied with some grape jelly.
It would be nice if he didn’t poo all over the feeder…. but hey.
Who am I to judge?
River's world..... 