Pat Bean's blog

The sun’s rays made this coot’s black back look almost white, and its red eyes gleam, while the lake’s ripples take on the ambiance of a fine art painting. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that it uses its head and keeps pecking away until it finishes the job it starts.” – Coleman Cox

A Chilly, Windy February Day

It was cold and a bit on the breezy side last week at Lake Patagonia State Park, but the birds didn’t seem to mind. While my friend Jean walked our dogs, I watched birds at the feeders and on the lake.

A northern cardinal playing peek-a-boo among the tree branches. — Photo by Pat Bean

The first bird I saw, well after all the great-tail grackles flying around, was a gila woodpecker. It attracted my attention because it was hanging upside down from a nectar feeder. The acrobatic maneuver was the only way it could feed. I’ve watched other gila woodpeckers do exactly the same thing on my balcony hummingbird feeder.

The one I saw this day was a male, its gender easily identified by the red feathers it wore on its crown. The female is identical to the male except for that patch of red. The gila is a common bird in Southern Arizona, less common in California, New Mexico and Texas, and rare anywhere else above our border with Mexico.

A gila woodpecker at my balcony feeder. — Photo by Pat Bean

Other birds I watched this day included coots paddling around on the lake, (you can see them everywhere), and a violet-green swallow joyfully darting back and forth across the lake. Near the feeders, I spied a couple of northern cardinals in the still, winter-leafless branches, a small flock of American goldfinch at the feeders, dozens of white-crowned sparrows feeding on the ground beneath the feeders, along with a few male and female red-winged blackbirds. I also spotted two yellow-rumped warblers, both of which flashed their butter butts at me, and one black phoebe and one house finch.

I’m eager to visit again next month when spring has made its greening appearance, and the birds should be more plentiful.

            Bean Pat: Daily Stuff https://onewomansday.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/february-27-daily-stuff/?wref=pil From Story Circle’s One Woman’s Day

Pat Bean is a Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder. Her book, Travels with Maggie, is now up on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/y8z7553y  Currently, she is writing a book, tentatively titled Bird Droppings, which is about her late-bloomer birding adventures. You can contact her at patbean@msn.com