Sunday, June 21, 2009

Return of the Red-bellied

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For our first four years living in Cypress, the dominant birds in our yards were Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Our resident pair would visit the front yard several times a day to snack on the suet feeders. Making loud calls, they would fly in dramatically, scattering any other birds that were already in our trees. We loved watching them and got used to seeing them bringing their offspring. One of them even rode out Hurricane Ike clinging to the trunk of our elm tree.

Then earlier this year they changed their habits and more or less disappeared from our yards. We really missed them!

Well, I'm very happy to report that they have returned. Over the past couple of weeks one or other of the pair has visited our feeders at least once a day. Yesterday it was the female that appeared.


Now we're hoping that they will go back to being among our most regular visitors - and to ruling the roost in our yards.

2 comments:

Isaac said...

I thought suet started to melt in this heat. Judging by your picture, that seems to be incorrect. Does it need a bit of shade, though, to avoid melting?

Jeff said...

Hi, Isaac. Suet used to melt but the more modern varieties seem to cope well with the heat. Ours gets a little soggy to the touch when it's in the sun on these 98F days but it doesn't drip. In the shade, it seems to cope perfectly.