Who knew Pileated Woodpeckers like blue elderberries?
Tag Archives: woodpecker
The girls and I had a good hike this week. We covered a whole variety of habitats and saw lots of great wildflowers, some baby birds and beautiful blue butterflies. I had hoped the fireweed would be in full bloom but it was too early. The buckwheat and paintbrush were the real stars of the wildflower show. There were Mallard and goldeneye ducklings and I found two Lewis’s Woodpecker nests in burned snags. The aspens were full of bird song. I came across an active burrow that is home to what? Maybe a badger? The girls enjoyed cooling off in a lake and tussled over a stick too.
Who recognizes the location of the first photo?
One sunny morning last week, this lovely bird joined me as I ate breakfast. She probably enjoyed her suet more than I enjoyed my oatmeal.
We have planted snags in our backyard. Why would anyone do that? Birds love them. They stop to rest, preen and watch for bugs. They wait their turns for the feeder and the bird bath. Sometimes they just watch. Yesterday there were six Western Bluebirds on one snag! Here are three different species – a juvenile Lewis Woodpecker, two Townsend’s Solitaires and an unusual sapsucker that Ken photographed with my camera. What are your thoughts on the sapsucker ID?
Remember the long warm days of summer? Night skies full of endless stars and a comet too? T shirts, shorts and sandals? Oh yeah. This is the time of winter when it seems that summer will never come. Living under pandemic rules for nearly a year, making each day seem more or less the same, doesn’t help. Well, here’s a memory of summer.
Lewis’s Woodpeckers nested on our hill last year. It was a first for us. The dead trees that burned in 2014 must have finally reached the point of good rot for easy cavity excavating. There were probably four of the colorful woodpeckers but I never saw more than three at a time. There were at least two different cavities that were in use. I photographed them over the course of a couple of days in July til I got distracted by the comet and camping activities. Just yesterday I finally got round to processing those images. There were over 400!
I think it’s worth it to click through all of the images to enjoy the colors and movements of the Lewis’s Woodpeckers. They are an exotic looking bird for this part of the world.
My Everyday Photos 