A Memory and An Amazing Bird

I can't remember a time before our family watched, fed, and loved wild birds.  So, it's hard for me to say if I have what birders call a 'spark bird' (a special one that lit the spark to an on-going love for birds).  

I do know that one of my earliest, clearest memories of any bird was of a red-headed woodpecker.  When I was young, a neighbor friend of my mom had one coming to her feeders and we went to see it.  My, but they are beautiful birds!  No wonder it made such an impression on me.

Photo by Julie Zickefoose, used with permission

While I don't have any photos of 'my' red-headed woodpecker from years ago, you can read a delightful tale about the one above-- named Garrett, at Julie Zickefoose's house.  Click here to read her story, see more photos, and share in her excitement from when she had one coming to her bird feeders!   

I've only seen red-headed woodpeckers a few times over the years since my first one.  As a species, they have undergone a sharp decline due to various factors, such as habitat loss.  You can read more about their interesting life history by clicking here for the Cornell page about them. 

The last time I saw a red-headed woodpecker was on a road trip our family took across the USA several years ago. We saw a few of them, including two that had been hit in the road.  They commonly are hit as they forage for insects along roadsides. (Yes, we stopped to examine them).  

Red-headed woodpeckers are more often seen in the midwest than in eastern Pennsylvania. So, I was very excited to see one recently!

On Sunday afternoon, my brother and I were birding on the farm in southeastern Pennsylvania where I grew up.  We had seen lots of birds, in particular; all the kinds of woodpeckers we could expect to see there.  Downy, hairy, northern flicker, red-bellied, and pileated woodpeckers were on our list, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker that we were pretty sure of.  So, when we noticed another woodpecker, we checked it out more carefully to try to confirm a sapsucker.  We were very glad we did, because this one wasn't a sapsucker... not with those dark wings with large white patches, white belly, and brown head!

 Woo-hoo... it was an immature red-headed woodpecker!

 He or she (both look alike) was taking beechnuts from this tree, and flying to a couple of different spots close-by.   It would either quickly eat or store the nut, then fly back to get more.  

We shared the sighting with my brother's wife thru a cell phone call, and she quickly walked down to the woods to see it, too.  A neighbor even showed up on horseback, though that was a coincidence!

Woodpecker woods!

While these woodpeckers are rare in eastern Pennsylvania, and we were very excited to see it, there are still a few places where they are more common.  Julie Zickefoose writes about one of those special places in her blog post about North Bend State Park in West Virginia.  Now, that's a place to put on my bucket list to visit someday!

While I don't expect to ever add red-headed woodpecker to our property list here in northern Pennsylvania, you never know.  I remember as a kid how excited my mom was when red-bellied woodpeckers started coming to our bird feeders (and I think that's why they are still one of my favorite birds).

male red-bellied woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpeckers gradually moved northward over the last several decades, so maybe red-headed ones will get here someday, too.  I certainly would be thrilled to see one here and I'd love to have to update my post about 'Our Wonderful Woodpeckers'.  

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the memory of the one near where I grew up, and the one we saw there on Sunday!

 

Our Wonderful Woodpeckers

I've been hoping to writing this post for about as long as I've been writing this blog.  My dream was to get a good photograph of a Pileated Woodpecker, and then write about all of our woodpeckers.  This seemed to be a fairly ambitious (and most-likely unattainable) goal, because my sightings of these shy birds are usually fleeting.  I'd never taken any photos of this bird, let alone a good one!  Until Friday...

Female Pileated Woodpecker

This female Pileated Woodpecker swooped in and spent about 5 minutes eating the winter berries by our bird table.  I stuck the stems with berries there a month or so ago, thinking they might brighten up some of my bird photos, and perhaps some birds would eat them.   Maybe Cedar Waxwings if I was lucky.  Well... I was really thrilled and blessed to see the largest woodpecker in North America eat them!

There are a total of about 215 species of woodpeckers in the world.  They live just about everywhere there are trees (and some live in deserts where they make nest holes in saguaro cactus).   There are 6 kinds we normally see here.  As I said, the Pileated is the largest in North America (unless an Ivory-billed Woodpecker is surviving somewhere, which is very unlikely). 

