Watching the Woodpeckers Grow

Our deck rail continues to host fledgling groups of goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, tufted titmice, and sparrows. But the woodpeckers seem to be long done with child-rearing. Back in July, we were lucky, for the first time ever, to have a family of red-bellied woodpeckers bring its young to our house for fledge practice.

Here's one of the parents on the feeding ring. At first this parent was feeding its baby by beak, bringing food from the feeder to the fledgling.

That strange baffle on the feeder is my tin can squirrel-buster, held in place by packing tape.

With tinfoil smooshed into the front feeder points, it works well to thrwart our resident squirrels.

As you see, the desireable diners chow down at the back.

Here is the woodpecker fledgling, facing away from the feeder and into the viburnum bush. The parent would grab feed, hop into the bush, then hop out again to where the fledgling was parked on the deck rail, beak open, making food cries.

Here's the fledgling (or a sibling) again.

And here a fledgling has managed to make it to the feeder ring. First steps are hard! I love that face! The thing about baby birds is that they literally grow up before your eyes. One minute they're falling off the railing and the next they're flying comfortably along.You can see from the level of the feed in the feeder that time has elapsed between first lessons and this important step. Don't worry, there was still food to be had in the feeder—the level is just lower than the feeder collar, so you can't see it, a problem I rectified once traffic died down.

And in between bouts of birdwatching and reminiscing about my nest and the growth of my own three children, I had my nose deep in this, one of my favorite books ever. I would never rip this one up for collaging!

Translated from the German, 1959. If you love birds, this is well worth a read.
It's a page-turner about the "secret lives" of these shy and beautiful birds,
and contains incredible b/w photographs.

Once again, thanks for listening!