Saturday, March 9, 2013

A Feathered Visitor

Last week my sister happened to look out the window and saw a red, black, and white fluff ball on our porch railing. She excitedly called to me and asked what kind of a bird it was. Upon looking, I discovered that we had a Red Headed Woodpecker in our yard!

We love feeding and watching the birds at our house, and it's always exciting when one shows up that we don't normally see. We regularly have Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, and Sapsuckers at our feeders, but this is the first time we'd EVER had a Red Headed Woodpecker. In fact, the only time I've ever even seen one is a few glimpses when hiking in the woods.


I tried to get a picture of this beautiful little bird, but the first time I tried it was really cold out, and I only managed to get a far away fuzzy shot or two before I gave up and came inside.

Our woodpecker friend may not have liked the camera, but this little lady seemed happy to pose for me. :)



The next day was a little warmer, and I tried again while I waited for the rest of my family to finish getting ready for church. Our fiesty little woodpecker is rather camera shy though, and didn't cooperate very well. He stayed away from the feeder completely at first and then he came down just long enough to swoosh by and chase off any other birds who happened to be on the feeder.

He was not happy about me being out there, and scolded me good from his branch on one of the trees. Finally however, he did decide to come to the feeder for a couple of brief visits, and I managed to get a few pictures. None of them are very clear, but at least I got a few to show he was really here. :)



It has now been just over a week since our feathered visitor showed up, and we've seen him out there every day. It's warmer today, so maybe I'll go try again to capture a good shot of this red, white, and black woodpecker.

2 comments:

Kathryn said...

One of my daughter's discovered last week that a bird has made a home in her birdhouse out back and she is beyond thrilled. She gets her binoculars out and "checks on him" daily :).

Miss Sarah said...

Oh how special! Do you know what kind of bird it is? We had a pair of Bluebirds nesting in our box for the first time this year, and it was SO fun to watch them! Hopefully I can get a few pictures posted soon. :)