Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Red-bellied Woodpecker Juvenile

The more I look, the more I see them. 
Yes, I know, it seems obvious but that doesn't make it any less true.  There are bird nests, baby birds and juvenile birds all around our home.  I wonder if it might be because I fed them a little later this year.  While, as of last week I am no longer feeding at our feeder, I do still put a couple handfuls out at the end of the sidewalk and on a fence post in front of the house. Another factor might be our WILDFLOWERS that we planted a few years ago. That link will tell you about the patches. ( . . . though this next one is my favorite post about one of our wildflower patches:   GRAND BALLIBILE ) The seeds produced from these patches are a great food source as are the bugs that have claimed our wildflowers as their habitat.
Each of these reasons make this a good place to raise an aviary family.  Very early in the morning last week, while sitting on the front porch, writing.  I was treated to this.
At first, not sure of what I was seeing, I inched my way closer.
Two Red-bellied woodpeckers.
 the signature red on its head and down the nape of its neck was just a dark spot on the juvenile.
I had a pretty good idea, but wasn't sure of what was going on. . .  until this.
Fog was quickly burning off the ground and it was time for breakfast!
I knew this pair (or perhaps a pair like them.)
They were clinging to the Sugar maple in our front yard one afternoon.
The day before, the juvenile was perched alone on the feeder ledge, looking longingly up to the handful of seeds above.
The young woodpecker let me get too close for its parent's comfort. It called insistently from a tree branch above.
Come back tomorrow  for an update on those wildflowers  shown in the links above.
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8 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

sweet little family!

loved the goldfinch in the wildflowers.

Andrew Lane Gibson said...

I absolutely love the first photograph with a male Goldfinch perched in a sea of Liatris spicata! Lovely :)

MadSnapper said...

the birds are so pretty, but bring on the trees for me, i love trees and would like to see more of the sugar maple. and am waiting on the flowers.

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

A.L. Thanks for the identification. I was in the middle of looking it up for tomorrow's blog entry. Now I don't have to!
Sandra, I love the trees, too. I'm glad to be able to live in a place with plenty of both!
nellie

RedPat said...

Wonderful shots - I've never seen a young woodpecker like that!

Sue said...

You got some great shots. Don't those young sometimes seem a bit "large" to be fed by mom and pop? Sweet, though!

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

Sue, I suppose it is a bit like our college age kids walking in the door saying, "What's for supper, Mom?"

NCmountainwoman said...

What a special treat! It is so wonderful to see the birds being birds and especially wonderful to capture such great photographs.