Wanna see my pecker?

I don't know if that title will encourage folk to visit or scare them away. I think I'm quite safe in guessing that it's not the kind of title that will entice nature lovers. I guess that was a mistake on my part.


'Cause the pecker in question is a Woodpecker! I know. It's not much of a surprise now since you've got that big picture up there of a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

This is the first one I've seen visit my bird feeder. They're a little more oriented to wooded areas and I live in the middle of a huge unwooded area that used to be a cow pasture. The only woods around are trees that we homeowners have planted. Mostly Bradford pears.


Isn't that a lovely pecker? I took something like 30 pictures of it but the damn thing kept moving around so much that only 5 of them turned out okay.

She hung around that bird feeder in the top picture the most but she kept trying to insert her beak into the center section. My guess is that there were insects of some sort in there and she was trying for those. She ate a number of seeds though so she didn't go away disappointed.


And in case you ever wondered why they're called "Red-bellied", you can see a little of that red in this picture. BTW, despite criticism from several of my bird-loving friends, I use cheap Wal-mart birdseed to bring the critters in. I think this picture is of the bird throwing up over the rail. Apparently Woodpeckers are used to better bird seed. Sorry!

Comments

kenju said…
LOL

You're gonna get some very odd comments, Dave.
Anonymous said…
hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....
Unknown said…
Woodpeckers love suet, and you can get it at walmart (if you must!) I agree, he's probably urping up the cheep food (get it - "cheep") ;-)
We used to see loads of woodpeckers at our old house (much more woodsy environment). I always enjoyed them.
utenzi said…
With a twist of lemon, ETW, and maybe taters on the side?
srp said…
Actually, your visitor is a female.... the males have a full red crest without the grey patch on the top. The females seem to come to our feeder more often than the males. Have you seen any flickers? Perhaps our red-bellied variety is related to your's... cousins or such.
srp said…
They like the suet but you can see that they also eat off of our platform feeder and even out of the tube feeder... or at least they did until I put a cage around it so the large crows and the blue jays would stay out. I got a package of 8 suet cakes on sale at Walmart. Do you have a Southern States store down there... they have mover variety of feed and really good prices.. on par or better than Walmart!
utenzi said…
Thanks, I'll correct the pronouns.
Thumper said…
Awww...it's a very cute pecker, it is...
Bobkat said…
Well, you'll certainly up the traffic to your site with thta title! Lol!

What a beautiful pecker, and well done on capturing it so well!
Nice photos! :) You don't really see woodpeckers around here.
Ya, no self-respecting bird would ever shop at Wal-Mart!

Great pictures. I live in a decidedly suburban area, but still close to the American River and Folsom Lake. We have wild Turkeys frequently roaming the neighborhood, but occasionally a lost deer will find its way into civilization. They're always too freaked out to hold still long enough to get my camera out.

Tanya sent me this morning,

Mike
rosemary said…
my favorite peckers are the pileated ones...magnificent birds, but they are only here in winter.

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