I mixed some suet with blue berries, peanut butter, a few thawed raspberries and quick oatmeal,
Then squished it into the V's of the bark of the walnut tree outside my kitchen window.
( I hope you notice the woodpecker in the upper, right-hand corner.)
I found a place nearby to sit and watch. Though I had expected to see the woodpeckers enjoying the suet . . .
. . . I was delighted to see blue jays turn into clinging birds in an effort to get their share of the goodies.
This Red-bellied woodpecker, below won the prize for the biggest mouthful.
It quickly took its dinner and disappeared deeper into the woods.
Word must have gotten out about this new feeding spot. Even the Dark-eyed junco became impatient, no longer content with waiting on the ground for pieces of the greasy mixture to fall.
The prize for persistence goes to the White-breasted nuthatch. There were at least three different ones, constantly coming and going. One must have claimed the tree as its own, for every morsel was haltingly carried up the tree to be re-deposited in a special nuthatch pantry.
And one more thing, for all you readers from the northern 2/3 of the United States, that shiny thing you see in the background is sunshine. (Even some of you Europeans might be wondering.)
