I’ve mentioned before the multi-year project my wife undertook to transform our turf-dominant backyard into a bit of an outdoor oasis. This was done mainly for our benefit but also with a keen eye on making it a haven for suburban wildlife. It has been tremendously successful and we spend many evenings on the patio enjoying the new visitors to the yard.
Last night, as I looked out the kitchen window, I saw something I had never seen in our backyard before – North America’s smallest woodpecker, the downy woodpecker. In fact, as I creeped out there with my camera to get some pics, I spotted two males.
They were initially at our feeders but then moved to the trees, pecking at the trunk and limbs in search of a bug for a meal. We had some pretty thick cloud cover so lighting wasn’t great but it was fun to get some pics and I hope these guys come back around again.
