This guy just showed up at my tray feeder! A Pileated woodpecker:
The photo doesn’t do justice to how big these birds are! So cool to see it so close up.
The photo doesn’t do justice to how big these birds are! So cool to see it so close up.
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Gorgeous!!!
I spotted one (fleetingly) a few times this summer, flying away from the dead pine tree across my back fence. Very very shy. I’ve heard it calling several times since (confirmed by the Merlin app bird call identification feature).
What was your guy eating from your tray feeder? I’d love to tempt the one around my yard to come in closer.
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She was eating the block of suet I put in the tray. She stayed for a long time each visit, poking away. (I looked up ID and the males have a red cheek stripe, so my use of “guy” was misleading.)
I’ve been surprised how long the suet has lasted out there. In the hanging feeder, it’s gone in a day or two, I think because the squirrels can get to it.
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Your feeder tray is up a level, bringing it more to tree canopy level, right? I bet that makes a difference. No place high up on my one-story 60s ranch to hang the suet feeder. 
Better binoculars going on the wish list then…
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I’m not surprised to see grackles near the top. A mob of them will take over a feeder and keep the other birds away for an hour. Usually they only clear off when a raptor flies overhead.
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The wife and I have given up on grandkids but our daughter and husband rescue bunnies so we get grand bunnies to watch.
They hopped (see what I did there) a plane to LA for a BTS concert so we get to watch the grand bunny. She’s not doing well and needs 3 different medication a couple times a day and she has to have very fresh greens. Talk about an expensive thing to do. Bunnies are not low maintenance, especially older bunnies.
We don’t let the feral we took in near her because he used to love to murder bunnies outside. The other cats all get along with her nicely. We do have a live bunny cam so they can keep an eye on her and us.
The first two are from today, the two on the sofa were from several months ago, and the nicer photos are from a few years ago when she was healthy. If she’s up to it I’m going to pull out the good equipment and get some portraits before they back.
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Do you have kiskadees in your area? They really go for recorded bird calls
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Yes. The kiskadees are are ubiquitous here. Ill try it in the backyard, I don’t want people to see me and think I’m crazy, or a saint like St. Francis trying to talk to the birds…
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How slowly are you walking??!!
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You might say they were doing circles around me.
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We went for a walk on the Lake Elsinore dam one morning in the summer of 2020. There were dozens of these guys and they circled us quite a bit. It was rather unnerving, to say the least. 
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