Tuesday’s Tidbits. #15

Posted on April 11, 2023 by

52 Comments

Good morning to everyone on this sunny Tuesday! We managed to reach a high of 54F (12C) yesterday with a mix of sun and cloud, mostly cloud. Should be about the same today for temperature, but mostly sunny. The snow is melting quite fast now, still about 14 inches (35cm) in the yard out back here. But sunny hillside areas are free of snow finally.

We have today and tomorrow with nice temps, then it cools off, a lot, for the weekend, with about an inch (2.5cm) of snow forecast. I mentioned before that a Pileated Woodpecker had come to my feeder. He showed up again Sunday afternoon and I was able to get a few pics of him. He was back yesterday, and again this morning. He finally found the suet that I put out for the birds.

Male Pileated Woodpecker enjoying a snack of suet.

It is a little hard for him to get at it though since he is too big to sit on the suet cages. So, he sits on the deck railing and reaches over. This morning I moved them a bit closer to the railing to make it easier for him. I thought he would fly off when I opened the door the first time, but he stayed long enough to take a few pics. That was so fantastic! It is the first time since 1985 that I have had one of those big birds at my bird feeder.

They are big, the size of a crow, with a large beak. They look beautiful with their black and white plumage and bright red crest. Both male and female have a red crest, but the male has red “whiskers” as well. You can see the red extending back from his beak. The female is black instead of red in that spot.

Male Hairy Woodpecker.

So I have had all three of our main woodpeckers show up this year. The other two being the Hairy Woodpecker, which is about the size of a blue jay, and the Downy Woodpecker which is not much bigger than a chickadee.

Female Downy Woodpecker.

The downy is our smallest woodpecker and the pileated is the largest. These three are the most common of our 5 resident woodpeckers. Then we have two migrant woodpeckers that are only here in the summer. One of those, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, came back on Sunday. So many people do not like having woodpeckers around because they think that woodpeckers kill trees.

Woodpeckers do not kill trees, insects kill trees and the woodpeckers are after the insects that are in the trees. Very often the woodpeckers help to extend the life of a tree considerably by removing those insects. Even sapsuckers do not kill trees.

Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

I have seen trees that sapsuckers have been using for more than 25 years and they are still growing and very healthy. Woodpeckers are really very amazing birds. The top featured image is a Boreal Chickadee on the suet. Well, that is all for today, thank you for visiting with us. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.

Category: Beauty, Birds, Country Pleasures, Fun, Happiness, Nature, Photos, Positive, Spring, Sunshine, Tuesday, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , ,

52 Comments on “Tuesday’s Tidbits. #15”

Leave a comment

Steve’s Country Archives
Translate Steve’s Country

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Steve`s Country on WordPress.com