Kinda like a lady who pecks the wood
Here are the rest of this set of pictures of Mrs. Hairy Woodpecker. I have are more pictures, but they look pretty similar to these so I probably won’t do anything with them. Unless I decide to see how they’ll look in black and white. She is all black and white anyway, so it’s a natural fit. If the weather doesn’t get too crazy, I’ll take some more pictures today. They are mumbling about snow. I want them to be wrong because there are too many leaves still on the trees. When it snows before all the leaves are down, the trees get really damaged. They are already in bad shape from the long drought. Snow would NOT help!
Such a handsome lady woodpecker!
Dropping into the favored “lying down” eating position
And she’s down!
And just because everybody is doing it:
Full Harvest Moon in September as seen through the trees
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Categories: #KINDASQUARE, Anecdote, birds, Nature, New England, Photography, Wildlife, Woodpeckers
Lovely photos! I don’t think I’ve even seen a woodpecker in real life.
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We seem to have a lot more of them than most places, maybe because we live in a woods. What I didn’t know is that they love feeders too. I thought they stuck to trees, but I think we offer something they consider their dessert — and we keep feeding them all winter through cold and snow.
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These are lovely! I love the woodpeckers at the feeder. But I’m wondering; putting your feeder up so early? Are you worried about bears? We have learned (the hard way) to keep them up from Dec to April.
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So far (knock on wood and anything else knockable!) no bears. They’ve been spotted on the edge of town and up along the New Hampshire border, but so far, while we’ve only seen footprints, not the big furry guys. Yet. They will get here, I’m sure at which point, down will come the feeders. I wonder if our insurance covers bears? Probably not. They don’t seem to actually cover ANYTHING. Except payments. They are really good at collecting. Really bad at paying out.
I left them up this year except for a month (July) when they were all down. But that was because the squirrels, both regular (gray and red) and flying ones were eating us out of house and home and were very possessive about the feeders. After we put them back up, the flyers moved on, probably because the raccoons stole the big feeder with the places to stand. They actually made it disappear. They had knocked down other feeders and we found their mangled remains on the ground below, but this time, the entire HUGE feeder vanished. I have a mental image of them carrying it, full of seeds, home to the rest of the family. And the raccoons have not been back since early in the spring. I hope they survived.
By August, it was so dry here that I put up feeders and started putting out water dishes. All the little streams and ponds were just mud. Now it’s raining, finally. Not hard, but better than nothing.
Do you wonder what winter will be like? The birds are eating like crazy. I wonder if they know something WE don’t know.
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We had an iron pole with a feeder on it a few years ago. In mid April we woke up to find the entire thing bent right to the ground, no feeder in sight, but big old bear prints all over the lawn. We’ve had a Mama and two cubs come through our yard a couple of times, too! I love seeing them.
Don’t want to think about what kind of winter we might have….ready for snow on Friday already. Holy 2020!
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oh that third one, looks like she is looking at you. Great shots. Really hope the snow doesn’t arrive
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She WAS looking at me. The birds see me just fine. The “new” kids are scared when they see me, but the “old crowd” are used to me, so as long as I stay behind the windows, they go about their business, except for the Cardinals who like to play “peekaboo.” Now you see me, now you don’t. And then they laugh behind their wings.
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Love how they all react so differently!
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Woodpeckers are not fearful. They are strong birds, big beaks and a negative attitude to all other birds. So they pretty much get their own way. This one is more polite than most. She only tried to peck holes in the head of birds that actually get in her way. Otherwise, as long as no one bothers her eating, she won’t bother them. The smaller ones that look just like her are REALLY aggressive. I actually think they created Angry Birds by watching woodpeckers.
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oh my not like British woodpeckers then!
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No. It depends on which woodpeckers too. The REALLY big ones are shy, can fight back if need be. All woodpeckers — yours too — have a double strength layer of skull to protect their cute little brains from being damaged from all that pecking at wood.
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well I never knew that!
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I looked them up. Got curious why other birds were so wary of the woodpeckers. They have that double skull bone AND a lot of power in that beak. Strong birds, especially for their size.
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We have a family of falcons who are terrorising the valley, haven’t seen or heard my resident woodpeckers for the last few weeks now 😔
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If birds are disappearing, they might be Cooper’s Hawks. They are about the same size as falcons, but are a light brown with a white stomach. They eat smaller birds and are amazing flyers. Ironically, their primary cause of death is flying into a tree. Even the best pilot can miss.
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