Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Red Bellied Woodpecker When I wasn’t taking pictures or videos of the Purple Martins this morning, I would turn my attention to the bird feeder. We have a pair (at least) of Red Bellied Woodpeckers who visit the feeder several times a day. If they don’t have their favorite food in the feeder, they’ve taken it upon themselves…  As I’m typing on this blog post I’m realizing how well trained I am for the birds in my backyard. Early in the morning and late in the afternoon, I’ll hear the distinctive call of the Red Bellied Woodpecker and run out to the bird feeder and make sure they have some seeds and nuts….  I thought I would offer up a mini-review of my new Wingscapes Birdcam. I’ve only spent a day and a half with it, and it does take some thought process on where to place the Birdcam for the optimum pictures and video. I’ll also say this. The bigger SD card you can get, the better. …  Today was an awesome day for the backyard birds! We had the usual American Goldfinches all over the place, a Red Bellied Woodpecker, and our first Eastern Bluebird couple (more on that in a later post). It was a little foggy this morning, but good enough to bring out my one man chair blind to…  Leecy and I woke at 4:30 am yesterday to head over to Brazos Bend State Park. I was very excited to go, as it was the first time I would really have a chance to use my Canon 300 f2.8 lens. We arrived at the park at 7:00 am, but it wasn’t quite open yet,… I apologize for not providing any pictures or updates as of late. I’ll try and take and post new pictures tomorrow. Despite the lack of pictures, I can give everyone a verbal update. The Purple Martin babies (the original 5) all seemed to have fledged now. There are probably 20 Martins flying around every night. …  This guy has been around quite a bit lately. Watching this bird is actually kind of funny. It will first peek its head over the fence. If it feels safe enough, it will then grab on to the side of the bird feeder. Then if it’s really safe, it will actually jump into the bird…  We probably have about 3-4 of these type birds that visit us on a daily basis. They typically grab a nut, then fly off. They do not like the other Birds around when they are feeding. Here’s another shot Remember that white headed Woodpecker I mentioned last night that I was hoping to get a picture of today? Well, I got it. By all indications, this “should” be a Red Bellied Woodpecker, but this one has a white head. Not sure what that indicates. Is it just a young Red Bellied Woodpecker or does… Well not really, but I realize I haven’t posted much this week. I’ve been getting home a little later than normal, then we’ve actually had some rain (yea!) a few nights as well. I’m going to try the early morning Saturday ritual and get some pictures. It’s supposed to be really hot and humid tomorrow… The Mourning Doves are generally peaceful birds. The Woodpecker never is. He always tries to scare the other birds off when he is feeding. In the end, nobody won, as all of their flapping (Doves) and squawking (Woodpecker) scared everyone off the feeder. Here’s the Woodpecker squawking just a little louder.  I’m getting better I think at taking shots of birds in flight. One shot is of a Woodpecker who grabs a piece of food then instantly flies off. The other is a Carolina Chickadee that I just got lucky with.  While I was hiding along the fence waiting for birds to visit the bird feeder, this Woodpecker came by to visit. After the first couple of camera clicks, he took off. As if there aren’t enough critters in the backyard, these two guys came over to have dinner tonight. It’s kinda funny, every day around 5:00pm, like clockwork, the doves (and an occasional woodpecker) start sitting on the fence looking for dinner from the bird feeders. Sorry, I kinda messed up on the crop of this… |
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