Our smallest and also most common woodpeckers are Downy Woodpeckers at 6 to 7" long.  They are one of the friendliest birds at our feeders, seemingly having little fear of me when I go out to fill the feeders.  Males and females are easy to tell apart, as the males have red on the back of their heads and the females don't.

Female Downy Woodpecker

Looking almost exactly like a Downy Woodpecker except for their size, next are Hairy Woodpeckers (about 8 - 10" long).

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Their bills are heavier and longer in proportion to their head size, too.  It can take a little practice, but after you've seen both kinds for awhile, it's pretty easy to tell them apart.  In the previous 2 photos, you can compare their sizes with the suet cage.

Speaking of bills, one of the interesting things about woodpeckers are the bristle-like feathers which protect their nostrils from all the flying sawdust when they are pecking at dead trees.  (They aren't hairs... since birds don't have hair, they have feathers.  Don't ask me why "Hairy"s are called that!)

Male Downy - notice nasal bristles

Both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers live here all year.  So does the next one, the Red-bellied.  They are very similar in size to Hairy Woodpeckers (about 8 - 10").

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

They used to be more of a southern bird, but have gradually made their way northward to live.  I'm so glad they did!  They are one of my favorite birds and have been featured in several other posts, most notably when they won the "Best-Dressed Bird Award".  Click here to read about that.

The one above is a male, with his full head of red.  The females have red on the nape only.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

And young Red-bellied Woodpeckers don't have any red to speak of (but they sure are cute)!

Many people call them Red-headed Woodpeckers, but that's a completely different bird.  Red-headed Woodpeckers' entire heads are red and their backs are solid black with white wing patches.  So, why is a red-bellied called what it is?  Here's why...

Although it is hard to see, and not all of them have the tinge of red on their bellies, their name does apply.

Those 3 types all live here year-round.  The next two are migrants and you can expect to see them in northeastern PA only in the warmer months.  About the time the tree sap starts to run, you can look for a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  At 8 - 9" long they are our next-to-smallest woodpeckers.

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Females don't have the red under their bills.

They visit trees and peck rows of holes, then come back later to drink the sap.  All woodpeckers have special tongues (quite long and with barbs on them to help them pull insects out of wood) but sapsuckers have shorter tongues coated with fine 'hairs' to help them lap up the liquid.  Here's one drinking from a tiny hole near the base of a sugar maple tree.   It's really well camouflaged there, isn't it?

Other creatures benefit from their work, too, like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird that had a drink at our crab apple tree. Both species not only drink the sap, they eat the insects that are attracted to it.

Trees seem to be able to withstand the holes just fine, as several of the trees in our yard have been used by the sapsuckers for many years.

Sapsuckers and hummers are not the only ones who like sweets.  Downy Woodpeckers are commonly seen drinking from hummingbird feeders.

Male Downy

The next woodpecker is not called a 'woodpecker' but it's in the family just the same.  It's a Northern Flicker.

Flickers (10 to 14" long) live across the whole United States but there are some interesting variations in them.  Our eastern ones are Yellow-shafted (notice this female's tail).  The underneath of their wings and tails are yellow, whereas the western ones are reddish.  You can see a Red-shafted Flicker here in my post about Colorado birds.

Flickers are very commonly seen on the ground, because they love to eat ants.

By the way, both my photos of Flickers are of females, even though they have red on the backs of their heads.  Male Flickers have the same red spot, but also have a black mustache on the sides of their faces (red in the case of the western birds).

Now, we're back to the amazing Pileated Woodpecker.  They measure in at 16 - 19" long!  

I literally gasped out loud when I looked out my kitchen window and saw this one.

She didn't waste any time eating those berries... it was pop, pop, pop...

She'd grab one after another and each time quickly throw her head back and swallow.

She ate until all the good berries were gone, then flew off into our hemlock tree and I haven't seen her again.  She's a memory I don't think I'll ever forget!

In this photo you can see how strong her bill and head are.  Woodpeckers have special physical characteristics that allow them to land hard blows on wood and not get hurt (or get a headache)!

Though I rarely see a Pileated (and then usually quick glimpses) I know they spend time in our woods.  That's because of the holes they leave behind.  Look at the size of this hole, with a matchbox for scale.

