...Afternoon at the Bistro

I've been wanting to get this shot for a long time - something that shows the Downy Woodpecker (picoides pubescens) with it's much larger "cousin" the Hairy Woodpecker (picoides villosus). Last year when I first started putting feeders up, the downy woodpeckers were quick to find the suet. As I hunched over my bird guides, trying to determine what birds were visiting, I became concerned that I'd never be able to tell if I had the less common Hairy at my feeders, because it looks almost identical to the Downy. I asked a birder friend and his comment was "oh, don't worry - you'll know." Hardly comforting words for a new birder! Well, late this summer, I had my first Hairy WP visit the feeders and my friend was right - I knew instantly!

As you can see from this shot (which isn't all that well focused - mea culpa), the Hairy (left) is much larger than the Downy on the right. Less noticeable is that the Hairy's beak is longer in relationship to its head; and in the males, the red cap on the back of his head doesn't go straight across in the Hairy as it does in the Downy. For fun, I also got a shot of two female downies sharing the suet feeder - it was an uneasy truce.

And that is probably as much as you want to know about woodpeckers today. I am not sure if there has been a Hairy submitted yet for the BlipBigYear Challenge - if not, here it is! And if so, here it is. (I crack myself up sometimes.)

By the way, speaking of the BlipBigYear - if you haven't checked out the entries, take some time do have a look - there are some amazing photos, like this stunner fieldfare by BikerBear.

We just heard from the vet and Phoebe is fine! Here blood work looks good and as best we can surmise, she has just cut back on her food consumption. She needed to lose some weight so this isn't a bad thing. She and Rocket are continuing to give each other the stink-eye, accompanied by hissing and growling. As long as they don't make eye contact, everything is fine, but when the eyes meet it all descends into Jihad...

Hubs is still nursing the ManCold although at least it isn't worse today. He is insistent that we keep out plans to go to NYC tomorrow. We've got tickets for a play and a room for the night - a little treat for ourselves. So, maybe a blip from the Big Apple tomorrow...

Happy Friday to you all!!

xxoo
Deb