Tuesday, May 22, 2007

My Birdseed Brings All the Birds to the Yard

Paying an extra buck for a bag of good birdseed goes a long way. The cheap stuff at Harris Teeter really only draws sparrows and squirrels -- not exactly rare sightings.

But if I put out sunflower seed consistently (every day for a week or two) in my backyard in Ballston, I start seeing cardinals, blue jays, finches, and today, even a red-bellied woodpecker. We weren't 100% positive on the ID since it only hung around for a minute, but it was an impressive sight.

The Green Girlfriend picked this photo off the net as most resembling the woodpecker that flew off faster than I could find my camera.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woodpeckers are a picky lot. They LOVE peanuts so add that to the mix if not already there. If they like you they will nest near the food source and the male will feed the female beak to beak while she sits on the eggs. Also, cardinals mate for life and are always near each other...enjoy!

PS: I've added a lot of cone flowers and black-eyed susans to my garden whose seeds in the fall attract flocks of yellow finches. You can take a shortcut with the special black seeds from the bird store, but watching them dance on the cone flower stocks naturally is a real treat. Good luck!

Fillmore Martin Photography said...

Congratulations on your Community Hero Award. That's really neat. Silly me...I thought Heros were only on TV Monday nights.. but there's one in Arlington?! Cool!

"My Birsdeed..." lol!

Steve Thurston said...

You may have been seeing a "Common Yellow Flicker. They look like the wood pecker, quite a bit, but don't have a red head. I've seen one quite a few times in the neighborhood.--Steve

The Green Miles said...

Oooh, Steve may be right, the flicker looks very similar ...
http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=BD0427

Anonymous said...

Someone is hoarding the hummingbirds. I used to have a couple/few come around ever year, but so far this year, nothing . . .

(in Ashton Heights)