from the window

the squirrel and i had something in common this morning.  we were both lying in wait.  he for a go at the bird feeder (to be sorely disappointed, as my parents gifted me with a SquirrelBuster feeder - and it is a fortress of birdseed), and i for an opportunity to snap a picture of the highly vigilant red-bellied woodpecker i spied at the feeder yesterday evening (you will have to keep reading to see if i was more successful than the squirrel).

i will admit to being less perfectly camouflaged than the squirrel, who will slightly challenge your figure-ground discrimination skills.  on the other side of the window, my red bathrobe became quite a flag of warning to the birds (especially the red-bellied woodpecker, it turned out).

the bird feeder is positioned such that i can see it from my favorite chair in the living room.  (goodness, i sound like a little old lady!)  usually, we get a variety of finches, a tufted titmouse, nuthatch or two, maybe a chickadee, some sparrows.  on the ground, you will see cardinals and carolina wrens, maybe a dove or a towhee once in awhile.  &, of course, the optimistic squirrels.

tufted titmouse with seed

finches...i think.

cardinal talking to a carolina wren

a surprise bluejay.  such an aggressive bird.

the red-bellied woodpecker turned out to have extremely good vision.  i could fairly easily approach the window (in aforementioned red bathrobe) and take photos of every single one of the other birds - as well as the crazy squirrels. but the red-bellied woodpecker saw me every. single. time.  with that beady eye of hers.  just look at it looking my way!

so, i started approaching the window at an angle.  sneaking my hand (and the camera) into view first - then, ever so slowly, sliding the rest of me.

i'm not sure which seed the woodpecker wanted from the feeder, but this is what she did:  flit to feeder (usually on the side away from the window, once she figured out there was a large reddish creature lurking behind it), snatch desired seed, & quickly retreat to the nearby dogwood.

once safely up in the dogwood (which, like most of our other older dogwoods, is half-dead & likely full of yummy insects), the woodpecker appeared to tuck the seed between her toes and peck it open.  breakfast!

up, up, & away.

you would think this one might be called a red-headed woodpecker rather than red-bellied.  i mean, the bright red is on its head.  but that name's already taken by a truly red-headed woodpecker - so i guess they did their best on naming this one.  & this is, indeed, a female - i looked it up in our Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds.  (but i think i actually was photographing two different red-bellied woodpeckers - a pair, i think!  the male has red feathers on the top of his head, like the one two photos up; the female only has red feathers on the back of her head.)

& now the rain has arrived.