This female downy woodpecker is one of the daily visitors. There seem to be two pairs of downies that come. This one is hiding a seed in a crevice in the bark of the Siberian elm tree that holds the feeder.
Others come only while their young still are following around begging to be fed, blue jays and grackles in particular.
One of the reasons I keep the feeders up, though there is usually lots of natural food available for all the birds in summer, is that I get such amusement from the antics of the babies. It strikes me as very funny watching the huge baby blue jays - bigger and fatter than their beleaguered parents, following around, wings fluttering, bleating pitifully. Grackles seem to be even longer in their maturation...it was well into August when I watched one optimistic baby follow its parent who hopped up to a larger feeder, brought down a seed, gave it to the baby and then moved off. The baby cried out, dropping the seed and flew after its parent.
Goodness I thought - that's patience. Even though grackles in a horde, don't endear themselves to me... this little one-act play really caught my fancy and made me laugh. There are so many little things like that every day to watch and enjoy in nature... even watching this industrious woodpecker was fun. She took several seeds and stuck them in cracks in the bark. Now I wonder if she'll remember where they are in a blizzard?
We can leave no feeders out in warm weather because they attract bears. We wish we could, feeders can bring birds closer and make them more visible.
ReplyDeleteBears seem to stay deep in the woods away from the more populated areas where I live here, but I know cottagers not too far away in Muskoka who have that problem year round. If not bears then fishers.
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