Saturday, January 31, 2015

Northern Flicker

A chunky, yellow-tinged bird flies in and lands on top of one of the deck posts (we made the deck with eight foot tall posts to hold bird feeders), calling with a loud wik-wik-wik rattle-like sound. He then flies to the suet and stays there, feeding enthusiastically, for a long time, unlike the other large woodpeckers, who feed briefly then fly off to a nearby tree.

This time of year we see Northern Flickers at our feeders pretty much every day. Usually just a male or two show up, but occasionally we see a female. I nearly always stop what I'm doing to watch them-- I love these large woodpeckers who have such a commanding presence.

Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
Male Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Blood Moon (Lunar Eclipse October 2014)

(I just realized I'd never published this post, so here it is, out of order and much later than the actual event, but the sketches were done while watching the eclipse that day.)

Yesterday morning I woke up earlier than I had intended, at 3:15, and was so excited about the eclipse I couldn't go back to sleep, even though the eclipse wasn't starting until 5:15. It had been pouring earlier in the night (we got an inch of rain in the earlier part of the night), but the clouds were starting to clear away by the time I padded onto the deck in my bare feet.

I watched from my deck until the moon was too low behind the trees, then I drove to a nearby hill and watched until just before sunrise, when I could no longer see the moon (which was about to set by then). I ran out of space on my page toward the end, so just took notes then. It was an awesome sight!


Green Heron