Female Red Shafted Northern Flicker

Here she is folks! The lovely young female flicker who just loves peanut butter suet. Sometimes she braves the other birds and makes a flying grab for the gold... en delicious peanut butter. She is much bigger than most of the other birds and need not be afraid. But she is a shy girl and flashes away at the slightest whim. This is her portrait as she contemplates flying to the feeder. The inset is just after she flew and landed. I added it so you could see the reason she is called "red shafted" instead of yellow. Almost all of the flickers in this area have red shafts. Quite a sight when they fly. You can see more details on the inset by looking large. Here is my November blip of a yellow shafted male Northern Flicker.

This afternoon is the monthly meeting of the "Palette Princesses" the book club of gal painters that I belong to. We read The Elegance of the Hedgehog this month. I had already read it and loved it. So I'm looking forward to the rest of the gals' comments on the book. Helena is coming with me and we are both looking forward to lunch and conversation with a really wonderful group of art buddies. I'm bringing fresh made croissants as our contribution to the lunch. Thanks to Trader Joe's who make wonderful bake it yourself mini croissants. Yum!

Hope to get to some commenting later today. Have a great day folks!