Annoying buggers
The grackles, red-winged blackbirds and blue jays are driving me to distraction. They are such bullies. They destroy the all-season suet in less than a day, so the various woodpeckers and nuthatches don't get a chance to score some suet. I did have a fun sighting this week though. On Monday, a family of five Northern Flickers was enjoying dust baths in my driveway. Three of the five curious little characters were rubbing their bellies between the gravel and sand, while the other two (the adults) paraded about with their bodies and necks extended, beak in the air as they moved ever so slowly. Ever since we moved here we've always had a Northern Flicker couple, but this was the first time that I've actually seen babies (mind you, they were just as large as the adults, their colours were just less vibrant). The drawings and photos in bird books never seem to do justice to this member of the picadae family. There's a reason that the French name for this bird is pic flambo