Hard At Work

We've been hearing a lot of hammering in the BackBack and also in neighbors' yards. The woodpeckers have been very busy lately. Spotted this male Pileated Woodpecker fairly high up in our largest tree...a very elderly Laurel Oak. The woodies love this old tree because it has a lot of rotten branches which they have been chipping away at searching for bugs and grubs. It's so very important to leave as many old dead trees (snags) standing as possible. They provide natural food sources and nesting opportunities for birds like woodpeckers & sapsuckers. We are fortunate to live on a third of an acre and we encourage the back third of this space to be wild, only maintaining walking paths and keeping up with invasive, non- natives. Most of the bird, reptile, insect and flower photos that I post on Blip are taken in our yard. As I've mentioned previously, having a permanent water source such as a pond also encourages creatures to visit the yard. Of course not everyone is able to have wild space and water features in the space they share with other living things, but even a bird bath, a bird feeding station, some shrubbery for safety and a tree or two will encourage non-human life to stop by, enriching your life in the process. Toss into that mix some flowering plants and you'll have a small, welcoming environment that both you and the wild ones will enjoy and visit often. 
Hope that you enjoy your Sunday :)