Red Breasted Sapsucker

[kastern]

One thing this cold weather is good for is bringing some interesting birds to the backyard. ;D ;D I have approximately a dozen different feeding stations with lots of different offerings but the feeder of choice is the Peanut Feeder. They are literally lining up for it. Besides all the regular critters that are here in even greater numbers than normal I've had:

Red Breasted Sapsucker - he/she literally hugs the peanut feeder

Hairy Woodpecker - one male has been in the yard

Fox Sparrow - I never saw a Fox sparrow all last year but there was one in the yard today.

Sharp Shin Hawk - at least two different ones have visited because yesterday it was a juvenile and today and adult.

Brewer's Blackbird - there is a resident flock of about a hundred Red Wing Blackbirds but today there was one male Brewer's (or could it possibly be a male Rusty's ) mixed in. I've never had a Brewer's in my yard before although they are in the area, usually in the spring and summer.

Northern Flickers - I always have Northern Flickers but today I've had as many as four of them in the yard, which measures about 50 feet x 50 feet, at the same time. All Red Shafted males.

The Band Tail Pigeon hasn't been seen since the weather turned really cold....hopefully it managed to move on and didn't succumb to the weather.

Kathy

Here are some photos: The Red Breasted Sapsucker



The Brewer's (Rusty???) Blackbird


The Sapsucker and a Stellers sharing the peanut feeder


Today's Sharp Shin (Sorry, this blurry picture was the best I could get)


Yesterday's Sharp Shin

[kastern]

Gord what is going on re posting photos? I can't get them to show up even though everything seems to suggest they should be there. I see 'Photobucket' has changed somewhat. What am I doing wrong?
Kathy

[tmanson]

Hi Kathy: Nice bunch of birds at your feeders. The Red breasted Sapsucker is always a treat to see locally. Interestingly, I got a call today to come out and identify a window killed bird, and, that's what it turned out to be. Tragic for the bird, but it gave me a chance to really note the details of this bird, although I would have gladly sacrificed this for the bird to go on living.
I do an irregular column for the local newspaper on birding, and I always encourage people to set up bird feeders, at the same time, noting that healthy birds do not really depend on our feeders. The recent weather has me doubting my oow words. My feeders are very active these past days; mostly chickadees, juncos, Alaskan Song Sparrows, and even Varied Thrush.
I am sure Gord will rectify the photo posting dilemna, but, if you are stuck, you can do what I do with a MAc, and send them to Gord, and he will post them
We are lucky to have a dedicated, keen birder like Gord running this service.
Cheers, Thor

Thor Manson
Hope, B.C.

[Gord]

Hi Kathy!

The problem is weird. I looked at your message and for some reason, there are added letters in the [ IMG ] tag. In other words, you did nothing wrong. I removed these letters and all works ok. Nice pictures! I like the jay and sapsucker sharing the peanuts.

You are right. Photobucket has changed. Coincidentally, I updated the instructions on how to post images here recently. The old way does not work anymore. I think Jeff had the same problem. Click here
to see the updated method which I think is a little quicker.

I agree it's a Brewer's blackbird. At this time, rusty blackbirds have a lot of 'rust' colouration. I remember in Alberta how they were fairly obvious (mind you, you had one worth looking twice at earlier this year).

Thanks for the kind words Thor!

I was checking out my parent's feeder today, and they had a good bunch. About a half-dozen varied thrush, 1 fox sparrow, 1 golden-crowned sparrow plus the regular crew. Also, a very dark towhee which Ill post pictures of later.