birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in woodpecker on Jan 15th, 2012
We have Downy Woodpeckers in Utah, but they’re hard to find. I’ve seen them in the spring and I saw one randomly on a telephone poll before a University of Utah football game, but in general I only see them a couple times of year. This is very obviously a male as indicated by the [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Jan 6th, 2012
Even though it’s been almost a year since my trip to Arizona, I still have birds to talk about. This next one is called the Gila Woodpecker. She was trying to drink from the sugar water for feeding hummingbirds. This woodpecker is female because male Gila Woodpeckers have a red cap on their heads. Here’s [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Jul 1st, 2011
Birdchick alerted me to this awesome picture of an Acorn Woodpecker destroying a house at Madera Canyon in Arizona. It’s an especially funny picture because I captured my first Acorn Woodpecker at the same exact location. He looks crazy, right? These woodpeckers are called Acorn Woodpeckers because they drill holes and create stashes of acorns. [...]
Posted in woodpecker on May 7th, 2011
Arizona has a lot of woodpeckers. The best woodpecker shots that I got were at Mary Jo’s place in Ash Canyon. She had feeders set all along her property with sugar water for the hummers, jelly for the orioles, seed for the finches and a special suet recipe for everyone else. This Arizona Woodpecker lover [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Mar 12th, 2011
In South Carolina I got some fantastic pictures of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I saw these at Deseret Ranch last spring but the pictures were only okay. Here is a great picture! Doesn’t he look like there are quill feathers mixed in with the red? The females have a more even red cap on their heads. [...]
Posted in corvid, eagle, hawk, magpie, woodpecker on Mar 11th, 2011
Last Saturday I went birding. There weren’t a ton of birds but I think I did really well for March. American Flicker I started in my favorite part in Heber, UT. This is where I saw my first Sandhill Crane and moose. This time I saw an American Flicker and a Scrub Jay. Even though [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Dec 19th, 2010
I saw four different kinds of woodpeckers on my trip back east. There was the Red-Headed Woodpecker. And this is a Pileated Woodpecker: What, you can’t make him out? It’s a good thing that I’ve already seen one before. Because that was the only picture I had of the Pileated Woodpecker. The third kind of [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Dec 5th, 2010
Do you know what birds we don’t have in Utah? Red-Headed Woodpeckers, that’s what. This is a very easy identification. You see, he’s a woodpecker with a red head. These pictures were taken in Georgia. All my birding trips were so pleasurable. The skies were bright blue, the weather was warm, there were birds everywhere. [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Nov 13th, 2010
The first time that I ever saw a Northern Flicker, I was in Half Moon Bay, CA. I had no idea what a flicker was and I saw one in the tree. I started walking towards him when I heard a growl. I looked over and I saw what appeared to be the biggest cat [...]
Posted in woodpecker on Jul 11th, 2010
Turning back to Deseret Ranch, I saw my first sapsucker. You can tell that this is a male Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker because he has a red throat. The females have a white throat. Do you see the hole that he drilled above? Sapsuckers are incredibly patient. They drill the hole and let the sap seep out. [...]