GARDEN: Suburban Woodpecker Visitor

Not only am I a proud cat lady but I'm also becoming a proud bird feeder lady. I'm not sure how many is too many, but with three feeders of various shapes and sizes around my garden both front and back, I think I'm feeding nearly all the neighbourhoods birds. 

Two of the feeders sit in the front garden on and around the porch, with the magnolia tree and bushes offering shelter, the sparrows have made it their favourite place for a quick bite. Not only that, but with them being directly in front of our large living room windows, our cats Ed and Smokey can watch them from the sofa without the fear of the birds becoming lunch. But with the huge old Maple tree in the back garden, it was time for a new addition.

Our back garden is a bit of a haven for a great selection of garden birds, I think our garden backing onto a park helps that. Having grown up in the English countryside and now living in suburbia it amazes me how much more wild birds you come across over here (from Woodpeckers, to hawks and your typical garden varieties). But one of my favourite regular visits is Woody, my woodpecker friend that you might remember from last year. I wasn't expecting him to pop onto the bird feeder, but while working in the garden last week, I turned my head and there he was. Apparently he's a regular visitor, more than I thought and hopefully with the bird feeder, he'll pop by a little more often.

Granted the photographs aren't the best, but he's a quick fluttery kind of character. I believe he's a Downy Woodpecker (that or the larger Hairy Woodpecker) which is about 6 or so inches in length. Downies are a regular garden visitor across the US and are the most likely variety of Woodpecker you'll ever catch eating from a feeder. Apparently they really love sunflowers (and chunky peanut butter), so hopefully with a more sunflowery bird mix and all the sunflowers I've been growing, he'll pop around a little more often.

Do you get any interest wildlife characters around where you live?