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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are on the move

Red-bellied Woodpecker, male

Our Sugar Maple

The fall color is still peaking here. Many of the Red Maples have dropped their leaves, but the Sugar Maples are in their glory. We have many more Red Maples than Sugar Maples on our property. Above is our best Sugar Maple (which is surrounded by the Red Maples who have already dropped their leaves.) Photo was taken at the end of the day in the golden side light. We just go outside and ooh and ahh. It's a great time of year to be living in NH.

On the bird side of things, Palm Warblers, Juncos and White-throated Sparrows are migrating through. Yesterday we had two Red-bellied Woodpeckers here. They are very uncommon on our property and we have only seen them here a few times. Red-bellied Woodpeckers seem to be making an incursion into NH and other areas right now, with numerous reports from around the state ranging from coastal areas, northern areas and southern areas (we live in the southwest region of NH). Today there are several reports from Nova Scotia. It is believed that Red-bellied Woodpeckers are undergoing a range expansion to the north and west. They breed over much of the eastern half of the country and are thick in the Southeast, but have not been that common in the far upper Midwest, or northern New England or the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Maybe that is about to change.

3 comments:

Judy said...

I always find it amazing when I learn birds I take for granted, others don't get at all... and I know vice versa.
I have a red bellied WP at my house ALL THE TIME and right now he's loading up peanuts and storing them somewhere. I watched him yesterday come to the feeder about every 2 minutes, fly off and return for another peanut. And you can hear that "chuck" call of his from miles away!

Cathy Santarsiero, "The Christmas Corgi" said...

What a pretty woodpecker! Have a lovely weekend, Warmly, Cathy ^..^

Anonymous said...

Wow you have some lovely photos. Of course I guess you do have lots of experience at that :) .

I found your site while doing a search for a dove picture. One of the references landed me on one of your 2007 posts. The bird that got my attention though was the painted bunting. I love that little bird. So many colors on such a little bird.

The Lord blessed and I actually saw one in my yard a couple of years back - first one I had seen in all my forty something years. Now I want to see more and maybe catch a picture of it. I keep hoping another one will come.

I also enjoy the woodpecker picture. I enjoy their knocking on the wood.

Thanks for sharing the pics. Oh and btw your corgi is cute. We have a mini. schnauzer. The dogs can get spoiled fast can't they? Wouldn't have it any other way though. :)