Thursday, December 18, 2014

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I stopped first at the Gryncel ball fields.  There were several Downy Woodpeckers, a Brown Creeper, American Goldfinches, Black-Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, Mourning Doves and Dark-Eyed Juncos.  Some American Crows flew in by way of the Sudbury River.  Before I left, a flock of about 9 Canada geese flew and landed in the river.  It was pretty birdy!  Not one cooperated for photos, though!  There is plenty of Oriental Bittersweet to feed the birds here for a while.

Oriental Bittersweet

Next, I stopped at Wildwood Cemetery.  I took the road through the old section closest to the river and immediately was entertained by several Eastern Bluebirds.  None of the males cooperated, but I did get one blurry photo of a female who briefly landed on the tip of an American flag one of the gravestones.  It seems to be a good year for bluebirds, at least that is my impression.  I keep finding them wherever I go.

Eastern Bluebird (female)

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker was in this same area, and it chased off a competing Downy Woodpecker. Soon, I saw it with what appeared to be a rather large item of food, which it flew to a snag and cached for later.

 Red-Bellied Woodpecker



This was another birdy area, with Black-Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice joining the bluebirds and woodpeckers along the river's edge.  I drove on through, stopping at the bird feeders in the back.  There were Tufted Titmice and American Goldfinch feeding there.

Four American Crows were poking around in the upper cemetery.  While I was stopped watching them, a hawk flew into a tree quite close to me, so I parked and got out for a closer look.

poss. Cooper's Hawk (juvenile)

Wildwood was a good stop for birds today!  I'll close with a shot of one of my favorite trees.  As you can see, we didn't have a lot of sunshine today.



2 comments:

  1. Dawn, I love your Bittersweet photo. And I agree with your hawk ID. Notice the tail feathers are of differing lengths.

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  2. Thanks, Josh! I've never had confidence IDing hawks (for good reason).

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