Despite having gone for a number of walks in fields and forest of late, I have seen little in the trees of feathered interest. Today, I was merely running errands, but packed my camera out of habit.
Unexpectedly, I saw an owl and three woodpeckers: Northern Pygmy Owl, Northern Flicker (a woodpecker), Pileated Woodpecker, and Downy Woodpecker. There was also a Bald Eagle, but I was too busy with the more interesting Downy to bother with it.
Moral: pack a camera.
This is hardly the best picture of a Northern Pygmy Owl I have taken, but it was the first since March, 2011, so I was pleased.
The owl may be infrequent, but the flicker is common. I include today’s picture only to complete the set and mark this as a three-woodpecker day.
The Pileated Woodpecker is our largest woodpecker. This male has been drilling holes in the tree looking for bugs that might have bedded down for the winter.
In striking contrast to the pileated is our smallest woodpecker, the Downy. It presented me with the best views of the day, so I show two of them. First a profile,
and then a view of its backside. This bird is also a male.
We also have noted a dearth of feathered life. A few chickadees at the feeder each day but little else
Wonderful pictures…..you didn’t get a picture of the eagle but it appears you were using his eye
I love your back-view photo of the little male Downy Woodpecker. As always, I had “breakfast with chickadees” this morning, and to follow up with a superb picture of another of my favourite birds makes this a good day. (Black-capped Chickadees seem to have suddenly discovered my yard. Ten or twelve are at the sunflower-seed feeders or zipping about in the big willow tree most of the day. Until this fall, chickadees were rare. I feel as if I’ve won the lottery!)
Precious creatures all. Gifts for not only the eyes and the mind, but, somehow, a salve to the soul’s eternal longing. Sometimes I think they are feathery angels, but – maybe better still – they’re birds;
real birds.