Why I Oughta...

Back in November of 2017, we installed a heated birdbath out in the backyard near our feeders that are located right outside of our kitchen windows .  This was the same feeder that we had in our house at Elmhurst but was in storage for a couple of years.  It is a heated one that doesn't have a pedestal, so I've set it on a little table.  Then about a year ago, I added a Water Wiggler to make the water move a bit .  Turns out, the Wiggler, while great to keep potential mosquitos from using the bath, made it hard for birds to actually use the bath as anything other than a drinking fountain. Also, earlier this Winter, I came across this upgraded heated bird bath at Wannemakers and thought it would be a nice addition, but ultimately I didn't pull the trigger on it. For this Winter, I decided to just dump the Wiggler and plug in the existing free-standing bath in to keep the water from freezing.  And for the past few months, I've watched a few curious birds check out

Back in January, I mentioned that we had a big, beautiful Northern Flicker visit our feeders but I was unable to get a useable photo of the bird for the blog.  I posted about it anyway .  Welp, fast-forward a month and guess who's back?!  The Northern Flicker.  And why do I know?  The yellow flight feathers are a tell-tale sign.   Also, the size.  Check out this guy in the photo above and how his body is dominating the suet cage in terms of size.  He's much larger than the other woodpeckers who visit our cages and feeders.  Mark it down, dude.  Northern Flicker.  See the yellow in the photo of him taking off below to confirm:

I've already added both the female and male Cardinal to the bird visitor log , but on a recent morning, I spotted quite a few Cardinals milling around.  Mix of males and females.  The photo above is using zoom, so it isn't perfectly clear, so I went ahead and circled the birds.  Eight of them.  And a squirrel (in the red box) munching on some Winter treats.  Way, way better than the normal lot of House Sparrows that we get at our feeders most of the Winter. 

The last time I added an entry to the [backyard bird visitor log] was back in April when I documented the American Goldfinch.  Today, I'm adding the Northern Flicker to the list.  You'll have to trust me because I didn't have my phone on me when I was watching the feeders, but due to the yellow feathers and the huge size of this bird, I'm confirming a Northern Flicker.  I recognize that this isn't quite how it supposed to work but ever since Nat gave me a pair of binoculars as a gift last year, my bird viewing has improved, but my camera skills have remained flat.  So, I'm seeing *more*, but not necessarily photographing *more*. This is the second woodpecker that we've added to the visitor log - the first of which was the Red-Bellied Woodpecker . Full [ bird feeder visitor log ] set of seven entries here on the blog: This Northern Flicker. Not in our backyard, but up in Wisconsin - this pair of Scarlet Tanagers A series of American Goldfinches A