Northern Flicker in the Snow

We have at least two Northern Flickers living in our woods. I have seen them numerous times high in the trees, deep in the woods and their white butts in the sky as they flew away.  They are extremely skittish and I have not been able to photograph them, until this past Saturday that is. 

There was a brief break in the snow and ice that had fallen all morning when this female yellow-shafted showed up on my feeder of all places.  Her appearance at the feeder was new. I had not seen any of them at the feeders but these lady was not the least bit shy about showing every other bird there that she planned to get a meal.  She continued to hop from tree to feeder for about 20 minutes and I was able to stay still enough to grab these close up shots of her.

Yellow-bellied SapSucker

This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker proceeded to leave its signature line of small drilled holes in one of our backyard trees.  The Sapsucker drills these holes to capture the sap and hopefully insects.  

As the red feathers do not appear to continue down it's throat this is most likely a male.  Yellow-bellied Sapsucker are the only woodpecker in eastern North America that are completely migratory.  They live mostly in Canada and northern part of the east coast and travel south each winter looking for moving sap in trees and warmer weather.

King William County, Virginia
Olympus OMD-EM1X with 300mm + MC-14

Hiding Peanuts

Red-bellied Woodpecker hiding peanuts in a dead tree.

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