More Nature Notes

With the long stretch of cold weather we've had, there have been an assortment of birds at the feeders.  One of the most interesting that has shown up is this Flicker.  Normally, we get the Red Shafted variety, but this is a Yellow Shafted one as you can see by the bright yellow on the underside of the tail.  When he/she flies, the yellow is visible on the underside of the wings as well.  That spotted breast is just fabulous!  

The little birdhouse on the porch was there when we moved in.  I left it up as I keep seeing birds going in and out of it.  Love the aqua roof on it!  Even better with a house sparrow visiting!  

This furry fellow spends more time in the bird feeder than the birds!  We now have 6 squirrels, all quite healthy and fat, visiting many times a day.  They all come at the same time from several directions.  It makes me wonder how they communicate that it's time to go eat!  Should we walk out the door, there is a mad flurry of activity as they scale the tree in leaps and bounds, up onto the roof or make a mad dash down the driveway and across the street!  Though a couple of them are getting bolder and now watch from the heights of the tree to see if we are adding more feed to the feeders!