Welcome to JOYFUL REFLECTIONS. Also welcome to MARCH!!!! My header picture this month is a photo I took of the pretty Crocus blooms in our yard... The Crocuses and Daffodils are the first signs of spring here in Tennessee. I am definitely ready for SPRING...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Woody and More


Yesterday afternoon, as I sat on my throne (the sofa) doing some blogging (of course), I was also watching the birds come and go from the feeders on the deck. I didn't get a picture---but we've had several new baby Cardinals on the deck recently---waiting for Daddy or Mama to feed them. They are so precious, while sitting there shaking and tingling (like a little bell) begging for food.


BUT---the best visitors to the feeders were three different varieties of our gorgeous woodpeckers. I want to share some pictures I took yesterday. Above is always one of my favorites , our Red-headed Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker). Below are several more.







Here's another view of a Red-headed Woodpecker on one side of the suet feeder and a Red-bellied Woodpecker on the OTHER side... See him????









The Red-bellied Woodpeckers LOVE the suet feeders. AND---they also love to CHIRP loudly up in the trees off and on all day long!









This cute little Red-bellied was telling me that he liked the suet in the feeder!!!!









This cute little guy is one of our Downy Woodpeckers. Isn't he pretty? They are smaller than both the Red-bellied and the Red-headed ones.









I love this shot of the little Downy... He looks like he is really concentrating, doesn't he????









These last three pictures were not taken yesterday. But I wanted to show you the other two woodpeckers we have in our yard. This guy is a Northern Flicker--and they do not come to feeders. But we have alot of them around ---and see them often. Aren't they pretty birds?







I love this picture of the Northern Flicker. He looks like he is getting ready to sing a song!!!! ha







And ---here's one of my all-time favorite woodpeckers, the Pileated Woodpecker. This is the largest of our woodpeckers ---and when they are around, you can really hear them! They have come to the feeders ---but only on occasion. I love these woodpeckers though.


Hope you enjoyed my day with Woody and the others!!!


Hugs,

45 comments:

Deb Murphree/Alabama Politics said...

Betsy, I DID enjoy Woody...I have to say that you bring a whole new perspective to the term, "sitting on the throne"...and I'm so glad you defined that LOL...I've heard of other terms that somehow did not bring the excitement that your birds do! lol. As always, your photography is splendid and whenever I first pop onto your page, and see the beautiful water, gorgeous fall (or spring) colors in the trees, I want to just lay down on the green green grass, and watch the clouds float by. LOL..See? Serene, peaceful...

Darla said...

That's a lot of different Peckerwoods you get to see. Very nice Betsy...Oh and they sure can be loud!

cherie said...

i have yet to see a woodpecker in real life, ms. betsy! it was so nice to see them here!!!! i had never thought of a feeder until now, but i guess i'll try next summer, to attract more birds!! big hugs!!!

Nina said...

You have such Amazing Friends visit your feeder! I'm glad they stopped by for a visit and you captured them on camera. I used to Love watching Woody Wodpecker as a child.... Thanks for the memories and the beautiful photo's. Love and Light, Nina P.

Jayne said...

Such a great variety Betsy! I am green about your Red-headed!!

Cedar ... said...

Great variety of the woodies.... Your flicker looks like he/she is wearing a bow tie!

JLS Hall (Joysweb) said...

Wow, those are such great close-ups! Don't think I've ever seen a Red-bellied Woodpecker before. We get the Flickers around here occasionally, but the others don't show up much. Your photos are really wonderful!

Bill S. said...

You have a greater variety of woodpeckers than we do. Flickers and Downeys are common in my back yard and we get the occasional Hairy. Great post.

troutbirder said...

Very nice. We have the same ones although the red heads, once common, have gradually disappeared. I see them very rarely now.

Kathy W said...

Those are great shots of your birds Betsy. I can every once in a while catch a glimpse of a woodpecker up in a tree (mostly just hear them). Never been able to get a picture of one.

Beth said...

Oh Betsy...you are so fortunate to have such a great variety of woodpeckers come to your house! Those are wonderful shots---I am particularly fond of the Pileated Woodpeckers. Somehow, they are comical and beautiful at the same time.

Cherry said...

hi Betsy! thanks for visiting my blog, i've added you in my nature and photo lovers list. :)

i love the 3rd to the last bird! so cute!!! the rest are woody beauties. ;)

Susie said...

Betsy I did enjoy all your woodpeckers. That little Flicker is really cute. Don't think I have ever seen one before.

SmilingSally said...

What pleasure you get from that throne!

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

The Red-headed Woodpecker is probably my favorite.Some day I would love to visit and see all those lovely birds oh yes,I would love to just viist you,birds or not.:)
Blessings,Ruth

Roses and Lilacs said...

How lucky you are to get so many woodpeckers. I only see the red headed when it migrates thru the area and I've never seen a pileated in this area. We do get the others at our suet feeders except the flickers, they never come to the feeders here either.
Marnie

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Becky: It is great to have all the variety of woodpeckers in your yard.

