Gotcha!

Just as I was about to give up hope on capturing an unusual or interesting bird shot today, this female red-bellied woodpecker came along. Now, I should mention that I have been trying to get a good shot of one of these for weeks. They are very skittish and it's impossible to get close enough to get any good detail. So, after crouching outside, freezing my butt off for an hour this afternoon, I was shocked to walk into my nice warm office, look out the window, and see this!

There she was, in all her glory, only about 6 feet from my window. I immediately dropped to my hands and knees and did the GI Joe crawl across the office floor so as not so spook her. Carefully raised up, and SLOWLY raised my camera and proceeded to fire off about 20 shots, most of which ended up in the bin. For those who are interested, the female RBW has the red by her beak and on the back of her head, whereas the male has a full red crest from beak to the back of his head. I believe they stay in loose pairs for the winter. I've posted a couple of other pictures of her on Flickr if you're interested...

No position to crazy when it comes to suet!

Whoa! I'm upside down!

Did someone mention my name?

And not to be outdone...Mrs. Downy WP

I want to thank you all for the lovely comments on yesterday's nuthatch - I was kind of surprised and thoroughly delighted to get so many favorites. In fact, the little nuthatch earned me more favorites than any other photo I've posted here. I passed it along and the little guy was completely chuffed! :)