A Lewis's Woodpecker Visits the Feeders!

Of course I'm counting for Cornell's FeederWatch program; my two days a week are Saturday and Sunday when I don't have to leave for work. Still, I pretty much watch the birds out my big ol' kitchen window every morning as I drink my cup of coffee.

The other day I noticed a couple especially red-headed finches and realized I've got Cassin's Finch here again. Love those top-knots.
You can see that pale, pale belly and know this is no House Finch. You can also see my home-made squirrel-baffles...they work perfectly!

The Evening Grosbeaks come in larger flocks these days; I've had at least 25 at a single visit. My friend Polly reports as many as 50 at a time in her yard! Wow.

One thing though, those are some of the spookiest birds I know. While they are not too flighty when I enter the yard, if something spooks them at least one a month hits my window. Now, I've got tree-netting over the outside and feeders quite close; so most of the birds see the netting and don't hit.

I've found a dead Grosbeak a couple months ago and this past weekend another hit, hard. That sound nearly makes me sick and knowing I was going to find a bird sprawled on the ground, I immediately went out, covered him in a towel (they bite!) and placed him in a box with another towel at the bottom. I left him to settle down after him accident in a safe and quiet spot. An hour later I took the box outside; he looked bright and alert. It didn't take him long to fly away. I especially like that part!

I've been watching the Northern Flickers, too. These red-shafted beauties have discovered not only the suet-cakes I make, but also the finch-feeders! The big galoots hang from the bottom of these feeders and lap at the tiny holes for the niger and canary-seed. It's too funny to watch. I believe they've taught the Downys some bad habits!

And every morning I put out a handful or two of what I call 'fat-worms'; thinly sliced fat I get from Charlie's (our awesome little grocery store here in town) meat department. They save their meat trimmings for 'my' birds which I toss in a little corn-meal after I cut it up. Those magpies try for huge beak-fulls at a time, the corn-meal helps me to keep the stuff from all sticking together. I add a cup of kibble and a good handful of of unshelled peanuts and they're in hog's heaven. I mean that literally; they're pretty much pigs! 'Course, this mix also brings in a few Blue Jays and the occasional crow, too. Oddly, the woodpeckers pretty much avoid this flat-bed feeder and prefer the suet-blocks I make.

However, imagine my surprise when I saw a Lewis's Woodpecker at that feeder! I had no idea they ever came to feeders...and have since discovered they don't! But there it was, picking at the kibble. Now, I have a very large dog and the kibble is good sized, too; the starlings can't swallow it; yeah! But this woodpecker apparently thought it looked good as acorns and claimed the feeder for his own. Back and forth he flew, about every two minutes till I had to leave for work, taking a single kibble and flying high up a cottonwood tree. A few times it mixed it up with several magpies at once who tried to score a free meal while watching him try to hide
his stash.

Returning to the yard, the Lewis's would buzz any of the three Flickers who where there, a Blue Jay, too...any big bird he felt had no business in what he obviously claimed as his food source.

I wonder if he'll be back. Actually, I wonder if there were two, for as often as a Lewis's returned to that particular feeder. It did quickly learn to hang upside down from the suet cage, too. I wish I had had more time to watch...

Addendum: He's baaack! I made sure to put extra kibble out this morning...and sure enough, the Lewis's was on it like he owned it!