Senior Moments

A red-bellied woodpecker enjoying our feeder. October 10, 2008.

Since Betsy is down in Georgia with her childhood girlfriends, I have been given the responsibility of taking care of her birds.  My main responsibility is to put out the feeders each morning, bring them in each evening (we have too many critters to keep the open feeders out at night), and to keep the bird bath clean.

I’ll admit that none of those jobs is particularly onerous, but if the feeders aren’t out at first light, the birds get very impatient and very loud.  They make a most effective and annoying alarm clock.

But rewards often come along with increased responsibility.  Perhaps because I am responsible for the feeders this week I have been keeping a closer eye on them.  Yesterday morning I spotted the red-bellied woodpecker shown above in the feeder.  I spotted him as he was shooing away a cardinal — evidently the woodpecker didn’t want to share.  And evidently this woodpecker has a reputation because the cardinal kept it’s distance until the woodpecker left.

Tags: Birds, Woodpecker

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