That's an old hole, but there are fresh new ones in the same and nearby trees.

The holes are often described as rectangular-shaped.  I'd say it would be hard to mistake them even if they didn't have the distinctive shape, because of their large size.

That's quite a pile of sawdust, too.

People may think that Woodpeckers damage trees, but since the trees are already dead, that's not true.  Although, I'm not too happy when they decide to peck on the wood siding on our house.  However, I love our Woodpeckers so much, I forgive them!  

Hairy parent (on right) feeding youngster

November.... Blah, blah... ah ha!

Hi there dear reader,

How are you?  I have been fighting to not come down with a virus called the 'November blahs'!

First, I am banishing the line from an old John Denver song that sometimes runs thru my mind, "So you speak to me of sadness and the coming of the winter..."  Yep, that's not very uplifting.  Switch that to, 

"Great is thy faithfulness, oh God my father.... 

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above;
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love".

That's better.  

Things do slow down in the natural world this time of year.  It's easy for me to look at that as a sad thing.  I need to remember it's not sad, it's just different.   

When I was looking thru the photos I've taken-- starting November 1st, I realized there are still wonderful things happening in my Father's world.  What's happening, you ask?  

Well, there are birds, of course.  Not as many as in the warmer months, but lots of them are coming to my feeders.  Chickadees, woodpeckers, finches, titmice....

I'm still trying to get a good photo of a tufted titmouse.  They are so bouncy and constantly on the move that while it is fun to watch them, they're a challenge to photograph.  Even though there are lots of them right outside my kitchen window, I wasn't really happy with any of the numerous photos I had taken.

I started thinking they are one of those birds that you have to watch in action to see their full cuteness!

Then one did this while I was snapping his picture:

Cute!  (He was scratching an itch, not laying down to go to sleep.)
Next on my November list of wonderful happenings is another thing I see right outside my kitchen window.  That is watching the red-bellied woodpeckers defy the 'large-birds-cannot-eat from-this-feeder-rule'.

It's no problem for a smart bird like him.  The next two photos are from a different day (did you notice it was raining in the last 3?)  After he takes a seed from the feeder he flies over to the apple tree to eat it.  

See the seed in his bill?  Now, in the next photo, you can see his tongue.  Woodpeckers have pretty amazing tongues.  (but that's not what this post is about, so if you want to read about them, click here).

Okay, dear reader, I changed my mind.  I have to show you another photo of the red-belly's tongue, even though it was taken October 28th and I was only going to use photos from November.  Hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want, right?  Thank you.

Alright.  The next thing that happened in November (getting back on track) was that it snowed.  Yay!  It is so pretty.  Well, definitely prettier than a gray, rainy day, right?  We're trying to think positive here!

 The mourning doves didn't seem to mind.

So why should we?

I can see lots of things from my windows, but not this:

He made it worth going for a walk on the cold morning of November 8th.  He and I watched each other for awhile!

He may not have a trophy rack, but he was gorgeous to my eyes.  (I only 'hunt' with my camera.)

It's a little harder for me to get motivated to go out for a walk this time of year, I admit.  But I still try to, no matter the weather.  The doggies in my life enjoy it, so why not me?  

Although, some days I think Ruby would just as soon watch out the window!

And I have to admit, that often, the most activity this time of year seems to be happening right outside the windows.  

The following photos were all taken from our bedroom window.  It had snowed overnight, and the next morning our little flock of bluebirds appeared about 8 a.m.  So, it was not very light out yet... hence some of the photos are not the best-- but I enjoyed watching them so much I thought you, my readers might enjoy them, too!  

First, a bluebird finding a magnolia berry (seed?) on the ground to eat.

Then, the siblings... I think, being curious about their first snow (the three that fledged from a nearby box this summer)? That's what I think anyway.  

Perhaps one of them is going to be cranky in the winter time?

Too bad I can't invite him to come into my sunroom for a little while and enjoy the flowers on my geraniums.

Yes, that's snow outside the windows.  It's a very pretty way to set off the greenery, right?

I'm feeling more happy about November now, how about you?

Sincerely,
Nancy
PS - I am heading out now to see what other wonderful things I can see in November.