Shhh, the chipmunks are sleeping...

Since I wrote my last post, our chipmunks have finished filling their pantries and are off in dream land.  Snow has come, and snow has gone, and more snow is in the forecast.   We've had rain and warmth, as well as cold and snow.  In other words, a real mix of weather.  That's it for the weather report.  While I have no photos to post of chipmunks that are underground sleeping, here are some other updates!

Back on November 2nd, I did a post about American Chestnut trees, in which I mentioned how the nearby beavers sometimes cut them down.  Well, on November 6th I revisited our Chestnut, and the beavers had had a feast.  All most all the young Chestnut shoots had become beaver food. I hope they were tasty!

On November 27th, I posted about the gas well that was being drilled near us.  So, they drilled awhile and now already have packed up and left.  I guess they'll be back sometime, but for now, peace and quiet reigns once again in our woods.

 And on November 19th, I posted my choice for our best-dressed feeder bird -- the Red-bellied Woodpecker.  Up to that point, I had only been seeing males at the feeder.  Exactly one week after my post, we had a female Red-bellied start coming to our suet feeder.

I've been trying to find out more about these birds and discovered a really interesting online article about woodpeckers, which you can read by clicking here.

What I haven't been able to learn is more about their eye color.  I think that the younger red-bellies might have brown eyes which get redder as they mature, but I have only found one reference to that.  So, if you have any red-bellied woodpecker-eye-color-knowledge, I would be happy if you would share it with me!

This one has brownish eyes.
It also has a tiny red spot in the middle of its grey head.

You can just barely see it in the photo above, as well as her faint red-belly.
Though she doesn't have quite the same glorious full red-head as the male...

 I'm still enjoying seeing her at the feeder.

 and I think she might be watching me, watching her!

Meanwhile, this male red-bellied checked out one of our sunflower feeders...

Suet is their preferred food, but they occasionally grab a sunflower seed and take it to the apple tree to shell and eat.

In other bird news, the snow brought lots of birds to the feeders, including two male Cardinals, who spent most of their time chasing each other around.  To the apparent annoyance of the single female they seemed to be fighting over--

 

That's it for bird news.  Right now, we're at 98 species on our 2013 bird 'property list'.  So, we're hoping for a couple more before the end of the year to make it a nice even 100.  A red-breasted nuthatch or some evening grosbeaks at the feeders would be nice!  Maybe the next storm will bring them in.

In other news, we have one grey squirrel coming to eat the birdseed now - we'll see how long it takes before it brings some friends and we have half a dozen of them!