Presenting...The Red-Bellied Woodpecker (at last!)

One of the best parts of this winter has been putting out the suet feeders for my feathered friends.  I have 2 suet feeders...1 I received as a gift from my parents, and the other I received as a gift from myself.  The suet has been attracting a lot more nuthatches (which are my favorite birds) and also, very excitingly, 2 different kinds of woodpeckers!  One of which is a woodpecker I had never seen before this point...the Red-Bellied Woodpecker (insert "Oooos" and "Ahhhs") click here to read about him.  He usually stops by for a breakfast of suet cake around 8am every morning.  And every morning for about a month now I have been trying to get a photo of him.  Apparently he is particularly camera shy.  I have felt like the bird-nerd paparazzi, sneaking around the windows and popping out to try and get my shot.  He'll be feeding for a good 5 minutes, and the minute I get my camera up to the window...away he flies!  So, FINALLY...I was able to get 2 photos of him this past weekend!  Ahh...success at last!

My elusive subject!

Woodpecker = 50, Kristen = 2

He's a "Red-Bellied Woodpecker" even though he
has a red head and a white belly!  What is up with that?

Who Loves Safflower Seeds??

Welcome to my birding obsession.  One of my favorite parts of the day involves watching the bird feeders on my deck to see who's come to dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or brunch).  Unfortunately the insane ninja bird feeder assassin squirrels have eaten through the plastic on 2 of my 3 feeders, so at the moment I only have 1 left (but not to worry, there are replacements on my Christmas list!).  So for the time being, I am feeding my feathered friends by putting seeds out on the deck railing in addition to my sole remaining feeder. 

Here is the good news though...I have discovered a secret...squirrels DO NOT like safflower seeds!!  Haha...take that you psycho squirrels!  Apparently, squirrels have much more advanced taste buds than birds do, so to the squirrels the safflower seeds taste bitter while at the same time tasting yummy to the birds!  Although, I must admit I do feel bad for the squirrels now.  They are cute and furry and hungry and though they are sometimes my nemesis, I understand what it's like when you are hungry and you can't get the wrapper off your favorite Kashi bar!

Safflower seed is also the cardinals favorite seed, I've been reading.  The cardinal only comes about once a day to our feeder and doesn't stay very long, so I'm super psyched about these photos I managed to take!  Anyway, here's who's been loving the safflower seeds...

The elusive cardinal!

This is a delightful brunch!

The gang's all here...house finches love to chow down!

Soo red - Mother Nature is amazing!

Ralph's favorite: the Tufted Titmouse
(he swears it's not because of the name)
with 2 house finches



An October Winter Wonderland

 So we had a freak "nor'easter" (note the correct spelling with apostrophe) on Saturday.  I'm not really sure what nor'easter means exactly, except that it brings A LOT of snow.  When I was a kid I thought it had something to do with Easter.  That's probably one of those things I should be looking up the meaning to, except that right now I'm more interested in posting my photos of the results of this nor'easter!   


The view from my kitchen window.

  


About a ft. of snow on the deck!

 

I live in what is known as the "East Mountain" section of Scranton, which is literally just on top of the big mountain East of center city Scranton.  Since it's a much higher elevation, we tend to get much more snow than in the city.  When all was said and done, I measured about 1 FT. of snow accumulation on our back deck railings!  I am not a huge fan of snow (except for a white Christmas, which I love), but I must admit, it is incredibly beautiful!  Looking out my big kitchen window into the woods bordering our house, the effect of the snow covered branches sparkling in the light was completely magical.  It definitely gives new meaning to the holiday song, "Winter Wonderland"!   



"Winter Wonderland" in my backyard



The wildlife must have also been enjoying this "winter wonderland", because when we woke up on Sunday, there were animal tracks all across the backyard.  I am obsessed with animals and the wildlife around our house.  I'm thinking these are maybe raccoon tracks since the raccoons have been on our back deck during the night lately.  I know they are supposed to be somewhat ferocious, but they are just sooo darn cute!    




Animal tracks crossing over the backyard.

 


Maybe raccoons?

 The storm also brought the return of one of my favorite birds...the Dark Eyed Junco.  They are plump little black birds with white bellys.  They won't come to the feeder, but they love to eat seeds and insects on the ground.  My husband threw some seeds out on the deck and sure enough, within 5 minutes we had about 10 juncos dining al fresco.  I read somewhere that they spend summer vacation in Canada and come back down to the northern states during the winter, which would explain why we haven't seen them since the spring. 

Dark Eyed Junco

Juncos at the buffet.