jgrussell – my world

My first downy woodpecker — a beautiful male:

Male downy woodpecker

This guy is going to HAVE to learn to share… with the cardinals, the white-throated sparrows, and even the other squirrel who hangs around (sometimes LITERALLY hangs around) the feeder:

MY sunflower seeds! MINE!

I have just one word to say to Ol’ Man Winter:

Stop!!!

It snowed here today, and the snowflakes on the white pines caught my eye. I’m not completely satisfied with the image; it’s not quite what I wanted. But it’ll do for now.

Snowflaky pine

According to All About Birds, “All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds released in New York’s Central Park in the early 1890s. A group dedicated to introducing America to all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works set the birds free. Today, European Starlings range from Alaska to Florida and northern Mexico, and their population is estimated at over 200 million birds.” Wow… talk about a survivor…

European starling

In addition to the pair of Northern cardinals and the pair of white-throated sparrows that frequent my feeder, I found a pair of mourning doves under the feeder tree this morning:

Mourning dove

Mourning dove - portrait