These are busy times in our neck of the woods. Things are going swimmingly.´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸·´¯`·.¸ ><((((((º>
Most critter are hopping about.
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o(_")
Birds are flying hither and yon.
The evergreens are greening up. Buds are about to burst.
The squirrels, however, are running amok. 
I'm not sure what that means (amok?), but it applies to this little black squirrel, seen in the forest. She has a purpose, methinks.I noticed her on a dead tree ripping off bark. She ran away, her mouth stuffed with her prizes.
Can you see it?!
Then there were issues around the bird feeder. The red squirrel was totally unafraid of me...
Sitting there stuffing his face!
I need a name for him: he is a regular visitor and has an understanding with the cats.
But the woodpeckers were having a bit of a difficulty. There were two species present, three birds total. Very convenient for identification purposes!
I can never remember how to differentiate the two, without working at it.
I researched it again: the Downy is the smaller one, with the more petite, pointy beak. It can be nearly 17 cm long (6.5").
The Hairy Woodpecker is the size of a Robin (20 - 30 cm / 8 - 13 "), and is the larger of the two. Its bill is bigger, longer and stronger in proportion to the Downy. The Hairy bird has a strong comma mark on its shoulder, too.How does one remember? You go to Cornell and check out their photos, or...
I figured out that the letter 'D' is nearer the beginning of the alphabet, and this is the smaller bird. The larger Hairy is further along in the alphabet. Not a bad mnemonic device! Let's see if this old bird will remember it... :-Q
These 3 were fighting, landing on the tree branch, and giving another the eye. This was terrific, as I could compare them. Can you see them?
One is up the tree trunk, the other on the lower branch.
At the same time, the Hairy one was on the suet, pecking merrily away. They often have a bit of a run-in as they meet mid-flight, on their way to and from the feeder.
It looks like the one finally gave the evil eye, and off the little Downy flew in a blur of wing and feather!
Meantime, down at the lake, Oscar and Myrtle were busy. Oscar doing a bit of preening.
Good to see them back again.
They are the second, after the cold-tolerant mergansers.
It will be nesting time and they'll be busy later, but for now they hang about, hoping for the clover and water hyacinth to begin growing.
He's looking good these days. I love the jade/blue colouring of his head.
3 comments:
I think you are right, spring is on the move. We just came back from spending a few days in San Antonio, Texas, where spring is already there; it was 82 degrees (28 C.) Here in Georgia it is not so warm yet and the trees are still quite bare. I enjoy going through all you back posts. I wonder if it would do any good for you to write a column in your local newspaper showing all the snowmobile accidents as you list them in your blog – would someone read them and pay more attention? That is an idea though.
It's so great when all the critters come back! As we drove home from Florida, we remarked on how far north the birds were getting. They woke us in Tennessee with their chatter! I have eagle pics form Florida coming to my post in a couple of days! He was gorgeous!
An easy way to remember the difference between the two wood peckers is that the Downy is smaller, just like down feathers, and the Hairy is larger like the term 'big hair'.
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