The snow and cold weather that has arrived has created lots of activity at the feeder this week. The regulars are frequent visitors. As I was trying to decide which bird to highlight this week I looked out and my friendly Red Bellied Woodpecker was present. I was snapping a few new shots of "Woody" when in flew a beautiful red Cardinal. So todays picture is entitled "Woody and Red".
This Red Bellied Woodpecker is a male, which you can tell by the red stripe on his head. A females stripe does not go all of the way to the bill. The name comes from the reddish hair on the lower belly. The zebra striped backs are very distinctive. My Woody is a little smaller than the average size as he is not much larger than the cardinal. The female has been present too and they are especially fond of the suet cakes at the feeder.
Woody was joined by the famous Red Cardinal. The cardinal is the State bird of Ohio, but I surprised to learn that 6 other states claim him as their state bird. Of course my "Red" is a male. The female of the species is an attractive(?) tan gray. Male cardinals are very protective of their territory and because of this often fly into glass windows as they charge the intruding bird that is really their own reflection. I have witnessed this behavior at my hanging feeder which is closer to a window. Supposedly this is not harmful to the bird because they are not flying fast enough to hit the window hard. In fact it is probably safer than if the intruder was an actual bird because they would attack each other.
Other news this week is that we are having a real Ohio winter again. Temperatures have been in the teens and we have had snow several days. There is probably about 6 inches on the ground now. Warmer temperatures are expected late this week but we are all thinking spring since the groundhog did not see his shadow.
Thought for today:
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'
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