Northern Flicker

Friday
It’s only fairly recently that I have been seeing the Northern Flicker in the garden fairly regularly. Northern Flickers are a very attractive, quite large, brown woodpecker, with quite striking markings. Unlike most woodpeckers, you will often see them on the ground, where they eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. At the feeders they are particularly fond of the suet. North America has two easily distinguished races of Northern Flickers: the yellow-shafted form of the East, which occurs into Texas and the Great Plains, and the red-shafted form of the West, which you see quite clearly when in flight. Unfortunately the light was very poor, so the focus isnt sharp, but they were the first photos I have of Northern Flickers, so I was quite pleased.
After several really mild days, today we were in for some more winter weather with snow in the forecast and plummeting temperatures. The forecast for the morning was just rain, turning to snow in the afternoon, so I got off out for a swim soon after lap swim begins, at 10.30. It was busy this morning, as one lane was taken up by what appeared to be members of the swim team, and all the other lanes had two people in them. I hadn’t been home that long, and was just fixing my lunch, when Roger came home - he had decided to get home before the roads became bad, and work from home. So far, we have a couple of inches, and for the moment it has stopped, but I think we may get more overnight. Certainly we have some more very cold days ahead!

I've finally finished backblipping the Christmas period with the family - do check them out, starting here