One Positive ID and a Mystery

I'm still working on getting some closeups of Bruce our groundhog before he disappears for the winter. Last week after he scurried down his hole, he came out after I sat quietly for a few minutes. Today with the scope along he wouldn't come back out and I gave up after sitting for a half hour. But I had better luck with a woodpecker that has been hanging around, and I also got a couple bad shots of a mystery bird that only stayed for moment...

This fellow is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker that has been feeding at our feeder the last couple weeks. He is pretty good sized and with the red color is always a striking sight. While waiting for Bruce to make his appearance, he made a systematic search for insects in a couple cracks in the cabin next to ours, so was easy to compose, focus and get a few good shots.


This fellow was a lot shyer and only stopped twice for a few seconds, so all I got was a couple out-of-focus grabs. It is a lot darker than the hairy woodpecker I shot earlier in the summer (click here for that shot)... From the descriptions in our bird book, it may be a female Ladderback Woodpecker (it does have the black cap), but it's range does not extend east of the Mississippi or north of Oklahoma... Will have to continue hunting and see if it hangs around...