Welcome to the This ‘N That Thursday blog hop!

It’s a little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

This week we see who has been visiting the bird feeders and the story behind yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday photo.

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Freighter

I have been trying to get a better picture of the Pileated Woodpeckers that visit our suet cakes.  This picture was taken through the screen and I want one that is clear.

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

I waited and waited for one to show up.  If you are not familiar with these Woodpeckers, they have a distinctive call and usually announce they are coming long before you see them.  If you want to hear their call you can find it on this page.  The third call is what we normally hear.

Finally toward dusk I heard one calling and knew it was headed our way.  I grabbed my camera and sneaked around the back of the cabin so I would not scare it before I got into position to take a picture.  They are pretty shy and will fly off at the slightest movement.

I was just about to take the picture when guard dog Freighter spotted the intruder and decided to bark a warning.  Freighter looked pretty surprised when he saw it was just his human sneaking around trying to take a picture of a bird.  Freighter looked at me and then the empty spot where a big bird had just been leisurely eating a suet cake.  Guess I will try for a picture another time.  🙂

There was so much activity in the area because of the holiday weekend that we didn’t have many birds visit the feeder.  We did have a White-breasted Nuthatch stop by.

White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Closer Look At The Nuthatch
Closer Look At The Nuthatch

You might remember that I posted a picture of a Nuthatch back in February or March.  That was a Red-breasted Nuthatch.  Here is that picture for comparison.

Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch

Both of these birds are fairly common.  We usually see them all year round.

The only other visitors to the feeders were some Eastern Chipmunks.  They were working hard to gather enough food before winter.  Normally the chipmunks are fighting the squirrels for a spot near the feeder, but there were not many squirrels around this past weekend, (much to the brown dawgs dismay).

Chipmunk
Chipmunk Looking For Food

Tomorrow more follow-up.

This is a blog hop!

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27 thoughts on “This ‘N That Thursday

  1. Well that was quite interesting. I love to watch the birds from the porch. I used to enjoy feeding them, but the squirrels decided they wanted to eat as well. I have nothing against feeding everyone, but the little pension and social security check doesn’t go far. I have two pets of my own and feed and water about 10 homeless cats/kittens and a couple of dogs. Although dogs have always been my first love, it is nice and refreshing to read about other animals as well. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Nooo….. we think we should send you some of our squirrels……and you can send us some chipmunks. LOL. Love seeing the birds. Have a tremendous Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

  3. Great photos! I managed (finally) to get some good photos of hummingbirds this week. They’re so fast! No squirrels here (no woods) – my dogs have never seen one!

    1. What, no squirrels…you poor doggies are deprived! Send them over to my place, I will introduce them to the frustrating world of squirrels!

  4. My cat bro Bert loves the birdie photos, I say let me at that chipmunk!!! Nice photos and it is true that when you really want one of those birds to show up, they never do, or some noise ruins it as Freighter did.

  5. Hi Y’all!

    Oh gee golly, those are great bird pictures! I love the one of Freighter. It looks so old timey.

    Y’all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

  6. I wondered why Freighter wasn’t looking out the screen in that photo yesterday! It’s too bad that he ruined your chance at a better shot. I love the Pileated Woodpeckers, but we don’t get to see them that often, and they’ve never come to a feeder! Those were great photos, the nuthatches are so cute. We can’t have feeders out in the Summer, because we have black bears around and they’ll just tear them down!

  7. Great pictures. We’ve had a problem with woodpeckers on our house this year! We have a fake owl that we use to distract the screeching owls…and it works on the woodpeckers too. I don’t mind having the birds around, just don’t be eating my house!

  8. Adorable. 🙂 When we lived in Orlando, we had the woodpeckers all the time. They’re gorgeous. Now we just get doves and sparrows. And chickens. 😉

  9. Oh it would have been lovely to see the picture of the pecker without the screen. Don’t you love their uncanny ability to disrupt pictures? 😀

  10. I love watching the birds and can’t wait to get my birdfeeders set up at the new house. Once I had two of the Pileated Woodpeckers on our tree. They did this synchronized movement around the base of the tree. They each moved a couple inches to the right at the same time, with very jerky movements. They were so interesting to watch, and I couldn’t believe how big they were! I also got a very blurry picture of them from inside the house. That will be great if you are able to capture a picture from outside one day!

  11. Oh, am I ever loving your bird pictures. We have Pileated Woodpeckers here but none in my immediate area. I think they are mostly in the southern part of the state. If you ever get the picture you want to of one I do hope you will post it. I would love to see a live one. We have lots of Nuthatches but no chipmunks so these pictures are a real treat for me to see. Thank you for sharing these.

  12. Very cool that you have pileated woodpeckers by you. I’ve seen them maybe twice in PA, and from a distance, never close up on a feeder. Here I can’t even feed the birds cause of the feral cat colony next door. I don’t really want to feed the cats, you know?

  13. Fun! I love watching wildlife. We’ve seen lots of birds, although I am not good at identifying what kind they are. We also have lots of rabbits and squirrels, to Pierson’s delight. No chipmunks, though.

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