I Am Woody said...

Ha - thought that post was going to be about me;) Great shots!!

Shelley said...

You are queen of the woodpeckers! They know a great place when they see one and now they will be your friends forever I bet! :-)
By the way, I love George's work below - wow! Can he give Greg some lessons??? I need more flower beds!
Hope you're doing well! Pretty soon we'll be counting down to when you get your first snowflake my friend!
Warm hugs! Shelley

Arkansas Patti said...

Pileated Woodpecker is my favorite. They look and sound just like Woody,
You really have a pile of woodpeckers. So nice you can watch them in total comfort.
Great shots.

Anonymous said...

Fun post and pics, we don't have as many as you (of course we aren't as kind as you and George, we have no feeders!) but we do see them up in the trees in our backyard and hear them pecking away. I'd forgotten about Woody the Woodpecker:)

Busy Bee Suz said...

I just love all the colors on these babies!!! We have tons of woodpeckers too...love them.

Snap said...

I love your woodpeckers. I did a journal page about a book called The Secret Language of Birds. Found it remaindered at Half-Price Books. Anyway, this book says my bird is the woodpecker! Cool!

Diane said...

The Northern Flicker looks like he's wearing a bow tie! And I love the red on the woodpeckers, only God could have made that wonderful color on a bird.

Jo said...

What a variety of woodpeckers you have, Betsy. We don't see them where we lived in the Free State. However, when we visit my sil on the North East coast of the country, I get my fill of woodpeckers. Thanks for sharing! (((Hugs)))

Anonymous said...

Wow! You are lucky to have Pileated visit your yard! We can only dream of that. We have Downy and Red bellied at our place. We hear Flicker, but haven't seen him in our yard for years.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos!!

Diane AZ said...

I'm surprised by the variety of woodpeckers in your yard. The flicker is pretty and the Pileated is amazing!

Janice K said...

It looks like you have having a "Big Peeker Party." What a beautiful assortment.

That Northern Flicker has such beautiful markings. I have only seen him here once a year or two ago, and I think it was in the fall of the year.....And, the Red Headed visited here only briefly this past spring.

Anonymous said...

Such pretty photos Betsy. I love to see the woodpeckers just so long as they don't drill on my house. That makes me see $$$ signs!!!

Cheryl said...

Wow your feeders and backyard must be on the Woodpeckers Guide to Great Eating or something!! What a variety to have at once. I usually have two pileateds at once but the others usually come singley.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your visitors with me.

We just had our first hummingbird of the season stop by (after the hummingbird feeder was taken down) and our cats were in heaven.

Unfortunately, my camera was MIA.

EG CameraGirl said...

I envy your spot on the sofa where you see so much bird action. ;-)

EcoRover said...

Love pileateds but flickers are a real favorite--they breed in early spring in the valley here, and once the brood fledges out they fly up higher and higher into the hills, moving with the "spring."

A Brit in Tennessee said...

What beautiful colors on each bird !
They know where to get the best food in town, words out ;)

Unknown said...

Such an amazing color of red

Dorothy said...

My very favorite is the one in the first and second pictures!!! I always think they look red, white and navy blue!

Elaine said...

Betsy, I always love the pictures you post of your birds! We have a lot of woodpeckers around here but they're not the red-headed ones. Just love Woody!
Elaine :)

Rose said...

We always feel that the pileated woodpecker is the Woody Woodpecker! There is one or two in our neighborhood, but where Roger hunts there is a lot of them and he swears they are Woody by their actions. LOL

As for the flicker, there was one at work, and out back there was a washtub turned upside down. Believe it or not, the flicker would come a lot of days and peck on that tub...bang, bang, bang! I couldn't believe it was it, till I saw it.

Mary said...

That's pretty neat to have both woodpeckers at once! I never get Red-headed woodpeckers at my feeders. I've been seen a lot of downy's lately. Suddenly the birds are showing up a lot.

Cookie said...

That's amazing that you have so many woodpeckers. Do they ever bother your house? One of my friends says they like to peck on her chimney!

Sunny said...

Oh how I miss feeding the birds! Before we moved to 'bear country' we always fed the birds and had several woodpeckers. We did have flickers that would come to our large feeder very briefly. Our table overlooked the birdfeeders and we loved to eat and watch the birds.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures.
Sunny :)

SquirrelQueen said...

Betsy, I love all your adorable woodpeckers. My favorite is the little Red-bellied, he is cute. I rarely see woodpeckers here, I hear them sometimes but hardly ever see one. My flickers are showing up more these days.

Judy

Karin said...

Well this was Woodpeckers 101 for me! While I've seen some in my life, I've only heard of the others and haven't seen such great photos of them! Thanks again for the wonderful presentation!

diane b said...

I love the red headed one. You have a variety of lovely birds in your yard. I haven't seen any of them here. I guess they are northern hemisphere birds. As you can tell I don't know a lot about birds and they are darn hard to photograph.

Connie said...

I love all your bird photos, Betsy. They must be so much fun for you to watch. :)