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Flicker In The Underbrush
January 4, 2026 A Northern Flicker Yellow Shafted form (Colaptes auratus luteus) in the underbrush. They generally feed on the ground using their beak as a probing tool. Eating fruits, berries, seeds, and nuts, but they also eat ants which can make up almost half of their diet. _______________________ If you would like to receive…
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Two Cedar Waxwings
January 3, 2026 Two Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) sitting in a tree looking for berries. The Waxwing in full view has a tail with yellow tips. This is the normal color. Beginning in the 1960s some Cedar Waxwings began to develop orange tail tips. This is the result of their eating the berries of the…
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Hunger At The Garden Gate
January 2, 2026 Word seems to have gotten out. No songbirds there for a meal. A Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) sitting on the garden gate, a spot where there are often many birds. Try, try again little hawk. And it is indeed a small hawk. The males of this species are the smallest hawks in…
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Eating Like A Bird
January 1, 2026 I take pride in saving the seedheads of native plants for the birds. Though I often see many Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) scrounging around looking for something to eat, I seldom see them eating the seedheads that I’ve deemed for the birds of my woods. These are the seedheads of Black-eyed…
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Red-breasted Nuthatch Stopping By To Toast The New Year
December 31, 2025 A Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis). When they’re here, it is during the winter. But that’s not every year. When I see one I’m ever so grateful to see this tiny Nuthatch, which grows to a length of 4.3 inches. Much smaller than the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) that I see year round,…
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Water Droplet
December 30, 2025 Amid a great growth of Broomsedge Bluestem (Andropogon virginicus), a water droplet hangs on a tip of growth. _______________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
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Sulphur Dust Lichen
December 29, 2025 The rock wall beside the lane approaching my cabin is nearly a tenth of a mile long, and has been here for about 100 years. It has a special charm about it, other than its remarkable history, with Sulphur Dust Lichen (Chrysothrix chlorina) on many of its rocks. An intense color that…
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Enjoying Peanut Butter
December 28, 2025 A Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) pecking at the peanut butter I’ve put out. It’s quite the popular item for the birds. Sometimes I add a generous amount of cayenne pepper to discourage Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). They can taste it and its heat, while birds can’t. _______________________ If you would like to…
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A Peanut Butter Fan
December 27, 2025 A few of the birds here know me, and will arrive for their meals, when I put out food for them and then give them a call. This is one of those little critters. A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor). Peanut butter is particularly popular with many of the birds. _______________________ If you…
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Northern Flicker With A Mustache
December 26, 2025 This is a Northern Flicker yellow shafted form (Colaptes auratus luteus). See his black mustache? That indicates that he is a male. But of course! He is a bird that is native to a great part of North America, some of Central America, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. Though most woodpeckers don’t…