Red-bellied Woodpecker

The other afternoon we had a short visit from a red-bellied woodpecker.  This is the third time that we know of one coming to visit our backyard over the years.  The first one, a few springs ago, Angie saw for a brief moment and I missed it.  Then a year later, again in the spring, another bird showed up and was at our peanut feeder for maybe 30 seconds before being flushed by the blue jays.  It did not return.  Then this one came around...

As I sat at the kitchen window having coffee with Merry on my lap, I managed to snap this photo from the window.  I was preparing to go out the front door and sneak up the side of the house to get a better picture because in my experience with this bird species, I find they aren't very tolerant of human presence.  Proof came again moments later as the lady next door stepped out into her backyard to snip some flowers, not even seeing the bird, not even being anywhere near it, but that was enough for the woodpecker to fly away.  Darn.

Fortunately about 20 minutes later he returned for another feed.  I was able to follow through with my stealth ninja plan to get a better picture and not flush him either.  I even was able to return back into the house and watch him for many more minutes at the window again.

It was almost 5:30 pm, which is getting late in the day for the birds, and he soon flew off for the night.

I had to share this cool bird visitor on social media.  I wished he would return again...  and he did!  He came for a feed again around 3:30 pm, spending about 15 minutes at the feeder again.  I just watched from the window.

Unfortunately he hasn't been back the last 2 days, not that we have seen anyway.  Project Feeder Watch starts next weekend and we're really hoping he can be added to our feeder watch species list.  Not only that, having such a unique and rather new bird species coming to the yard makes for a little bit of excitement.  Maybe it's because the weather has warmed up some?  Maybe he will come back when it gets colder again and food is not so plentiful?  Time will tell.

Are you seeing anything different in your backyard, at your feeders?