Hungry Woodpeckers

Today was a pretty active morning at the bird feeders. There were plenty of woodpeckers including a hairy woodpecker (lower photo) who hasn't been around that often. In the upper photo, a red-bellied woodpecker is taking a peanut.

Birds at Feeders: House Finch and Hairy Woodpecker

 

 

 

The male house finch was looking so so colorful that we thought for a minute it might be a purple finch. A quick check of our bird guide showed he is the house finch at the nyjer feeder with a less colorful female.

The hairy woodpecker has not been around much this year. Today he came when the suet feeder was empty but found some crumbs. He may not have wanted his photo taken since he stuck his tongue out at us.

Hairy Woodpecker in Action

 

We haven't seen the hairy woodpeckers much this winter. One arrived this evening while we were in the yard enjoying the nicer weather. Click on the picture to enlarge and you can see his third eyelid protecting him as the wood chips fly.

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Will we ever get tired of taking pictures of the Hairy Woodpecker?

Hairy Woodpecker

Today was an interesting bird day. It rained really hard last night. Early this morning, there were quite a few fancy ducks in the lake. Mike spotted a female
Green Winged Teal but confused it for a female mallard. Next Chris spotted three female Hooded Mergansers and then Mike saw a male Green Winged Teal join the group. Chris then spotted four Wood Ducks. They must have taken refuge from the storm at Lake Nelson during the night. It was too grey to get any good photos so we just enjoyed the visitors.

Much later in the day, it cleared up and we got a good photo of a male Hairy Woodpecker at the suet feeder. For a while, it got warm enough for some turtles to come out and sun themselves on a tree that fell into the lake in a recent storm. The turtles jumped in the water when we got close, but they don't seem to mind sharing the log with the geese.

Male Hairy Woodpecker at Suet Feeder

We are starting to select different settings on the camera to see what we get. This looks a lot clearer than a previous post of a Hairy at the suet feeder (at least in our opinion.)

Hairy Woodpecker at Suet Feeder