Friday, November 27, 2015

A Welcome Dinnertime Visitor

Judging from what could be discerned from Allaboutbirds.org, this is a female
Hairy Woodpecker. (11/26/15)
While preparing Thanksgiving dinner yesterday afternoon (more like keeping my wife company as she continued making dinner) I noticed a rather large woodpecker pecking out our tree in the back corner of the yard. A large ash tree which recently fell victim to the ash bore, it has long had a suet feeder for woodpeckers (as seen in the last image below).

This past summer was an uncommonly poor one for viewing backyard birding this past summer, beyond the swarms of chickadees that flock any recently refilled feeder. Hopefully this Thanksgiving Day visit was a harbinger of things to come. Most frequently we have Downy woodpeckers stop in for a snack, while this was a slightly larger woodpecker, the Hairy Woodpecker. Though I have seen them before, this was my first opportunity to snap some pics, first with my phone and then with the preferred option, our traditional Canon camera.

Female Hairy Woodpecker. (11/26/15)

Female Hairy Woodpecker by suet feeder. (11/26/15)

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