I thought that my trouble in getting a decent photo was over in the Fall and Winter

of 2011-12, because a couple pairs of the birds wintered-over and were around all

the time. There was a bumper crop of acorns on the ground that year and I think,

with such an abundant food source available, the birds decided to stick around.

They see me coming, of course, and fly ahead of

me, and, when they stop, they do so very high up

in the trees, so that all I can get is a long shot.

These first two shots were the closest that one

has come. It looks like the same bird on the

same day, but it’s not. The bird on the right

showed up on May 2, 2008, and didn’t seem at all

interested in what was in the feeder. He just

enjoyed sitting on top of it in the rain.

Here come the woodpeckers with red heads. First of all is the eponymous Red-headed Woodpecker

(Melanerpes erythrocephalus), the only eastern woodpecker with an entirely red head. I’m having a hard

time getting a high quality shot of this bird.

Unfortunately, besides being here

every day to taunt me with their

presence, they did nothing to make

my life easier, and nothing I did to

improve my chances of getting a

good shot improved my results in

getting close enough to the birds

to do so. Oh well, I’ll stick with it

and one of these days things will

work out...I hope.

15 May 2009

On May 18, 2008, the bird below

visited the feeder. He didn’t mess

around; he flew right to the feeder

and and started chowing down.

They like to hide the caches of food

that they store in tree cavities with

chips of wood...yeah, right, like that

is going to keep other birds or squirrels

from finding their goods!