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Woodpeckers and snow



My big thrill with the snow (at least 15 inches here on Pleasant 
Green Road near the Eno) has been the redheaded Woodpecker losing his 
shyness and becoming a regular at the big hamper pole feeder in my 
yard. I don't usually have redheadeds but this winter I'd spotted one 
in the distant trees and hoped he's be attracted. In the last few 
days he's come a couple of times to the feeder, sometimes to the 
ground beneath, but today he was constant. He roots around for a 
sunflower seed, flies a hundred yards or so to one particular skinny 
oak, bangs it open, and returns to the feeder, 12 or 15 trips in a 
row. The redbellied, on the other hand, has been a customer for years. 
He (and his family) has learned that I feed Pennington's Wild Bird 
Delight which has abundant peanut pieces, and he fishes for these,  
strewing seed right and left for minutes at a time, to the delight, 
I'm sure, of the whitethroats, juncos, towhees, etc. on the ground 
below. I am also struck the difference in the reds--the redbellied is 
a clear scarlet, the redheaded a deep, ruby, tending toward magenta 
and in the sun almost irridescent.

Other bonuses: a foxy, a pine warbler, a brown thrasher, and flocks 
of a dozen or so purple finches. Towhee numbers are up to 12--6 
pairs.

Barbara Lovell
Orange County