This is the first Belted Kingfisher I have seen since last fall and he gave me an amazing, if brief, aerial show.
When I first spotted him he was hovering over a small pond. Before I could lift my camera he was gone.
He came back a couple minutes later and I got a second opportunity.
He hovered for several seconds.
Assumed the dive position
And dove. I never saw him hit the water, actually never saw him again, despite waiting another 15 minutes.
This is a long named bird and long named plant! The Powdery Alligator-flag doesn’t look like it would have much to feed a Hummingbird but this one spent several minutes investigating this single stalk.
After circling a few times she perched for a short rest.
I was able to move to a slightly closer spot, then a cloud covered the sun. And as is the way with Hummingbirds, zip and she was gone.
I first noticed this Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird when she flew through my shot of these ornamental sunflowers. I was surprised that there was nectar in a flower head like this to attract a hummingbird.
This is a view of the back side of a nearby sunflower in the same garden. This variety has multiple seed heads on the same stem.
I spotted a Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird taking a break after feeding in a small flower garden.
After a bit she gave a good shake…
then settled in for a few minutes.
Click on any image for a larger view. Her beak is dusted with pollen.
I was startled when this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew over my shoulder so close I could have touched him.
He perched on a limb overhanging the trail just ahead of me and had a look around. Whatever he was looking for wasn’t in the immediate vicinity and shortly he continued on his way.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are named for their behavior of drilling small holes in trees then drinking the sap that runs into the wells. They get most of their food that way but also feed on insects they find under tree bark.
I’ve seen them peck at bark, mostly on the rough-barked trees and was surprised to see this one bobbing into a tree cavity. He was just about disappearing from my view as he reached in.
I didn’t see what, if anything, the Sapsucker was finding, but he kept at it for longer than I watched.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers visually blend into the surface of the rough-barked trees. These two images were taken in different places over a month apart.
I heard the tat-tat-tat of pecking at the bark first, then watched for the flash of red to help me spot them. Sapsuckers tend to spiral around the tree looking for food, sometimes at a pretty fast pace leaving the photographer to guess where they will pop back around.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker didn’t give up with his Magnolia Seed Berry.
There must be a spot in this thick barked tree to lodge this berry!
Even when he found a spot he wasn’t satisfied, and this time he may have lost it for good.
The ground was covered with these Magnolia berries so he could easily try with another.
This is the third and final post in this series.
See the first post here: Red-bellied Woodpecker With Magnolia Seed Berry
See the second post here: Red-bellied Woodpecker Keeps Trying
The Red-bellied Woodpecker from Wednesday’s Magnolia Seed Berry post kept looking for a place to lodge his find in a dead tree branch above me.
He picked a pretty lichen covered perch but could not find a useful spot to put that berry.
A couple of times I thought he had lost it in a hollow place in the branch, but he eventually got it back.
After a few more unsuccessful tries he scanned for another spot.
What a find, now what do I do?
Looking almost like a cranberry, the berries that contain the Magnolia Tree seeds are pretty hard and this Red-bellied Woodpecker was trying to figure out how to get it open.
Several ideas he had for lodging it in the bark of this tree so he could peck at it did not pan out.
