Author: Roadtirementvintage

Red-headed Woodpeckers are nature’s show birds

/ Roadtirementvintage / 15 Comments

Today was a little wild with all the new young starlings leaving their nests, and their apparent feeding frenzy with the adults.

Then suddenly Sher and I witnessed the arrival of one of the most striking birds in North America. The Red-headed Woodpecker has beautiful crimson head plumage accompanied by a pure white body and wings that are half white and half ink black. These birds are striking both at rest and in flight. This one was kind enough to stick around on the feeder long enough for the capture you see above.

More starlings leaving the nests

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments

Adult on left feeding juvenile, second juvenile, right, looks on

Remember the post about the Starling kids bugging parents for food? Well, this behavior continued today everywhere in our yard. The change noticed today was that there were even more juvenile starlings hanging close to adults, waiting and begging for food. The groups were seen on the ground like yesterday, and now in the trees and even the utility wires overhead. One juvenile even approached a squirrel that was munching on some peanut suet.  Wrong move, juvenile! That squirrel was not going to feed you! Squirrel jumps up and at the bird.  A moment of hilarity.

Today there were many more juvenile starlings in evidence. In addition the chatter from the young starlings was incredible, and the birds actually sounded agitated and anxious. It was not a calm day.

Mom, Dad, get back here!

/ Roadtirementvintage / 23 Comments

We noticed a behavior in starlings that we had not seen before. Adult starlings were moving through the yard, doing their normal grazing thing.

Some adult feathers are beginning to show on the backs of these two starling juveniles

What was different was the sight of juvenile starlings, one or two per adult, staying amazingly close. Every time the adult moved, the juvenile stayed right with the adult. We watched as the adult would grab a worm or grub an give it to the youngster. When the adult flew away the youngster would squawk and carry on very loudly. This parent/young interaction went on for minutes at a time.

A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

If you’ve seen some of our previous posts, you’ll know that we have been enjoying feeding birds in our backyard. It is always fun to see different birds and to watch the antics of them all. But sometimes we just have to say “Wow! Look at those!”

That time came when a mating pair of Pileated Woodpeckers showed up at our tree with suet feeding stations. The male is on the left, female on the right. (We call them Woody and Wilma) We had seen the female before, but this was our first sighting of the male. And yes, to us, this was a thrilling event!

Ah, you might want to duck

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

Here he comes, center of picture

Look closely, there is a starling who just left the suet feeder heading right towards the camera. The yellow beak is in the center of the black body, and the out stretched wings are very blurry. We see the starlings getting a beak full of suet and flying off to, we assume, their nests. According to one of our resources the young starlings should be leaving their nests anytime now.

A flash of red on final approach

/ Roadtirementvintage / 13 Comments

A beautiful splash of red

It’s always fun to see a new (to us) species coming to our backyard and our feeders. We are slowly putting together a pretty decent list of the birds we have seen. Yesterday a flash of red, white and black caught our eye. We first saw the Rose-breasted Grosbeak sitting on a swing frame.

Coming in for a landing

It wasn’t long before a second Grosbeak joined in on the feeding fun. They both found the glass shelf feeder and shared a meal together. These colorful birds are always fun to see and hear.

Family life on the river bank

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments
Young goslings under watchful eyes

It was a pretty day so we went on a drive to a local park. This park has a river running through it and is home to lots of waterfowl. We were treated to an idyllic scene of an adult goose with 3 very young goslings poking around on the river bank. White ducks and Mallards were in the background enjoying the day.

West Side Pub & Grub

/ Roadtirementvintage / 21 Comments

Friday night is usually (for some) a date night. Well, this last Friday Sher and I decided to have a real date night. Off we went to a local bar named the West Side Pub & Grub. It used to be a semi rough place a couple of decades ago, but now it is a comfortable local bar that happens to serve great food. And we mean great food.

Early Friday night the crowd was small, maybe a dozen or so patrons. Sher ordered a frozen strawberry margarita, I opted for a Blue Moon long neck.  I had heard that this place served a wonderful breaded tenderloin, and the fried spicy cheese curds we also highly recommended by our wait staff.

Shortly our food arrived. The fried cheese curds came in a miniature fryer basket, Cute. My tenderloin was HUGE. The picture tells the story, except it does not show how thick the tenderloin was. (3/8 to 1/2 inch) And so good. The fried spicy cheese curds were most delicious as well.

We found out there will be a live band next Saturday night. We’ll be back at the West Side Pub & Grub for dinner, followed by enjoying what is said to be a great live band. And our bartender explained that the restaurant locally sources all of the meat and most of the other supplies for the kitchen. That is also a very good thing.

Sher and I were serenaded today

/ Roadtirementvintage / 28 Comments

Nothing like getting photobombed by a twig!

It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon with mostly sunny skies and a very light breeze with temps near 65. The birds and a couple of squirrels were taking advantage of the food we had set out for their use.

We have been thrilled with the variety of species that have come to our feeders. Today we spotted a new little bird, a Carolina Wren, one we haven’t seen before . He decided to flit up into the tree and serenade us with a beautiful song!

Listening to our backyard friends is as fun as watching them,.