Yellow Shafted Flicker, on a wonderful Spring day

Oh this is the day we have been waiting for all Spring! It was in the mid to high 70s today, sunny, and with a hard blowing delightful warm breeze. What a day! I couldn't miss the opportunity to do some gardening. The pansies I bought a week ago, have been sitting in the yard drying up. Today the pansies found a home in some decorative pots at strategic spots along the garden paths. That should brighten things up. I feel deprived though, I planted a whole bunch of bulbs last year and nothing has bloomed this year...and I mean nothing! My neighbors yards are filled with daffodils and mine is just longing for some color. I didn't take any garden photos today, so I will go into some detail with photos over the next day or two, when I do my next posting.

Above and to the right you can see photos of a mysterious new visitor who adopted our garden today. This is the first time I have seen one of these birds here on Delmarva. While having my coffee this morning I took a look out at the feeders and just beyond the feeder I saw a bird fishing in the "lawn"...its really just bald spots, wire grass and weeds, but I'll call it a lawn for the sake of simplicity! He repeatedly was listening to the ground and then pecking into the soil and often coming out of it wth a treasure. I am guessing his treasure is bugs and grubs, because he is not going to find worms in this dry sandy lawn! So there he was from before 8 am until after 3pm working the lawn for food. It was pretty interesting to see his technique and his beautiful coloring. He is a Yellow Shafted Flicker, when I lived in New York they would show up whenever we turned over soil to start a garden, and he was right on time! He wasn't in a worked garden though, he was creating his own exposed dirt and it must have been pretty fruitful for him to be there all day.  His coloring is spectacular. His back is a mottled brown, his head is gray with red highlights, his breast has a beautiful black or dark brown shield shape on it with a thin yellow border around it. A spectacularly colored bird, just a delight.

The red breasted woodpecker, seen at the left, also came to feed, his colors are stunning.  He has been regularly visiting for the suet and corn kernals.


You can see I finally included a better photo of the molting American Goldfinches. It is very clear in this photo that their color change is well underway. The breeding males don the bright yellow color, and as you can see in the photo below, I have a lot of visitors that fit into that category.

I put out my hummingbird feeders today. According to Journey North.com they have been spotted on the eastern shore north of here..and friends spotted some in Manahawkin,New Jersey. Hopefully it will not be long until they arrive here. I look forward to their arrival!