Second Visit by the Gray Squirrel
We just had our second visit ever to our backyard feeders by a black phase Gray Squirrel. I wanted to add a picture but it got spooked up a nearby tree by some noise outside. So far it hasn’t returned.
Another first at our backyard feeders, this big male Red-bellied Woodpecker bypassed the peanuts and suet to eat whole sunflower seeds on our feeder!
It’s interesting that almost every evening the last birds to show up outside at our backyard feeders are the Northern Cardinals. They come in to the sunflower and safflower feeders chipping away loudly so you can’t miss that they are there!
Sometimes pictures just speak to you, and this shot of an American Goldfinch and a White-breasted Nuthatch on the Nijer seed sock is one I like.
I haven’t seen any Red-bellied or Hairy Woodpeckers in weeks. A neighbor had a risky big old dead tree cut down a while back and I think that dead tree was a home to the bigger woodpeckers.
A new observation at our backyard feeders. Red-bellied Woodpeckers had been gone from our backyard for a few months but one male recently returned to our feeders and is doing something unseen before – eating whole corn kernels off the deck!
This only started happening the past two seasons but for brief periods we get invaded by cute little Pine Siskins that fly down out of the North woods to visit our backyard feeders.