Beating the Drought

.It has been consistently hot for over two months now and in our area we've only had a couple of heavy showers since January. So our birds are really suffering. They seem grateful for the fact that we always keep two birdbaths full of water.

As we have more House Finches than any other species, we naturally see more of them at the birdbaths.

However, although they can be very aggressive when other birds try to reach the feeders, they are better about sharing water.

It's fun watching birds bathing and then, like this young Northern Cardinal, drying off on the fence.

This afternoon we were sitting on our tiny front porch while the sprinklers were soaking the yard. To our surprise a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker flew onto our mulberry tree and spent several minutes drinking the water trickling along one of the branches.

Then he spent almost fifteen minutes taking a shower.

When his father turned up and scolded him, he hopped onto another branch to dry off in the sunlight before they both flew off.

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