Sugar Water

An idyllic, graceful scene: a hummer at the feeder, seen through the gentle blur of the window screen.


This scene, however, ... ridiculous :) Have you ever seen a woodpecker's tongue? It's a first for me too.


This bird is probably an offspring of the two yellow-fronted woodpeckers that drilled a nest in our dying tree in April. This picture is the first time I've noticed the "yellow front." Odd that they don't name the species after the colored head, which is still faint on the young birds but prominent on the adults.


Doesn't he look silly trying to fit on the perch, almost like a dove? I bet he spilled more sugar water than he drank.


Like a kid in the candy store, he can't help but taste a little of everything.

Wildlife keeps the garden interesting. I hope your resident critters are as entertaining and inspiring as these two are for me.

Spring Birds

Blooms are always exciting and abundant in spring. I have plenty to show you, but not much time to blog about them. Instead, today I want to share a few birds that have caught my attention.



This hummingbird arrived about a week ago. It has been visiting my coral honeysuckle vine often and lingering long enough for me to leave the room, get my camera and take several minutes worth of pictures.

I'm glad to see that she (he?) prefers the vine to the sugar water feeder that is nearby. Last year, I was expecting hummers on my turk's cap blooms, but the birds opted the "fast food" feeders. It was disappointing. The blooms seems like a more wholesome food.


Yesterday, I was very excited to learn that my dying maple tree is good for something. A pair of golden fronted woodpeckers that live in the area have chosen it for their nest.

Within the last week and a half, I've noticed that the usually timid woodpeckers have been strangely vigilant about chasing other birds away from the tree. This explains it. The pair is probably incubating eggs in there. If all goes well, in another week or so there will be 4-5 babies, and about a month after that, they should  be fledging. The maple tree is not long for this world. It has a lot of problems. It still hasn't leafed out, but thank goodness. If it had, we might not have seen the nest.


This is the male woodpecker. I can tell because he has the red splotch on his head. He's very furtive about taking peanut butter from the tree so forgive the bad shots, but I wanted you to see the proud parent.