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so rather than be dishonest about keeping up with that project, i'm going to reboot it into a new format. after hearing a talk by Dr. Scott Sampson, i've been really enamoured with his concept of birds being "backyard dinosaurs". so that's what i'm going to call my bird feature of the week from now. (as for my encounter with dr. sampson, stay tuned it's coming up in the olympics!)
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our first backyard dinosaur is this little downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). i found it due to the rhythmic taps its beak made on the telephone pole , as it tried to bore through the dead wood to get at some insect or insect larva borrowing inside.
(as a big part of dr. sampson's message about backyard dinosaurs is for people to try and discover lessons from nature in our own lives... i'm going to include a small backyard challenge for you each week. if you have a great backyard discovery tell us about it in the comment section!)
backyard challenge:
take 5 minutes one day and watch what sorts of birds come into your backyard and which parts and things in your yard they make use of.
i bet you'll be amazed at how adaptive all those birds are, and just how things in your backyard they make use of. human made or natural! my woodpecker was making heavy use of that phone pole, something we usually take for granted everyday as a people thing, not used by nature at all...
2 comments:
I've seen a downy at least once at my bird feeder, but flickers are more commonly seen. (Not at the feeder, but there seems to be at least one living in a telephone pole behind my home; it drilled a hole there and sometimes I hear it tapping away.)
The birds I usually see here are crows, gulls, chickadees, juncos, and finches. Recently I've also been getting white-crowned sparrows; they're very handsome little birds. Other birds around here are Steller's jays, warblers, and robins. Oh, and I was woken up this morning by a towhee.
love backyard dinosaurs!!
waking up early means "dinosaurs in concerto" around here!
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